Stalk harvesting or leaf

[BarG]

Could I jump in here with a couple of questions?

small bottom leaves that are covered in soil anyway.

Also - I'm enjoying the discussion about how different levels of ripeness in the leaf affect their strength (both of nicotine and of flavour). I'll be air-drying if I can.

Cheers

Squeezy

I guess you mean soil lugs in your case.

Heres my observation. The higher the leaf on the plant the more likely to have the more robust flavor for chew or snuff.

Its that way for smoking it seems. If your conditions are not conducive to air drying it wont matter. If you have good drying conditions it will be more prolonged for the upmost leaves. Thats how it is here .
Those bottom leaves, When they are in real high case , gather them and skake the shit out of them to loosen and remove the soil before you mess with them on your dining table.

 

[SmokesAhoy]

I rinse em off but then again I am dealing with a much smaller grow than most.
They definitely are some of the tastiest leaves though.

 

[BarG]

I rinse em off but then again I am dealing with a much smaller grow than most.
They definitely are some of the tastiest leaves though.

I used a soft brush on quite a few and realized how time consuming it was. They still had sand in my case.

Rinsing will keep your dining table cleaner. I don' t see how that hurts other than time and effort, honestly.

On the other hand, it may just be a bad habit? Spend a whole lot of time doing things wrong? Now thats against my nature
But in abcense of knowledge we improvise, by straying off topic. Heh heh

 

[Jack in NB]

Just going through the washing bit myself. I do the bottom leaves and some of the higher ones, as needed.

I use an old folding fireplace screen on sawhorses as a table, and hose them down before pegging them on my drying slats.

With this setup, I can wash and hang around 100 leaves an hour. My crop runs 3000 - 3500 leaves (120 plants or so) and I wash probably 1/3 of them. Pix are in the HTGT photo gallery, page 2 under my name.

 

[NZGirl]

Explaining it in sign language wouldn't help either

Personally, I notice a big difference, but I prime much earlier than I stalk cure. I know from viewing many pictures and videos, cigar leaf is primed well before the leaf ripens. There is no yellow in the leaf nor is there any crinkling of the leaf surface....and these where pictures and videos from Cuba. I remember Lonnie talking about how horrible his tobacco was when he let it get ripe ripe (his term) and that it was much better harvested early.

I contend the leaf continues to ripen well after it is harvested whole stalk and it stops ripening within hours of being primed. I've had stalks form buds and actually flower while hanging. There's a lot of energy stored in the stalk and the plant continues to try to grow using the stored energy. Maybe wilting the stalks for a day or two kills the plant faster...I don't know.

Yup - I've noticed the same thing - stalk cured seems to be a 'slower' process for the leaves but not in terms of time. I find the leaves cure faster on the stalk than primed. My stalks are still producing flowers and have been cut for at least 3 weeks

 

[Chicken]

stalk curing when i experimented with it, to me was faster,,,,,,really produced possiblly, a more quality leaf, by it not drying green

and on a humid day when the leaf was in the right case,

stripping, the leaf off the stalk, was very quick, and processed fine, into hands to be placed in the kiln,

too do it profeciant,. one would need the equivlant, of a '' old stick barn ''

or a lot of room, i get more leaves in a tighter space, by not stalk curing,