UK Cellar Head Curing

[cigarillofingers]

Horite, anyone in the UK had any experience of harvesting and curing tobacco hanging on the cellar head with no fans or anything?
Its a terrace house in South Yorkshire with a damp cellar so cant use the cellar itself however there is the old coal shoot open so there is ventilation down there.

 

[furryfreek]

I don't have a cellar but the first thing I'd do is get a hygrometer and thermometer down there and see if the measurements look reasonable. Relative humidity should average around 60-70%. It can swing far beyond that range for a while so long as it swings back the other way before too long. I'm not actually sure what the ideal temperature is but I find the longer it stays ≥20°C through the day, the better. It's not the end of the world if it only gets into the mid-high teens but things slow down quite a bit and some leaf might not colour up as nicely.

My main concern would be for leaf that's colour cured but not fully dried; that's when the mold risk really spikes. The coal shoot alone might not offer enough ventilation but it may be okay if you can encourage a decent through-draft.

 

[cigarillofingers]

I've had measurements down there as I've used it before for conditioning home brew. It's a steady 17c and around mid50's to mid60's RH depending on the time of year. At the minute it's in the 50's. I've put a bottom crude leaf in there to see how it goes. Only topped my plants the last weekend gone so still got a while before picking proper.