(How/what to) Salvage after hail?

[Skafidr]

This is a follow up question to my grow blog post entry here.

Essentially, my plants have been hit by hail; most of the leaves are shredded and/or bruised, and the seed pods have been busied too. Now the question(s):

What can I do next?

• I'm thinking of harvesting and towel curing those leaves that have been partially shredded (the big ones were probably pretty stiff and didn't bend with the hail, some of the smaller leaves don't seem affected)
• Remove and toss the ones that are completely shredded
• Leave those small soft leaves that have not been affected until they're more mature
• Those plants that have no more viable leaves (I did top most of them so those did only have bigger thicker leaves that got damaged), leave the stalk and hope for a sucker crop?

What about the seed pods? Would they still be viable?

Thanks!

 

[wruk53]

The pics look pretty rough. Personally, I would probably make Chimo with it. But then, I'm not a smoker.

 

[deluxestogie]

• Seed pods: Since the typical tobacco pod head (all its pods) will provide up to ¼-million seeds, I would suggest handling the damaged pod heads the same as undamaged. That is, allow them to fully brown, then hang the heads to dry for several months, prior to extracting the seed.
• Your photos of hail damaged leaves are impressive. I believe that is the worst hail damage to tobacco any forum member has posted over the past 13 years. The challenge is that multiple rips and tears and holes cause a leaf to color-cure unevenly. So towel-curing is likely your best option for salvaging them. For the heavily damaged leaf, you might read about rajangan curing:
  • https://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/attempt-at-making-sun-cured-rajangan.7586/

Please do keep us posted with the results of whatever approaches you choose.

Bob