Pasiasiainen
Member
Hi All!
I just finished my first ever flue curing batch of Virginia Gold and wanted to share my ”log” to get some feedback from you guys, if you can see what I could do differently. All in all, this first experiment went better than I was expecting, and the results are promising!
This is my curing chamber setup: a 1200 × 600 × 800 mm insulated box with plywood walls and 30 mm aluminum-coated rigid foam insulation. It’s controlled with Inkbird ITC-308 WiFi and ITH-200 WiFi units. Heating is provided by three 175 W heat lamps inside a 155 mm metal pipe, shielded with ceramic tiles. Ventilation: 100 mm exhaust fan with an automatic shutter and a 120 mm circulation fan blowing through the heating unit. No dedicated air intake. Humidity is maintained with a 3.5 l water container and an ultrasonic fogger. There’s also a 200 × 100 mm inspection window on the door with 4 mm plastic glass, which can be sealed with an insulated cover when not used. + Smoke detector.
Leaves used in this batch. Unfortunately I don't have any better picture of these:
This is how I ran this batch:
Here is the Inkbird data from the run.
Temps and RH were zigzagging all the time, but with the current setup (for example no PID) I have to live with this. My heater overshoots about 1,5 Celsius and the humidifier about 2 %, but I think this is ok.
I programmed the steps using Inkbird App Scenes, and that was a PITA. Need to think if I can get this to run on something that can be programmed more easily....
Results:
Sweet, sugary aroma, no scorched leaves.
60% of the leaves, aka "Best performers": Very nice golden yellow colour
40% of the leaves: Very light yellow color with green cast
The main questions I’m pondering for the next flue curing session are
What I am planning to improve
Any feedback is welcome!
// Pasi
I just finished my first ever flue curing batch of Virginia Gold and wanted to share my ”log” to get some feedback from you guys, if you can see what I could do differently. All in all, this first experiment went better than I was expecting, and the results are promising!
This is my curing chamber setup: a 1200 × 600 × 800 mm insulated box with plywood walls and 30 mm aluminum-coated rigid foam insulation. It’s controlled with Inkbird ITC-308 WiFi and ITH-200 WiFi units. Heating is provided by three 175 W heat lamps inside a 155 mm metal pipe, shielded with ceramic tiles. Ventilation: 100 mm exhaust fan with an automatic shutter and a 120 mm circulation fan blowing through the heating unit. No dedicated air intake. Humidity is maintained with a 3.5 l water container and an ultrasonic fogger. There’s also a 200 × 100 mm inspection window on the door with 4 mm plastic glass, which can be sealed with an insulated cover when not used. + Smoke detector.
Leaves used in this batch. Unfortunately I don't have any better picture of these:
This is how I ran this batch:
- Aug 15th, picked 25 bottom leaves (including a few muddish lugs). Leaves were small (~30 cm), mostly light green to slightly yellow, some with brown spots. Rinsed with a garden hose, hung outside in the shade for a few hours to dry, then stacked in a basket overnight, covered with a wet towel, and left in my unheated storage.
- Loaded into the curing cabinet the next morning. Lots of air and space between leaves. Tried to start raising temps slowly, but there was a small overshoot to ~30 °C, then adjusted to ~23 °C / 70–75% RH. Started 14-step program towards 38 °C / 85%.
- Yellowing dragged on for ~60 hours. Some leaves remained stubbornly green, so I continued to the next phase. A few hiccups with humidity (some condensation on the inside walls, very fogged window), but all the electronics inside the cabinet seemed to work fine.
- Wilting/drying phases ran mostly according to plan. I had to fill the humidifier water tank (spike in the graph).
- By Aug 22, six days from the start, the cure was complete. In the end chamber was set down to 25 °C / 75% RH for a few hours to make the leaves pliable.
Here is the Inkbird data from the run.
Temps and RH were zigzagging all the time, but with the current setup (for example no PID) I have to live with this. My heater overshoots about 1,5 Celsius and the humidifier about 2 %, but I think this is ok.
I programmed the steps using Inkbird App Scenes, and that was a PITA. Need to think if I can get this to run on something that can be programmed more easily....
Results:
Sweet, sugary aroma, no scorched leaves.
60% of the leaves, aka "Best performers": Very nice golden yellow colour
40% of the leaves: Very light yellow color with green cast
The main questions I’m pondering for the next flue curing session are
- What was the reason that some leaves did not yellow? Too high temps? Too low RH at the start/on the yellowing stage? Leaves at different maturing stages? Something else?
- Wondering will there be enough air circulation when my chamber is packed more tightly with only one 120 mm computer fan at the bottom of the chamber...? If I add a fan to the top of the chamber, what kind of (reasonably priced) fan would withstand the humidity/condensation?
- Should I add an air intake? If so, how big/small? This batch seemed to go fine without one, as there seems to be a small leakage in the chamber door.
- How the hell am I able to identify and pick leaves for the next batch that are mature enough/on the same maturing stage? I am definitely overthinking this, as my plants seem to mature very slowly, and the weather is getting unusually cold here.
What I am planning to improve
- If not adding another fan inside, at least make an air deflector at the back of the chamber to make the airflow go up more easily. (By tilting the ceramic tiles at the back wall)
- Getting a bigger water container and maybe building a float for the fogger (fogger works properly only if the water level is about 4-5 cm above it), so I don’t need to refill the tank.
Any feedback is welcome!
// Pasi
