how to cure tobacco

How to Harvest and Cure Organic Tobacco

By an eHow Contributor

Grown without any man-made insecticides, fertilizers, herbicides or fungicides, organic tobacco is a growing niche market for farmers with smaller acreage. Organic tobacco yields nearly twice the price per pound than conventional tobacco. Follow these steps to harvest and cure your organic tobacco.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. 1
   Choose either a priming or stalk-cutting harvesting method. Typically your method depends on your tobacco type and plans for curing.
   
2. 2
   Pick each leaf as it reaches its prime. It usually takes 5 or 6 pickings with 5 to 10 days in between each picking to finish harvesting. After picking leaves, place loosely in bins or hang them on long sticks before curing.
   
3. 3
   Cut the tobacco plant's stalk at its base as an alternate harvesting method. Use the stalk-cutting method for burley and fire-cured types of tobacco. You may split open the stalk to speed drying. This makes it easier to place the plants on wooden laths for curing.
   
4. 4
   Pick between curing methods: air, flue or fire. Your curing method depends on your tobacco type and in some cases your harvesting. You must have a large, airtight barn in which you can control the temperature and humidity to cure tobacco.
   
5. 5
   Cure your tobacco leaves. Simple air curing takes about 4 to 8 weeks. To flue cure, you must use high temperatures early in the curing process, resulting in lightly colored leaves. When fire curing, you must dry your leaves naturally for 3 to 5 days. Use hardwood fires to dry at higher temperatures and give the tobacco a certain odor and taste.

Read more: How to Harvest and Cure Organic Tobacco | eHow.co.uk http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_2065928_harvest-cure-organic-tobacco.html#ixzz11KNbF881

CURING TOBACCO

Put simply, after tobacco is harvested, it is cured, or dried, and then aged to improve its flavour. There are four common methods of curing, and the method used depends on the type of tobacco and its intended use.

Air-cured tobacco is sheltered from wind and sun in a well-ventilated chamber, where it air-dries for six to eight weeks. Air-cured tobacco is low in sugar, which gives the tobacco smoke a light, sweet flavor, and high in nicotine. Cigar and burley tobaccos are air cured.

In fire curing, smoke from a low-burning fire on the barn floor permeates the leaves. This gives the leaves a distinctive smokey aroma and flavour. Fire curing takes three to ten weeks and produces a tobacco low in sugar and high in nicotine. Pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, and snuff are fire cured.

Flue-cured tobacco is kept in an enclosed heated area, but it is not directly exposed to smoke. This method produces cigarette tobacco that is high in sugar and has medium to high levels of nicotine. It is the fastest method of curing, requiring about a week. Virginia tobacco that has been flue cured is also called bright tobacco, because flue curing turns its leaves gold, orange, or yellow.

Sun-cured tobacco dries uncovered in the sun. This method is used in Turkey, Greece and other Mediterranean countries to produce oriental tobacco. Sun-cured tobacco is low in sugar and nicotine and is used in cigarettes.

Once the tobacco is cured, workers tie it into small bundles of about 20 leaves, called hands, or use a machine to make large blocks, called bales. The hands or bales are carefully aged for one to three years to improve flavor and reduce bitterness.

Further technical reading : Harvesting & Curing Flue-cured Tobacco - An excellent pdf document guide to curing cigarette tobacco by the University of Georgia.