Sun curing Virginia gold

[Libsk8r1]

I am new to growing tobacco and this will be my 3rd year running Virginia gold. Previously I have only grown a few plants at a time, however this year iv transplanted something of around 700. I sprinkled way to many seeds into a tray of dirt and scraped up handfuls of sprouts to then plant in more trays just spaced apart in rows. I will eventually get them all into small pots with soil mix and from there put into the ground about 3-4 feet apart. My plan is to hang the plants whole in a greenhouse that recieves full sun all day with two doors facing east and west. My thoughts are that the greenhouse will trap heat from the sun and help the drying process. And maybe the flavor will be more robust than my previous crops, which I air cured because I don’t want to build a flue barn. So that’s as much background as I can think of right now as far as my goals I intend to try and find a sun curing method that I can use on Virginia gold spicific right now. Although I do intend to grow and try this with other Virginia cultivars this year is Virginia gold. I’m curious if anyone may know of any spicific way to suncure Virginia gold and if my greenhouse idea sounds any good? Any advice on the subject will be appreciated

 

[Libsk8r1]

Would hanging the plants whole yeild a more dark brown leaf I’m wondering if I were to simply hang the leaves by themselves on a strings snugly inside the hot greenhouse if the leaves would dry more of a yellow color? Either way the greenhouse will most likely be filled with tobacco come harvest time I’m just trying to plan ahead

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Option 1. Pick leaves that are yellowing and hang them in the greenhouse. Keep the humidity at 80% until they are yellow, then let the humidity drop to whatever.

Option 2. Pick leaves that are completely yellow. Hang them in the greenhouse. Period.

Option 3. Pick leaves, pile them in the garage. Go through them every day and take yellow leaves and hang them in the garage.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

The greenhouse is a risk if the leaves aren't yellow because it'll be difficult to maintain high humidity whilst keeping the temperature low.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

You can't sun cure whole plants unless you wait until very late in the season when the plants are almost completely yellow. Sun curing is usually done on strings of leaves that were already ripening on the plant.

Hanging 700 full plants will require 1000 to 2000 square feet. How big is your greenhouse?

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

It's also going to weigh a couple tons.

 

[Libsk8r1]

The greenhouse is a risk if the leaves aren't yellow because it'll be difficult to maintain high humidity whilst keeping the temperature low.

Thank you for the input if I closed the doors to keep humidity higher would they be at risk of molding from lack of Airflow?

 

[Libsk8r1]

Dang yea that’s gonna put some stress on the frame it’s 20feet long 10 feet wide 7 feet tall. Should I build a rack inside the greenhouse that can support more weight I haven’t done bulk before now lol so this is excellent info. So dang this is gonna keep me busy for sure lol. So I need to build racks that can hold long strings of leaves that have already gone yellow. How heavy would one string 10 feet long would weigh?

 

[Libsk8r1]

You can't sun cure whole plants unless you wait until very late in the season when the plants are almost completely yellow. Sun curing is usually done on strings of leaves that were already ripening on the plant.

Hanging 700 full plants will require 1000 to 2000 square feet. How big is your greenhouse?

I might just need to build something outside of the greenhouse that’s capable of holding plants that are speared on wooden rods or something that can atleast handle that kind of weight

 

[Libsk8r1]

The greenhouse is a risk if the leaves aren't yellow because it'll be difficult to maintain high humidity whilst keeping the temperature low.

What if I hang plants whole in garage where it’s cool and dark. Allow leaves to yellow then pick and hang in greenhouse?

 

[Jitterbugdude]

What if I hang plants whole in garage where it’s cool and dark. Allow leaves to yellow then pick and hang in greenhouse?

That's basically what I do. I hang my plants in the the barn for a few days until they are yellow. I then transfer them outside to a hoop-house that I've covered in clear plastic. The plastic is only put on in the evening and taken off in the morning. Without the plastic the leaves are soaking wet in the morning from the overnight dew.

 

[deluxestogie]

You might read the New Growers' FAQ (link in menu bar). A whole tobacco plant may weigh up to 10 pounds if stalk-cut. 700 x 10 = lots. There is info on this in the FAQ.

Bob

 

[FmGrowit]

I don't think you'll be able to color cure to yellow and keep it that way if the leaves are on the stalk. If you do, the trick would be to flash dry the leaves as soon as the do turn yellow, otherwise the leaves will turn brown. Another challenge is going to be drying the mid-rib and stalk. If you don't the stalk and mid-rib will feed moisture to the leaves and begin to rot.

Your plan sound much better suited for Oriental tobacco.

 

[Knucklehead]

Google sun curing tobacco and after that pulls up click the link at the top that says images. You will see all types of racks and some are inside greenhouses. I sun cured my flue cure Virginias my last couple of seasons and really enjoyed doing it that way for several reasons, although the number one reason was space. I could air cure my other varieties in my shop, have some kilning in the kiln, and sun cure the flue varieties and Orientals all at the same time in three different areas, so I had my crop spaced out all over the place like an assembly line. I had some seedling heat mats piled high with leaf needing the stems dry. Couple times a day I would rotate the pile of leaves on the seedling heat mats until all the stems were crispy dry, then bring them back into case and bagged up ready for the kiln.

I primed my Virginia’s when they were ripe, very yellow on the plant. However, I didn’t have near as many plants as you are planning. You say you don’t want to build a flue barn. A flue barn isn’t really necessary anymore. Members here have built home built flue cure chambers that run from the size of a refrigerator to as small as a metal trash can. Read these threads and I think you will find that if you are the slightest bit handy, you can manage quite well making your own chamber and you can move quite a bit of leaf through one.

So, what I’m suggesting is a several prong attack with that many plants. (Just in case I’m over estimating how much leaf you are going to have) Prime each leaf when it’s ripe and yellow, put some in the flue cure chamber and sun cure the ones that aren’t going to make it in the flue chamber. I actually like the taste of the sun cured leaf, to me they fell somewhere between air cured and flue cured. I wasn’t a huge fan of air cured flue varieties but the sun cure was very nice. Not as sweet as flue cured but definitely something I could live with and it gave me taste options when blended with true flue cured leaf from wholeleaftobacco.com.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Dang yea that’s gonna put some stress on the frame it’s 20feet long 10 feet wide 7 feet tall. Should I build a rack inside the greenhouse that can support more weight I haven’t done bulk before now lol so this is excellent info. So dang this is gonna keep me busy for sure lol. So I need to build racks that can hold long strings of leaves that have already gone yellow. How heavy would one string 10 feet long would weigh?

There is no possible way you can cure 700 plants in a 200 square foot greenhouse. You could do, maybe 100 plants.
Forget the greenhouse. You will either have to cure outside, or limit your grow to something more realistic for someone with your experience and resources.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

What if I hang plants whole in garage where it’s cool and dark. Allow leaves to yellow then pick and hang in greenhouse?

This does make sense theoretically. The garage needs to be at least 2000 square feet, otherwise you won't be able to walk through. It needs to be able to handle 7000lbs of tobacco hanging from the roof.

700 plants x 16 leaves per plant = 11,600 leaves. At 15 leaves per foot on a string, that's 750' of hanging leaf which will work its way in stages through the greenhouse and then somewhere to be rehydrated over the course of a couple months.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Unless if your infrastructure is already large and robust, I think you need to narrow your options. Priming and stringing leaves during the season rather than stalk curing all of it at the end of the season will eat up your time, but it makes the most sense for the space.

 

[Libsk8r1]

You can't sun cure whole plants unless you wait until very late in the season when the plants are almost completely yellow. Sun curing is usually done on strings of leaves that were already ripening on the plant.

Hanging 700 full plants will require 1000 to 2000 square feet. How big is your greenhouse?

I might just need to build something outside of the greenhouse that’s capable of holding plants that are speared on wooden rods or something that can atleast handle that kind of we

There is no possible way you can cure 700 plants in a 200 square foot greenhouse. You could do, maybe 100 plants.
Forget the greenhouse. You will either have to cure outside, or limit your grow to something more realistic for someone with your experience and resources.

you are correct I’m glad I posted so I now know I need to build a flue chamber next year but this year I’m going to need to dig down and burry some long 4x4 posts and string the leaves from post to post I’ll probably need to burry them deep to hold the weight I’ll also probably need to add some things for stability

Unless if your infrastructure is already large and robust, I think you need to narrow your options. Priming and stringing leaves during the season rather than stalk curing all of it at the end of the season will eat up your time, but it makes the most sense for the space.

Indeed I definitely gotta spend some money on lumber and make a structure that can hold that much weight and that many leaves

This does make sense theoretically. The garage needs to be at least 2000 square feet, otherwise you won't be able to walk through. It needs to be able to handle 7000lbs of tobacco hanging from the roof.

700 plants x 16 leaves per plant = 11,600 leaves. At 15 leaves per foot on a string, that's 750' of hanging leaf which will work its way in stages through the greenhouse and then somewhere to be rehydrated over the course of a couple months.

Yes this is all giving me a lot of perspective because I’m determined to finish all the plants I’ve transplanted lol so I got slot of building to do or just a chamber big enough to do large batches like the refrigerator idea or something

Google sun curing tobacco and after that pulls up click the link at the top that says images. You will see all types of racks and some are inside greenhouses. I sun cured my flue cure Virginias my last couple of seasons and really enjoyed doing it that way for several reasons, although the number one reason was space. I could air cure my other varieties in my shop, have some kilning in the kiln, and sun cure the flue varieties and Orientals all at the same time in three different areas, so I had my crop spaced out all over the place like an assembly line. I had some seedling heat mats piled high with leaf needing the stems dry. Couple times a day I would rotate the pile of leaves on the seedling heat mats until all the stems were crispy dry, then bring them back into case and bagged up ready for the kiln.

I primed my Virginia’s when they were ripe, very yellow on the plant. However, I didn’t have near as many plants as you are planning. You say you don’t want to build a flue barn. A flue barn isn’t really necessary anymore. Members here have built home built flue cure chambers that run from the size of a refrigerator to as small as a metal trash can. Read these threads and I think you will find that if you are the slightest bit handy, you can manage quite well making your own chamber and you can move quite a bit of leaf through one.

So, what I’m suggesting is a several prong attack with that many plants. (Just in case I’m over estimating how much leaf you are going to have) Prime each leaf when it’s ripe and yellow, put some in the flue cure chamber and sun cure the ones that aren’t going to make it in the flue chamber. I actually like the taste of the sun cured leaf, to me they fell somewhere between air cured and flue cured. I wasn’t a huge fan of air cured flue varieties but the sun cure was very nice. Not as sweet as flue cured but definitely something I could live with and it gave me taste options when blended with true flue cured leaf from wholeleaftobacco.com.

Thank you for the response this really helps me I might have transplanted 700 could be a tad more or less it’s hard to count em lol but if I can build a big barrel chamber or something like that might work I have a wrap around barrel heater for 50 gallon barrel I wonder if that could work

 

[Libsk8r1]

Thank you all for the information this is already putting together what my labor is gonna be like and the way I was looking at it before was possibly over complicated and it sounds like I can build a large flue chamber and cure the leaves in there. I just need to plan that out and it sounds like I need the leaves to be yellow before they go into the flue chamber? My entire yard I’m growing in is going to be filled with tobacco plants so my past two grows the tobacco didn’t really go yellow until the rain was so bad which I had harvested the majority of leaves way ahead of time and air cured them. But I left some outside for seeds and the plant stayed green and it went from green to brown as it rotted away so should I not give them much compost this time so they go yellow faster? Someone told me to lay out the leaves in piles and as they yellow then cure them would I be able to throw green leaf into a flue chamber or would I need to let them yellow first? Sorry about my lack of vocabulary I appreciate all of your reply’s

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

If you hang the plants or leaves on 2x2s or 2x4s, you can let them rest on a structure that doesn't need to withstand tension and in fact doesn't need to be permanent. For example: