Varieties, curing, messing up

[CaptainAubrey]

I be done messed up, again. But I have taken the first step of the 12 step recovery program for Jump In Head Firsters, I just ordered "Tobacco Plant Varieties for Home Growers" from Amazon. Should be here Sunday. Only wish it were PDF so I could keep making the screen font larger as my eyes grow weaker.

This is my first year growing tobacco. I planted Ahus, Bafra, Black Mammoth, Conn Broadleaf and Shade, Corojo, Punche (never again), VA Bright, and Shirazi. I grew up near Danville, VA and riding through the tobacco warehouse district in the fall as a 5-6 year old kid was the sweetest thing I ever smelled. It was so sweet smelling it made me hungry. Naturally, for me anyway, I thought VA Bright would be the sweet tobacco I should grow. Now I find it ain't the Holy Grail of Tobacco. Turns out it has an acidic wang (maybe why I thought Winstons were sour) and must be flue-cured per a specific heat, humidity, and time recipe. OK, enough whining...

So maybe I don't want to bother with a kiln. I have a technical background and the design is already in my head (it keeps trying to make me drive to Lowe's) but maybe I just need a different variety. Is there a sweet variety that you would recommend that can be shade or sun cured? Plenty of hot weather here for either. My use is pipe and cigar.

If I do need to kiln what I have grown could you provide the air flow and temp/humidity/time chart for flue curing.

 

[deluxestogie]

The aroma of "Virginia" tobacco that you discovered in Danville is the aroma of flue-cured tobacco. Check our Index of Key Forum Threads for the flue-curing regimen and various construction ideas. Here's the chart. It begins with primed, green tobacco of roughly the same stalk level.

Bob

 

[CaptainAubrey]

Thanks Bob.

I failed to mention that I knew it was flue-cured, sorry.

My grandparent's place in Halifax County has a couple of old mud daubed log tobacco barns. There was about 100 acres with some going toward necessary grains for livestock and human foods, most was in the real cash crop, tobacco. I vaguely remember the heat sources as being large, very shallow circular bowls on pedestals about 2-2.5 feet above the ground. They were fed via copper tubes and I am guessing they burned kerosene or less likely No 2 fuel oil. I would not think that this qualifies as flue-cured as I saw no duct work for exhaust gases. But I was very young when I saw it so maybe it had been removed. It was probably in use in the first half of the previous century.

 

[CaptainAubrey]

I thunk I asked this earlier but don't see it posted. Regarding the ramps in the graph. Are these temperature glides essential or are they historical, reflecting the hysteresis of a large barn?

 

[deluxestogie]

reflecting the hysteresis of a large barn?

That's how the temp "ramping" was originally determined. When I flue-cure, I set my setpoint half-way to the next desired temp, then go to bed. The following morning, I raise the setpoint to that final goal for each stage. The result has usually turned out well. Most important is to never open the kiln (e.g. to look) after completion of the yellowing stage. Admire the leaf after it is done, cooled, and you then bring it back into sufficient case to handle it safely.

Bob

 

[DaleB]

and you then bring it back into sufficient case to handle it safely.

And how does one do that? Just raise the humidity in the kiln, or some other method? I ask because mine is pretty dry right now. Before I start the fermentation, I'm going to want to put the stuff into mesh bags to keep the VA and Turkish separate and just be able to stack it in there, and when I rearranged stuff the other night and added the humidifier things were getting pretty crispy-crackly.

I've got a mist spray bottle, but wouldn't want to have to lay out each leaf...

 

[deluxestogie]

I keep my kilned leaf in vapor-proof bags, though I sometimes just leave them open after filling them. If it is initially too crispy to safely fit in the bag, I just mist the pile or hand, cover it with a plastic bag, then come back later to safely pack it into the bag.

Bob

 

[CaptainAubrey]

Most important is to never open the kiln (e.g. to look) after completion of the yellowing stage. ...

Bob

Well Bob, by saying this you have effectively told the kid not to put beans in their ears. But the beans have been long since removed but I am extremely curious to know the dire consequences of peeking. Will I go blind? No that was probably some other forbidden activity. Will I be covered in boils and sores and cover myself in ashes? Will a monstrum tobaccum consume me and excrete me as a horn worm and then smush me? Will I create a black hole? Or will something even more worser happen like ruining the whole batch in the kiln? Inquiring minds want to know...

 

[deluxestogie]

When you open the flue-cure chamber to "look", after the yellowing phase has already completed, it jolts the chamber's temperature and humidity. This can lead to leaf scalding (unexpected browning), or to sponging (reddened and thickened, mushy sections of leaf). When you open the door to peek, the lower part of the chamber gets colder and drier faster than the upper part of the chamber. The idea of temperature and humidity ramping is to progress without interruption, and to strive for uniformity of temp and humidity from one part of the chamber to another.

Bob

 

[CaptainAubrey]

When you open the flue-cure chamber to "look", after the yellowing phase has already completed, it jolts the chamber's temperature and humidity. This can lead to leaf scalding (unexpected browning), or to sponging (reddened and thickened, mushy sections of leaf). When you open the door to peek, the lower part of the chamber gets colder and drier faster than the upper part of the chamber. The idea of temperature and humidity ramping is to progress without interruption, and to strive for uniformity of temp and humidity from one part of the chamber to another.

Bob

As always, thank you Bob.

Now you got me thinking about door windows and interior lights.

 

[deluxestogie]

You can open the door and look as much as you want during the yellowing phase. That is the only flue-curing phase that varies in duration, depending on the nature of the leaf. The duration of the other phases does not vary. So there is really no need to look.

If you go to the effort of installing lights and a window, I think you will find it interesting for maybe one or two runs.

Bob