Greetings from Sweden: @JonatanT

[JonatanT]

Thank you for letting me join the ranks!
I have been reading hours worth of material from the forums already, and have picked up a ton of useful information!

I am primarily a user of smokeless tobacco in the form of snus and am super excited to try my hand at growing tobacco.

I have started the following seedlings for my first spring.

Kentucky 17, Havanna Deep red, orinoco, german rustika, Tofta, small stalk Black mammoth, and little yellow. From this im hoping the produce a rich tasting organic snus.

My only concern is the high humidity of autumn in northern Sweden. But im hoping a well ventilated, practically open, old barn will keep the mold at bay. My understanding from reading the forums here is that the tobacco will be well served to simply be left alone in the barn over the winter, and will resume curing in the spring when the winter lets go!

Thank you all for the amazing amount of work and information that has been put in too this wonderful forum!

Best regards Jonatan

 

[ShiniKoroshi]

Welcome and good luck with your grow.

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum. Read the New Growers' FAQ, linked in the menu bar. You may wish to scan through the topics in our Index of Key Forum Threads, also linked in the menu bar. Feel free to start your own grow log in the Grow Blogs forum.

Bob

 

[Alpine]

Welcome to FTT

pier

 

[Knucklehead]

Welcome. Thank you for joining us.

 

[JukkaPekka]

Hello.
I live in Finland and the humidity in winter is low. I would assume that leaving the tobacco in barn for winter is not a good idea. You have 6 months to figure out alternative ways of curing and storing tobacco.

 

[Knucklehead]

Hello.
I live in Finland and the humidity in winter is low. I would assume that leaving the tobacco in barn for winter is not a good idea. You have 6 months to figure out alternative ways of curing and storing tobacco.

Low humidity won't harm the tobacco, but if the tobacco is crispy, crunchy, dry then the aging stops. Aging starts back as soon as moisture is reintroduced to the tobacco. I have low humidity is winter, too high humidity in summer. If I left my tobacco outside for a year it would literally rot. @deluxestogie lives further north of me and his humidity is more balanced than mine and he can hang his outside for a cycle without worry except for extremes. Curing and storage decisions are greatly affected by where you live.

 

[Old Gasman]

I've had some success at simply packing the dried and stripped leaf into stout plastic bags. With the aid of a simple hydrometer and a little spray bottle of distilled water you can keep your tobacco at the correct humidity to enable the aging process.

 

[plantdude]

Northern Sweden, that's got to be a challenge! I suppose you could carry them halfway through growing indoors then stick them outside for a few months, curing them is going to require attention though. In my climate I can plant outdoors in April then harvest in mid August to early September. I still have a good 3-4 weeks of temps in the mid to high 80's (f) with humidity in the 70+ range to air cure most years. Nice climate here, but I do miss out on the northern lights You are probably going to want build a kiln or at the very least a semi temperature controlled area to cure the leaf so you can take advantage of the growing season you have.
The rusticas will probably do ok, in general they can handle early plantings and mild frosts. Short season strains will probably be a plus especially if they are amendable to being pot grown. Yellow twist bud, harrow velvet and little Dutch can all be pot grown and are a bit hardier and slightly quicker maturing (and easier to cure) than a lot of the cigar varities. If you have any local short season land races and varities those would be worth looking into as well.
Typically as temps fall so does the humidity, but it's tricky. You'll have to keep a close eye on curing leaves. Once mold starts it takes over in a few days. Even dry crispy leaves can grow mold if the humidity sneaks up on you.

Half of my mothers line is of first generation Swedish descent, I've always wondered if the climate was a contributing factor in their choice to come to America. If it gets below 70 (F) I'm pretty sure I'm well on my way to freezing to death any more. God bless those of hardier stature than me

 

[JonatanT]

Thanks for all the answers!
Regarding curing i asked around in a Swedish forum as well and got the answer that it will almost certainly mold if i leave it out in the barn year round. I think i will put low heat and maybe a humidifier in one room in the outhouse, alternatively i will put it in the basement with a dehumidifier! I realize i dont have any room in any house with automatically ideal conditions!
I guess i will have to look at this first year as a bit of a trial and error! Maybe i will put some in the attic, some in basement and some in the outhouse and simply find out where the tobacco seems to feel best at home. Also since most of my grow will be made into snus aging maybe is not as crucial as for smoking tobacco? So possibly maybe just color cure then dry with heating fan and grind to tobaccopowder at once!

 

[johnny108]

Drying and immediately powdering the leaf is what other forum members are doing, and they say it works for snus.

Anders A Grow Log 2024

In the workshop, I have tested driving with both a humidifier that comes on if the humidity goes below 60% and a dehumidifier that comes on if the humidity goes above 75%. It has delayed the color-cure so with that bit I am happy. However, it has felt awkward, like balancing on the verge of...

fairtradetobacco.com

 

[JonatanT]

Drying and immediately powdering the leaf is what other forum members are doing, and they say it works for snus.

Anders A Grow Log 2024

In the workshop, I have tested driving with both a humidifier that comes on if the humidity goes below 60% and a dehumidifier that comes on if the humidity goes above 75%. It has delayed the color-cure so with that bit I am happy. However, it has felt awkward, like balancing on the verge of...

fairtradetobacco.com

View attachment 55080

That seems to be the best solution then thank you for that insight

 

[plantdude]

I use most of my leaf for chewing tobacco and keep the best leaves for cigars. I'm not sure when you say snus if you mean it goes in your lip or up your nose. For chewing tobacco you can get away with some cured green leaf, but it does decrease quality, especially with shorter cooking times and less flavoring added. I have no idea about it if you are using it for nasal applications. That's a place I don't want to go... Either way you'll be better off with a method that gives you properly color cured leaves (I.e not green). You also do better with color cured leaves that age about 6 months or longer to get around some of the nastier by-products that tobacco tends to produce in the aging process.

 

[Anders A]

Välkommen hit Jonatan, en bra gemenskap här, och roligt att så mycket människor från hela världen är samlade här

[Welcome here Jonatan, a good community here, and it's nice that so many people from all over the world are gathered here]

 

[Johnny II]

Welcome! Never tried snus.