If you can grow tomatoes you can grow tobacco..so the saying goes
How big are your leaves?, they should stay elastic until they are pretty much all yellow, turning into brown. You will find that the leaves will become brittle when the humidity outside is low and the become elastic again when the humidity outside becomes high. When the leaves become elelastic again this is called going it "case", you should only handle the leaves when they are in "case". bumping up the humidity is dangerous as it leads to mold prone leafs(especially if leaves are not ripe when harvested) I would only try to add humidity to the air if you are experiencing dry conditions for days on end, if its really dry for a long time the leaves will to dry to fast and dry green and taste grassy.
In drying the leaves your basically starving the living leaf to death. To do this you want to start to humidity high and then lower it slowly until the color of the leaf changes into a nice healthy brown.
Ideally the leaves should never go brittle (i think) because this means the leaf has lost some of its natural juices and what not, the juices come back(from the mid rib) when the leaf goes back into case, but if the leaf is totally dry(no juices in the midrib) and then allowed to go brittle , I think the leaf may taste flat.If you can control the humidty in your garden shed to the percentile, go for it.
Personally, im drying in a little garden shed and leaving the humidity to nature. I live in a humid place anyways as we are right on the coast, so the humidity will fall to say 50% during a sunny day and then bump up to like 70 or 80 at night, and 100% after a rain storm. I do have a fan in the shed to blow air on the leaves when there is not wind, this will aid in preventing mold. So far the drying is going nicely and the shed is smelling like sweet tobacco....my leaves go brittle for a few hours during the day and then go back into case at night, id would get worried if they stayed out of case for a few days in a row. When the leaves are totally dry im going to store them in a cooler with some heartfelt beads until the leaf is ready to ferment. When the mid rib is dry, treat the leaves like cigars, but anyways i'm not too too sure what i'm talking about...HA! id would like to talk to someone who runs a tobacco farm and ask them some nitty gritty question... anyone have some contacts??
Ha ha!! found the awnser ...
page 16....the drying tobacco should never leave case and should stay at about 85% until mostly brown....good luck I also read somewhere that casing at least once per day for quite a few hours is the minimum
I snapped a few pics of my drying setup so I will see if I can post those in the next few days. Basically, I am using the old play house and have nailed up three twine strings to hang the hands on. I have had issues with getting the humidity up but since we are entering the rainy season hopefully that will help. I placed two 5 gal buckets filled with water to help bring it up but it only gets to 40-60 range.
Ha ha!! found the awnser ...
page 16....the drying tobacco should never leave case and should stay at about 85% until mostly brown....good luck I also read somewhere that casing at least once per day for quite a few hours is the minimum
Ha ha!! found the awnser ...
page 16....the drying tobacco should never leave case and should stay at about 85% until mostly brown....good luck I also read somewhere that casing at least once per day for quite a few hours is the minimum
Yeh me too , im in the process of tweaking the fermenter right now and waiting for the final primings to dry(the photo is of the second primings) , its gotta be perfect, because once the fermenting process starts you cant stop it, one mistake could ruin it all. Keeping the RH at 65-75% at 50 while the temp is 130 degrees requires alot!!!!! of water
Comments
How big are your leaves?, they should stay elastic until they are pretty much all yellow, turning into brown. You will find that the leaves will become brittle when the humidity outside is low and the become elastic again when the humidity outside becomes high. When the leaves become elelastic again this is called going it "case", you should only handle the leaves when they are in "case".
bumping up the humidity is dangerous as it leads to mold prone leafs(especially if leaves are not ripe when harvested) I would only try to add humidity to the air if you are experiencing dry conditions for days on end, if its really dry for a long time the leaves will to dry to fast and dry green and taste grassy.
In drying the leaves your basically starving the living leaf to death. To do this you want to start to humidity high and then lower it slowly until the color of the leaf changes into a nice healthy brown. Ideally the leaves should never go brittle (i think) because this means the leaf has lost some of its natural juices and what not, the juices come back(from the mid rib) when the leaf goes back into case, but if the leaf is totally dry(no juices in the midrib) and then allowed to go brittle , I think the leaf may taste flat.If you can control the humidty in your garden shed to the percentile, go for it. Personally, im drying in a little garden shed and leaving the humidity to nature. I live in a humid place anyways as we are right on the coast, so the humidity will fall to say 50% during a sunny day and then bump up to like 70 or 80 at night, and 100% after a rain storm. I do have a fan in the shed to blow air on the leaves when there is not wind, this will aid in preventing mold. So far the drying is going nicely and the shed is smelling like sweet tobacco....my leaves go brittle for a few hours during the day and then go back into case at night, id would get worried if they stayed out of case for a few days in a row. When the leaves are totally dry im going to store them in a cooler with some heartfelt beads until the leaf is ready to ferment. When the mid rib is dry, treat the leaves like cigars,
but anyways i'm not too too sure what i'm talking about...HA! id would like to talk to someone who runs a tobacco farm and ask them some nitty gritty question...
anyone have some contacts??
i do remember the tobacco barns back when i was hunting with my dad. of course they were drying for cigarettes....
page 16....the drying tobacco should never leave case and should stay at about 85% until mostly brown....good luck
I also read somewhere that casing at least once per day for quite a few hours is the minimum
I snapped a few pics of my drying setup so I will see if I can post those in the next few days. Basically, I am using the old play house and have nailed up three twine strings to hang the hands on. I have had issues with getting the humidity up but since we are entering the rainy season hopefully that will help. I placed two 5 gal buckets filled with water to help bring it up but it only gets to 40-60 range.
ctrl+d
I had no idea what CTRL+D did and I hit it.... I now have this thread bookmarked
The EVIL Kuzi strikes again !!!
MOTORBOATIN'
Ha ha ha... They look so good! I'm eager to see them when they have had some time to age.