I have smoked ciggies, small cigars and a pipe since I was about 14. Simply hang in a sheltered area and let nature take its course. An air-conditioned home would probably be too dry for air-curing tobacco. This is typically the culprit. abfdged. Yes I agree that there was too much moisture. How broad it can be. So none of the tobacco was touching the water. Put jar in kiln. The Old Firm (author) from Waikato/Bay Of Plenty, New Zealand on February 15, 2015: Hi Crom, I'm sorry that I can't help you here; it may be a bad cure but without seeing and smelling it I just can't say. Put it in a pipe and it smoked fine. A fine mist to dampen the leaves is all you need, they will soften almost immediately and you can then cut out the ribs. Good luck growing! You get the picture. Your details are useful.". The best vessel to use for aging pipe tobacco is the Mason Jar. Once this is done I remove it from its leaf stems. and spray it finely on the dried leaves with a garden mister. You can store the leaves in a humidor or even in a plastic bag. As you said, I leave the "Best/Biggest" plant to flower and take the seeds from it for the next season- tho of course you only need one seed pod to get 1000's of tiny seeds for next year's crop. proberly down to the paper.. the best way i found was hung up in a garrage. Last Updated: January 20, 2021 If the leaves get too brittle, you can moisten them with water from a spray bottle. After all, cigarette butts soaked in a bucket of water was an old way of making insect spray that my parents and grandparents used. 1 & a half tablespoons liqueur or spirit syrup (Bin Inn). When you cure tobacco leaves, you're breaking down ammonia in the plant matter. I'm planning on air curing the Tennessee, as it suggests in the name of it, and the. It's half a keg with a bin lid and a light globe for heat. Anyway, just wanted to say your article has been very helpful not to mention giving me a great laugh here and there. The same regulations govern brewing, winemaking, and the distilling of alcoholic beverages. If it's just for the fun of growing the stuff and possibly to use the leaves to make a bug spray, a couple of plants will do fine. Thanks. 3D Printed Futuristic Space Age Wall Clock. Or is it better to harvest the whole plant once it has flowered? Tobacco does grow like crazy once it gets going, about 3 months from seedling to 7 ft plant even in my temperate climate in Summer. 3 years ago. I borrowed from the butchering industry and got a bunch of J fish hooks, strung them on some fishing line and use that for drying. The Old Firm (author) from Waikato/Bay Of Plenty, New Zealand on October 21, 2015: Hi Guys (and Gals) sorry that I've been AWOL for a while. This method of curing will produce tobacco leaves that are, relative to other curing methods, low in sugar, high in nicotine, and sweet in flavor! Curing is a 3 part process:1) Drying (color curing): to take out majority of the moisture. The results were unbelievable, menthol is one the hardest flavours to crack, no more menthol crysrals and chemistry sets, the e-juice is mostly vegetable glycerine, with no nicotine, and can be added to suit the strength desirable, you can add it to your own liking, strong, medium, weak, doing it this way means the menthol strength hasn't already been decided for you and you don't have to hunt around for a commercial brand to suit your particular tastes. Jars can also be an alternative to cellaring in the tin. Trying to grow it here in the USA.if for no other reason to treat bee stings. Place the trimmed buds into some type of airtight container. I suggest that you air-dry some leaves and then compare. Youll need to keep the humidity relatively high to keep the leaves from drying too quickly. Do you ferment leaves for smoking tobacco? It should take about 4-8 weeks for the leaves to dry out entirely, but it may take longer depending on the variety of tobacco and your climate. Set up a dehumidifier if you don't have a dry spot to store the leaves in so they dry faster and don't develop mold. All I can think of is fire hazard!! Just let the plants grow as shown in my hub, don't fuss over them as they're hardy, just make sure that they have at least a 2 ft spacing from each other or other plants, they'll transplant OK at this size if you have to, but better if you don't as it checks their growth, not a great worry. I'm attempting to grow 3 varieties of tobacco: a Tennessee dark air cure, a Samsun Turkish and Perique. Put jar in kiln. you have done a excellent activity on this matter! Tobacco grows best in places that are dry and warm. You probably displaced 12 cabbages to grow enough tobacco to keep you in cancer sticks for a year. Throw all the ingrediants into a pot and bring to the boil then give the cut tobacco a good spray and then let dry.Got desperate this year and smoking tobacco that has been hanging for only 4 weeks and has taken the harshness out. What you describe looks like a quick way to cure, nothing wrong with that. I suggest that you Google "HubPages" and check them out. Buuut, it is still good to note the same surgeon general warning that "smoking is bad for your health", etc. Commercially it used to have saltpeter (potassium nitrate) added to keep it going, although I don't know what's used now. Fill your curing jars 75% full. The Old Firm (author) from Waikato/Bay Of Plenty, New Zealand on September 16, 2014: Hi tobacco enthusiast, glad to know that I was of help. Answer: It's fine, (If you want to speed drying put some leaves in a VERY low oven for an hour or more until they are dry enough to suit). 50% of these commercial growers cure for between 7 and 14 days. Question: Dont you have to ferment or sweat the leaves after drying tabacco, to remove excess ammonia? Trying to beat the election and all the false promises. some plastic corks to keep the purple basket out of the water - filled the purple basket with the tobacco and put quite a thick bit of plastic over the top the plastic has been stretched and taped in place.. it has all been cleaned because this sort of condition breeds mold. Our politicians will waste tens of millions on a futile flag referendum (and then probably twist the results - the head of the CIA visited last week) then they tax the Hell out of smokers - over 90% of the retail cost of tobacco returns to the government in some form of taxation (a conservative estimation) but smokers are denied the medical treatment of others as they "caused their own problems". The plants grew taller than corn stalks, with leaves as broad as my chest. an accidental discovery in my kitchen when a friend came around for a cupper with his new e-ciggy has lead to a major discovery for my tobacco processing methods when i added a few drops of his vape juice to my tobacco. Thank you so much for putting up this site. I have the space/patience/whole leaf to be able to grow enough each season for a couple of years, and am happy to just store it away for a few years before reaching for it. The Old Firm (author) from Waikato/Bay Of Plenty, New Zealand on March 20, 2014: I wrote a month or what back that I had started harvesting and drying down here in North Canty, and being the impatient bugger that I am, have started smoking it now, and am pleasantly surprised with the result. Having my first try at it and given I'm in the far north east of Scotland I'm having quite good results so far, that said been an unusually good Sumer. This seems to be the right amount of heat! I've been drawing from T.A. -Air cured Tobacco leaves, Seeds with growing instructions are available here : Havana tobacco seeds are good for making cigars, particularity cigar wrappers because of the broad leaves, flavor and smooth appearances once cured. The dried leaves will be slightly sticky, and theyll have the feeling of very thin leather. Have you ever tried soaking leaves to flavour them? When the plants reach maturity, they'll set flower heads at the top. It says it can be used for fermentation. Gonna have a couple of acres there, so can plant heaps, and better growing conditions. Great victory by the AllBlacks! I realize the leaves are moist at first but after the moisture evaporates do you have to have any humidification device in there?A: yeah, as you can imagine, lamp is very similar to an oven, where the dry heat generated constantly takes away the humidity. Some of my friends nuke the leaves and seem happy with the results, the only way to find out which best suits you is to try it yourself. The seeds will pass through while most of the rubbish will stay behind. We are happy campers even though we haven't grown it yet. I understand that Tobacco in Cigars, Pipes, Roll your own, cigarettes, snuff and all other types are from the same tobacco plant. Share it with us! Question: What do you think of using a humidifier to keep some moisture in the air while curing? Tho it is now. remember you are not growing veges, yellow leaves make a more mellow product. Spent a few days in the horsepiddle with heart failure due to pneumonia; so am only growing for entertainment now as i had to stop smoking but it's still a way to pass the time. Haven't noticed. It's fine to jar bulk tobacco; it will resume fermentation. Answer: It's fine with light frosts. only grown one plant this year. This process is all done quickly. Then, thread a string through the slits. Mine are not as tall as yours - max about 4 foot. You'll learn by experiment to get the tobacco the way that you like it. You do need LARGE pots, it grows a huge root ball. Regarding smoking the tobacco though, cigarette and pipe tobacco available commercially is a bit "moist" and pliable. Put tobacco in jar. Did you make this project? Our temps range between 70 and 100 degrees in the summer. These are the same plants as in the previous photo, eleven days later (25Jan09). And how long will this last in this storage method? A Pocket Sundial From a Broken Pocket Watch! , i bought 1 kg virginia tobacco leaves, its sun cured, but its really smells bad !! But the future looks a lot more brighter. Question: My tobacco leaves have been hanging for around 3 months, the tips seem to keep going brittle so I have misted them with water as they have become brittle again, is this method ok? Answer: You could try packing small lots at a time in vacuum-sealed plastic bags. This is an excellent time to test whether you have dried your nugs properly. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. I started about 400 tobacco seeds, about 85% germination rate. This is better for cigars and pipe tobacco. What I can find worryingly little information on is how long you need to ferment it for, depending on what you want to do with it. They'll turn dark brown and eventually start to split. i think il try the box with water in and a towel on top after iv dry the tobacco this year.. only using a heat pad. Answer: An airtight container's a good idea, but I can't tell you how long the tobacco will last. It's a bit late now to plant outdoors, but you can probably start your seedlings in the hothouse, or better still in little pots on a warm windowsill (Like in the kitchen) . Just wanted to see how it's done. Answer: Let them become almost dry but not brittle, take out the middle rib and any others that are large (who wants to smoke ribs?) The following is a helpful "Q and A" following this project. JavaScript is disabled. Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 141,782 times. Good job documenting your work! Some leaves are 500-600mm in length and still rather green. Remember these are monstrous plants that are supposed to reach 7' tall, if you can provide a minimum 5 gallon pot, lots of full direct sun and water, your plants will flourish! It's not exactly very warm here. When ordering tobacco seeds online, be sure to check importing restrictions. If you're in NZ get growing folks , and good luck. This article is accurate and true to the best of the authors knowledge. Store the seeds safely. wikiHow's Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards. The Old Firm (author) from Waikato/Bay Of Plenty, New Zealand on July 17, 2018: Try misting the dried leaves with a mixture of oil of cloves (from the chemist) and water. Wear sterile disposable gloves and fill each jar about of the way full with your dried and trimmed buds. Don't humidify kiln to prevent rusty lids. The wide mouth makes it easy to get your buds in and out of the jar without making a mess, and it has an airtight lid that will keep your buds from losing moisture during curing. Answer: You keep them, yellowing means that they're partly cured. this is a couple of hours later.. its a little sweaty box now, Reply Love it. I joined the hub just to thank you.). The hothouse on our section looks like a great starting place for our seedling to get a start. i hope this works because all my tobacco is in there.. iv got a brewing heat pad about 30 watts put a storage box on top will 2 lt of water. To counteract this situation, I have replace the bulb with a lower wattage, 32 watt and put the light on a timer, set to go on for 30 mins then off for 45. Havana tobacco seeds are good for making cigars, particularity cigar wrappers because of the broad leaves, flavor and smooth appearances once cured. The same rules apply: pinch out or otherwise remove them. Is that a constant 50c or would it be averaged over a 3day or so cycle? {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/b\/b2\/Dry-Tobacco-Step-1.jpg\/v4-460px-Dry-Tobacco-Step-1.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/b\/b2\/Dry-Tobacco-Step-1.jpg\/aid10190610-v4-728px-Dry-Tobacco-Step-1.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"