Experimental curing chamber

[Controlled Chaos]

Years ago a friend's mom was giving away a chest freezer so I said I would take it but after getting it home noticed it was showing its age and it's been sitting ever since. Life has been one thing after the next lately so building a curing chamber hasn't been something I got around to but I didn't want to air cure this bright VA if possible. I left a seedling heating mat in the freezer and the inside got fairly warm but obviously not hot enough for a real flue cure so I'm thinking of putting a light bulb inside with a timer to have it turn on and off every hour or so. Even if it doesn't work I'm not going to consider it a loss since I've got plenty of WLT leaf to blend and smoke already and sometimes failing is a great way to learn for your next attempt. I'll report back as it goes on, I know it won't turn out the same as an actual flue cure since I don't have a wet bulb or anything to monitor heat and humidity but it will be fun to see what happens

 

[Controlled Chaos]

The leaves have been sitting at a steady 110°F with the seedling mat and a light bulb and the humidity has stayed between 87-92% so far. It looks like the bottom half of the plant could have been harvested first and the top left to mature a little while longer with the way the leaves get slightly green the further left they go on the hanging line. I've added a crock pot that's plugged into a timer typically used for lamps and have it set to stay on for an hour at a time to start and will adjust from there, I'm going to try to let them yellow for another day or two so the smaller leaves can try to catch up and the others can lose the last shade of green they're holding. I'll admit I was shocked to see this much yellow when I opened the lid for a peek this morning

 

[deluxestogie]

You are correct. For flue-curing, prime the leaves from the bottom first, and wait until that first batch is completed, prior to priming the next batch of leaf from higher up the stalk. If you leave lovely, yellow leaf in the chamber while waiting for upper leaf to yellow, the lower leaf will finish the process brown, rather than yellow.

It's an art form, doing this at home. You'll need to experiment to get the best result.

Bob

 

[Controlled Chaos]

It's been fun trying to get the temperature to level off with different on/off intervals on the timer and I've gotten it pretty close to where it needs to be so far. Next year I'll grab some thermal controls and dial in the temperatures more accurately. Even though this is a temporary setup I'll only be using for this year I've already learned a lot that can be applied to a real flue cure next year when I'll have a few plants going. I'll report back in a few days with how things turn out, at the worst I'll have a few ounces of bright VA that landed somewhere between a flue cure and an air cure

 

[johnny108]

Flair cured.

 

[Controlled Chaos]

Flair cured.

Ric Flair? WHOOOO!!!

 

[Controlled Chaos]

I think they may have been on track to finish yellow but the humidity stayed high for too long after ramping up to around 130°F and towards the end of the cycle the heat had climbed to 180°F. They look like burley leaves in color but they have a really nice apricot aroma like a stoved VA. For what it is I'm happy with how it turned out after using a lamp timer and crock pot to dial in temperatures and hoping for the best and I'm excited to get some thermal controls for next year to get closer to the curing chart. This has been a great learning experience and the satisfaction of curing something I grew is enough to have me telling anyone who will listen for the next few days. I'm going to try a pipe or two before stuffing it all into a jar to sleep in a cabinet for a few months before checking on it again.

Thanks to everyone on here who has shared knowledge and experience, I wouldn't have gotten here this fast without all of you

 

[Plinsc]

Looks great!