How to dry tobacco at home. When 80-90% of the leaf turns yellow, we transfer it to the drying place (if it was languishing with you, somewhere else). If the leaf is languishing on a cord, pull and tie the cord and move the sheets apart a finger’s width. If in boxes or simply in piles, then first you need to string it on a cord, and then hang it up as tightly as possible by pulling our bundle. I string the leaf with a clamping needle by the leaf petiole. It is advisable to dry the sheet at a height of no more than one meter above the ground.
In this article, we will learn how to dry tobacco leaf at home and how to use dry green tobacco leaves.
How long should a tobacco leaf dry
The longer the leaf dries, the higher the quality of the raw material is, the process of initial fermentation is underway. This is night hydration and a gradual daytime drying. When the bundle of tobacco has dried, you can hang it higher, and hang fresh tobacco on this place. It is necessary to dry for at least a month. I take the tobacco off the dryer when the autumn rains come. By that time, the sheet becomes moist and elastic.
How to dry tobacco
If the summer is rainy and not very hot during the harvesting of the leaf, then it is better to hang the tobacco higher for drying, and to dry it already in the attic (from mid-September to early October), you can leave it in the attic until next year. If the leaf is completely dry, frost is not terrible for him, and it is considered completely dry when the central vein breaks with a crunch, and does not bend. If something did not have time to dry before the start of frost, then it is better to dry it at home, if possible.
Storing the tobacco leaf after drying
So, our leaf has dried up, it is humid outside and it has already managed to get out, i.e. pick up moisture. Then I do this. I take off the harbor with tobacco (this is the name of a tobacco leaf on a cord) and pull out the cord. Then I sort each leaf, from green to the side, straighten it of high quality and put it in stacks of 10-15 cm in thickness under a load of 5-10 kg. for 20-30 minutes. Then I put these piles in a box one on top of the other.
I collect all the varieties in one pile, and if you plan to divide the variety, then sign all the gavanoks according to the varieties and do not be confused when languishing. After our raw materials are harvested, I take them home to a warm and dry place. It is advisable to let him lie down for 3-4 months (rest) before starting any manipulations with tobacco. But it was not there, I remember myself in the first year))) And now we have a vast field for experiments, but more on that in the next article on tobacco fermentation.
What to do if the tobacco leaf has dried green
Many beginners are wondering what to do with dry green tobacco leaves?
Here it is necessary to consider: the option why the leaf remained green? He was either improperly tired, or quickly dried. But in most cases, novice tobacco growers break an unripe tobacco leaf. Such tobacco turns out to be of a low grade, but you should not rush to throw it away. Greens can be easily removed by tobacco fermentation, but the taste and aroma will be lame. I tried to smoke such tobacco, not ice, of course, but when there is nothing to smoke it is not even bad.
My leaf turned out to be immature due to close frosts and it was decided to break it.
What dries up and will have a normal look and color will go to a separate pile, and what remains with the greens will go to another.
You just need to smoke the leaves with herbs last, they need to be fermented and removed until you run out of normal tobacco. By this time he will become quite tolerant of smoking. You can mix it with normal tobacco at 10-15%.
In any case, it will be a pity for you to throw it away, this is your work and your first experience.
On the forums, experienced people write that such a sheet is only suitable for compost and nowhere else. But the fact that they are experienced is that they practically minimized all their mistakes and gained enough experience not to make mistakes.
What should beginners do? They have little or no experience. So try and experiment.
If you are just starting to grow tobacco, choose mid-early-maturing or early-maturing tobacco varieties. Choose varieties of tobacco in which it is easy to determine the ripeness of the leaf, for example:
Virginia light-leaved, Barley Kentucky, Ternopil 14 , Galician original, Americans.
Over time, you will gain experience and all these mistakes will fade into the background.
I personally don’t throw out green tobacco, I ferment it with red house wine, then let it lie down for a year or so and occasionally smoke it and nothing, I don’t complain. Of course, I am not a gourmet in this business, but I have no desire to spread my labor.
Now you know roughly what to do with dry green tobacco leaves.
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