If I do this will it ruin the final curing process? Hang the leaves somewhere dry and warm, like a garage or attic. Right now I have a number of shirazi leaves shade curing and I'm using this time to do some research about apothecary jars, but i've got to move fast and get some jars here in order to make sure the leaves don't dry up. there seems to be a new trend in vaping lately as more people are the cost of cigarettes beyond their means and are turning to vaping, i grow my own tobacco and process it myself and have experimented (Mucked around in my kitchen) with 0% nicotine menthol e-juice by cutting my tobacco in an old electric coffee grinder and adding the e-juice bit by bit to the mix until i achieve the strength i desire.. Sprinkle seeds very lightly over the soil (but don't cover them with dirt). How soon before I can smoke them? At the worst, the plants will stop growing over Winter and come away again in Spring, and be a bit stunted, but the leaves will still be useable and you'll get plenty of seed for next season. Here in New Zealand, you can buy tobacco seed, grow the stuff, and, if you want to, smoke it quite lawfully. As you said, I leave the "Best/Biggest" plant to flower and take the seeds from it for the next season- tho of course you only need one seed pod to get 1000's of tiny seeds for next year's crop. He left the element on about 150 C for a few days. And I always unplugged the light when leaving the house. Thanks for the nice comments. In fact, each capsule has dozens of seeds, so one picking of ready seed-heads is more than ample unless you have several acres you want to plant out. Question: My tobacco is too strong. Mary Wickison from USA on March 23, 2014: After years of nagging (I mean politely requesting) my husband to stop, now I find your page. First time grower. Feed a thin tomato stake (or something similar) through these slits so that when you hold the stick horizontally, the leaves hang down about an inch apart. :). If they taste well enough without them fermenting do I still have to ferment them? Store the seeds safely. Cut a thin slit through the center of the stem on each leaf using a utility knife. 50% of these commercial growers cure for between 7 and 14 days. Turned out that he was given the plant by his pal who had been Chief Blender with British American Tobacco (BAT) so the guy knew what he was doing. Fire curing produces a tobacco low in sugar and high in nicotine. [1] 2 Pick leaves that are a pale-yellow for drying. I did have a hard time sleeping at night with the chamber light bulb on. Im thinking about purchasing and would like to hear some opinions. Start by putting your dried buds in your chosen curing jars. For those of you more comfortable with metrics, 1 ft = 30 cm. Answer: The leaves normally dry from the bottom of the plant up. For some, growing tobacco is an absolute obsessionand its easy to see why! I have the space/patience/whole leaf to be able to grow enough each season for a couple of years, and am happy to just store it away for a few years before reaching for it. You can store the leaves in a humidor or even in a plastic bag. Every council and government department has a proliferation of the swine at their lower levels trying to screw up the doers. Havana tobacco seeds are good for making cigars, particularity cigar wrappers because of the broad leaves, flavor and smooth appearances once cured. The best vessel to use for aging pipe tobacco is the Mason Jar. and spray it finely on the dried leaves with a garden mister. You'll have lots of them. Answer: You can surely use a humidifier and see how it goes. If you want plant them elsewhere, they'll grow for a later crop. Please help me Old Firm! Luther, get a plant mister (little pump up spray) for a few dollars at a garden centre or two dollar shop and use it to spray your dry leaves. Fairly certain he's going to have a good read. And how long will this last in this storage method? My first year, they did not grow very large but each year after (using the prior years seeds) they grew larger and larger. -Week 3 smells very strongly like raisins. Answer: I remove the stems because they're woody and would produce lumpy tobacco. Finally, pour the hot water to the level of the tobacco in the jars. I want to try it. Do you ferment leaves for smoking tobacco? Trying to perfect the cutting now but am very happy with my "own grown". The Old Firm (author) from Waikato/Bay Of Plenty, New Zealand on July 30, 2014: Drying- Three months will do it, less if you give a bit of a boost with a slightly warm oven. This article is accurate and true to the best of the authors knowledge. What is the next step after the fermentation is ready ? I just save some seed year by year. Thank you for any other informative site. 11 years ago I believe that it's an evil plot put out by the tobacco magnates and perpetuated by our respective, but seldom respected or respectable, governments to wring money from us. This is an excellent time to test whether you have dried your nugs properly. By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube. Treat it as you would tomatoes. Answer: I've never bothered fermenting, and nor have any of my friends. Would also be interested to read the article you mentioned on distilling but can't find it? Curing cannabis buds Once buds are dry, it's time to cure them. You may need to stand on something to do it! By signing up you are agreeing to receive emails according to our privacy policy. The hothouse on our section looks like a great starting place for our seedling to get a start. Essentially creating a compost heap where the internal temperature is carefully monitored along with the humidity levels. Well, short of dynamiting them, running them over with a ten-ton digger, searing them with a flamethrower, or soaking the stuff in weed-killer, tobacco pretty much looks after itself. Remove the leaves and tear them off of the stems before storing or using your tobacco. Answer: Yes, The way I know of is to spray the rum/wine/honey solution or whatever on the dry or near dry leaves with a garden mister. Having got that off my chairy little hest, let's get down to the nitty-gritty. Hang these sticks (or string the lines) somewhere dry, out of the way, and preferably warm. Most strains, though, will be good enough to smoke after two-three weeks, but the longer you leave the buds to cure, the better - four to eight weeks may be the optimal time. Some leaves are 500-600mm in length and still rather green. Tobacco leaves are ready for smoking or storage when theyre brown and pliable, but not too brittle. I smoke about 50grm/week -say 1 3/4 oz/week. on Step 5. sounds like the uneven curing is due to inconsistent humidity and too dry of an environment. I'm curious to uncover out what blog system youre employing? The Old Firm (author) from Waikato/Bay Of Plenty, New Zealand on April 04, 2014: Thanks for your comments, I use HubPages, as per heading; free to use, just join up. Take a leaf, strip out the center rib and any large side ribs if it's a big leaf, and repeat this process for several leaves until you have a generous handful. Yes I agree that there was too much moisture. I assume that you want to either roll a cigarette or use a pipe. Plant them in reasonably rich, well-dug soil (with well-composted vegetable matter if you've got it). March-June,get started TODAY! I personally didn't run into any problems, but this set up is risky and definitely not UL rated . The Old Firm (author) from Waikato/Bay Of Plenty, New Zealand on July 17, 2018: Try misting the dried leaves with a mixture of oil of cloves (from the chemist) and water. Question: My tobacco leaves have been hanging for around 3 months, the tips seem to keep going brittle so I have misted them with water as they have become brittle again, is this method ok? I had trouble with the whole drying/curing process though. When the leaves are in the Eski fermenting do you turn them or move them around. Tobacco isn't picky. It depends on the tobacco, I guess. I don't really monitor the humidity too much, I just give it 15-20 distilled water misting on and between the hands about 2-3 times a day, just to keep the leaves semi-moist. Questions by inquiring hobbist , answers by me, (Surf Monkey Coconut)!.Q: Cool setup- never seen it done like that before. Paper towels misted and saturated with distilled water is placed on top of the cured tobacco hands with some plastic wrap over it to hold in the moisture, I do a good deal of misting with distilled water about twice a day. You will need to make a platform inside the boiler to keep the leaves out of the water. The warm, dry days and cool, relatively humid nights of the late summer and early fall provide the perfect conditions for drying tobacco leaves. What I can find worryingly little information on is how long you need to ferment it for, depending on what you want to do with it. Put tobacco in jar. Cover the soil with newspaper or a bit of cardboard to keep it damp. Soon, you'll notice that tobacco is quite an attractive ornamental with small, pretty, pink flowers. Stand the container in a dish so that you can water it without soaking the carpet. Hello to all who read this and also to future me who is trying to figure out what I did that one time. This will always depend on how much you grow and how big your boiler is. On the plus side: Home grown tobacco contains far less chemicals and no additives when compared to the stuff the tobacco industry produces. The Old Firm (author) from Waikato/Bay Of Plenty, New Zealand on March 17, 2016: Our Gestapo thugs will shoot and kill a man for pointing a gun at a police dog, shoot a fleeing thief in the back and beat his dying body with baton tourches and find themselves not at fault, then run around kissing a drug pusher who shot at and wounded 4 police, presumably because of "political correctness" - and a 'relly who's a local senior cop. Answer: It would probably enhance the product but I don't bother and nor do most of the locals that I know. Many thanks. Drying tobacco is a kind of curing process that takes between 3 and 8 weeks to properly prepare the tobacco for use. Question: Im in the Wairarapa and just got some seedlings from the local garden centre. Don't look now, but you've probably already done itwell enough for the average punter, at least. Answer: Curing tobacco is pretty much just letting it dry until it turns goldish. :). When the leaves are brown and the edges have curled slightly, the process is complete. You don't have to fork out another $2.50 for seed. Tobacco plants nearing maturity. on Introduction. At which temperature fermentation stops? Sit back, drink your moonshine (I'm writing an article on distilling), and watch them grow. Problem solved! Grow your own tobacco while you can, - and your own carrots, - and your own cabbages, soon legislation will stop us from doing all that too because we'd be taking the living from the maws poor supermarket empires. Question: Do you think putting a few dried mint leaves in with my tobacco leaves will give it a menthol taste? An attic or garage rafters are great, provided you still have headroom. Adding moisture to cure is not a good idea, the bud should be dried properly first. It realy increase my knowledge about the topic. Great sense of humor, and great information - good tips! This year i ordered from Victory Seeds and they have a much wider variety. You probably displaced 12 cabbages to grow enough tobacco to keep you in cancer sticks for a year. He constantly kept preaching about this. How to Tell How Old Cigarettes Are and If Theyre Stale. What we are shooting for in this phase is 70% RH maximum. Answer: That's a question that I haven't had before! I've settled on 1 week in the press for this experiment bracket, so unless I get an additional press, it'll take me 3 months to get all the 1 oz pressed samples underway. Tobacco is an age old, yet amazing plant, which has become increasingly popular among hobbyist in recent times! In about two weeks, the seedlings should start showing. I cured a bit with bourbon in the oven and got a nice pipe smoke. Aging ? I got 6 x 1 oz jars sealed up yesterday. You'll learn by experiment to get the tobacco the way that you like it. It improves with age so long as it does not dry out. Very educational. This is typically the culprit. 10 years ago JavaScript is disabled. Start the tobacco seedlings no sooner than 4 weeks before the spring night time temps are 50 degrees or so. Question: Is planting tobacco summer (start of January) ok? Growing and harvesting is a perquisite to fermentation covered in other guides, available here . They stopped growing until spring, but the leaves stayed healthyno wilting or browningand around the end of September, they took off again. Fermentation is the limiting factor for hobbyist!3) Finally aging which we are all familiar with, which includes factory storage and storage in a humidor. The place else may just I get that type of info written in such a perfect way? I also ground some into a powder snuff, I added a cotton ball dipped in scented oil for a week or so to add flavor and scent then removed the cotton ball later. The host saw me wandering around puffing on my pipe and he kindly gave me a tobacco plant in a pot. whether it's fit to drink is another matter! This is just 3 hands of tobacco and it does have quite the aroma associated with it! The Old Firm (author) from Waikato/Bay Of Plenty, New Zealand on October 21, 2015: Hi Guys (and Gals) sorry that I've been AWOL for a while. The Old Firm (author) from Waikato/Bay Of Plenty, New Zealand on March 20, 2014: I wrote a month or what back that I had started harvesting and drying down here in North Canty, and being the impatient bugger that I am, have started smoking it now, and am pleasantly surprised with the result. Re-pot them a couple of times, use you hot-house when they get bigger and you can grow them there or transplant in spring. Mine is 40ltr any old water boiler come tea earn will do. Remember to save your seed for the next crop. I started about 400 tobacco seeds, about 85% germination rate. We were told this by an old DSIR nerd, a friend tried it reconds it better than brought menthols. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Most people use wide-mouth quart or half-gallon glass mason jars,. Commercially it used to have saltpeter (potassium nitrate) added to keep it going, although I don't know what's used now. You may not legally sell it, trade it, or give it away. When the plant is mature, harvest the leaves as normal and check google on making cigars, - I haven't made them but I know that there are some good sites with common sense instructions around. There's no smell of nicotine looks and the taste is like dried grass. You are so right, they do adapt to the area. Awesome article!!! I spent many years at sea in the MN, as Captain since 1975, so cost wasn't an issue then. You get the picture. Ive not got the Virginia one Ive got has some random Peruvian ones that has loads of nicotine on the leaves its oily. They are about 20 inches now. Question: I'm new at this. (These have some glorious botanical name that doesn't matter a bit. Air curing works by hanging the leaves in a dark place for a few weeks. Hopefully I get mature plants later. The light was plugged into a ground fault interrupter outlet so that if it overloaded, I would have a small means of safety at very least. Also how do you keep the humidity. Thank you very much ---just so hard to get the seeds in SA Government screws all of us here ---BUT I can, and do grow my own weed and get very good crops too! 7 years ago -Air cured Tobacco leaves, Seeds with growing instructions are available here : Havana tobacco seeds are good for making cigars, particularity cigar wrappers because of the broad leaves, flavor and smooth appearances once cured. I'd also suggest that you let the plants flower and save the seed, you'll get enough to plant half of Kansas and be very popular with your smoking friends! , and then i can"t smoke because its really strong ! Keep an eye on your. Before starting here's a small note of discretion: Typically tobacco growing hobbyist raise and cure these plants for the pure enjoyment of taking care of this fast growing monster! Give them a dose of general garden fertiliser now and again. It does thrive in rich, well-draining soils, but it'll make do with what it gets. Built a box frame 2'6" sq. Thanks a lot, Yes i have read your article and gave very good things ty but one question is pesticides can i use them on the plant's and will i get sick from it. I just wondered whether the hot water cupboard would be a better spot as opposed to fairly consistent room temp in a living space. I do not recommend that anyone follow this procedure, please use discretion with the project. Also slugs & snails, etc take their share. Little green capsules about 1/4 in long will be left behind. As good a way as any Rhett, nothings written in stone - adapt, innovate, do it on the cheap; that's what it's all about. oops, I must have had a couple to many ales the last time I wrote in. I joined the hub just to thank you.). The process can take up to 8 weeks, and the longer you wait, the better it may taste. chop up the leaves and smoke 'em. A fine mist to dampen the leaves is all you need, they will soften almost immediately and you can then cut out the ribs. When they're about four inches high, and after the last of the frost, plant them out. I did see a fermenter made of ply-wood, and i can tell ya, that one would most definitely off gas formaldehyde and other such chemicals found in the adhesives.Q: So you haven't noticed any sort of ammonia smell coming from the tobacco?A: I really haven't! Answer: Dissolve a little honey in alcohol, (Rum, Vodka, Port through preference.) Question: I've grown plenty of tobacco except I've always just microwaved the leaves or in the oven to dry and smoked the plant still green. I'll certainly digg it and individually suggest to my friends. The Old Firm (author) from Waikato/Bay Of Plenty, New Zealand on June 16, 2016: Hi there gepeTooRs , nice to know that you approve, although I can't take any credit for the loading pace, that's all HubPages doing. 1 & a half tablespoons liqueur or spirit syrup (Bin Inn). After drying my iwn tobacco I put a little bourbon on it in a deep pot and roasted in oven at 50 degrees with a lid on. There is great potential for a wonderfully cured crop at the end of the growing season, however this hobby shouldn't be taken as a way to save on your tobacco spending money as there is a lot of time and labor invested with a lot of potential for crop failure due many factors: both while growing then the potential of mold during the curing process! Thanks for sharing! Be sure the leaves are protected from direct sunlight, which may burn them. Once the tobacco is dry to my liking or touch. Im experiencing some small security troubles with my latest weblog and Id like to locate something more safeguarded. This article has been viewed 141,782 times. If you do have problems, see your local nurseryman or talk to a friend who gardens. A Pocket Sundial From a Broken Pocket Watch! The Old Firm (author) from Waikato/Bay Of Plenty, New Zealand on September 09, 2014: kiwi_john aka the old fart on September 09, 2014: well planting season is upon us; i've got a shitload of seeds (no not from the dunny) so fingers toes and eyes all crossed for a bumper crop.I'VE GOT ALL THE GOOD STUFF : SEED GERMINAING MIX.MINI GREENHOUSE.NO EXPENSE SPARED TO SAVE A $. Around the time that flower heads start to form and the plants are fully grown, the bottom leaves will be ready to pick. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/b\/b2\/Dry-Tobacco-Step-1.jpg\/v4-460px-Dry-Tobacco-Step-1.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/b\/b2\/Dry-Tobacco-Step-1.jpg\/aid10190610-v4-728px-Dry-Tobacco-Step-1.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"