Terroir, Tobacco Species, and Curing Methods

[madox07]

yaddy306 The whole Arturo Fuente thing is a story I have picked up from Bobalu Cigar Co. owner, in Austin TX. I never actually gave it a thought of researching the volcanic soil claim. Britanica Encyclopedia claims that the most fertile soil in Cuba is red limestone. The geological society of America states:

Arc activity in the Cuban segment of the Greater Antilles produced sedimentary, volcanic, and plutonic rocks during

Cretaceous times (ca. 135–70 Ma). A new arc developed in eastern Cuba during Paleocene–middle Eocene times. Cuban arc

sequences include island-arc tholeiitic, calcalkaline, and alkaline bimodal suites of volcanic and plutonic rocks

In fact I remember a documentary that stated that the whole island of Cuba was formed from an underwater volcano, no longer active ... I am no expert myself, neither do I farm - so I lack the experience all together. In theory though, it makes perfect sense to me that the soil on which a plant grows will influence its growth and the quality of its yield, be that fruit, leaf, or whatever.

 

[oldtoby]

Chilllucky-
Please post your findings after the Tobacco Heritage show. Inquiring minds, and all..... :wink:

 

[davek]

I will defer to Cosmic and Jitterbug, in particular Jitterbugdude, but I will give my, less experienced, thoughts.
Growing tobacco is easy, it is the processing which can be more challenging. Freshly color cured (hung, and allowed to dry slowly) tobacco has a rank taste. What mellows it is kilning or aging. Kilning entails keeping it about 120F to 130F with 70% humidity for 4- 6 weeks. Realistically on the humidity you just keep it in case, moist enough to be pliable but not too wet.
This sounds pretty involved, so I would recommend a new grower just age the tobacco. That's where I'm at. If you just keep it in case, it will do essentially the same thing on it's own in a year or three. So just look at it as a long term project with your rewards down the road and it's pretty easy.
I had a very small grow last year with 5 plants, Kelley Burley and Havana. It's been sitting in boxes in the garage since. I just tried some and it's smokeable, but barely. It was definitely rank at first. Now it has a little of the rank taste. I think that in another year it will be good.
I think that, although many factors influence taste, variety is the biggest factor. Jitterbugdude kindly sent me some of his blends some time ago and I was blown away. He is a pipe smoker and makes blends with *no casing and no humectants* which taste like pipe tobacco. He knows his poop. I myself just like a good burley and bright or cigar tobacco in a pipe, so my plebeian tastes could not do them justice. I was impressed though. Jitterbug dude has grown a lot of varieties and knows them.
My humble advice would be to try to determine what variety(s) you might enjoy somehow. What do you smoke now? Then just get something in the ground. Then once that's hanging and aging you can play with kilning if you like, sample it as it ages, and learn.
This year I have 20 or so plants. I went with mostly Yelow Twist Bud as I've read it's mellow and supposedly ages quite quickly. I smoked a "sand lug" yesterday, a lower leaf which has yellowed and dried on the ground, and it was not bad actually.

 

[chilllucky]

OldToby- I absolutely will! I may even try to start a new thread with pics. We'll see what kind of stories I can get.
Davek- I will listen to Jitterbugdude, Cosmic, you, and anyone else who has info and experience to share. Stories like yours from novices will help me set realistic goals and expectations. Stories like theirs will help guide my ambitions for more success later on.
We have had a couple of very productive vegetable and herb gardens on the property, as well as taking care of some already standing fruit and nut plants. I am less worried about the growing part of this adventure than the curing.
Like you suggest, it seems to be the more mysterious and involved part of the process. I'm glad to hear from you that there are varieties that require less intervention to cure to smokability. Although, making a little kiln or flue or smoker to use out in the shop parking lot is something I'm looking forward to screwing around with.
-Lucky

 

[crashthegrey]

Cosmic, maybe I read too deep. Thanks for keeping it real, but also explaining that it is not too bad in smaller quantities. I'll message you sometime. I have tons of room for garden plot size plantings, maybe I've been crazy not to do a small plot. I work full time nearly an hour from my house and run a small farm, but my wife tends to the farm. I just butcher on the weekends for the most part. Could I pull off most of the work on the weekends for a small plot?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

@Crash, Absolutely!

 

[crashthegrey]

Great, I'll track you down on any one of the many forum and network connections for a longer chat sometime. I didn't intend to high jack this thread.

 

[ericthered]

Chilllucky, I also would be very interested in following your growing/curing journey. Earlier this year I moved to a property with 10 acres, so I've been researching what it takes to grow tobacco as well. LOTS of info at the site listed above, FairTradeTobacco forum.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I agree, please post your progress. I do peruse the grower forums quite a bit as a lurker, but I would like to see more for pipesmokers exclusively. We can better learn from each other, IMO. I need to update my Cosmic Crop threads. I am putting the roof on my curing barn today, if weather permits. It was 103F yesterday, with the hunidity in the 90% range with occasional storms to add to the sweaty misery.

Things I am still experimenting with and wanting to learn more about are the differences temperature and humidity make on Virginia curing and color. And, preventing mold. I am trying to keep the leaf dry as I can, about 65%, but sometimes it’s impossible to control when aging, at least for me. I may need to set up a humidor in the house to store large quantities.

 

[chilllucky]

I absolutely will keep you all up to date. I'm just starting to dig through the growers forums and a few other resources mentioned here and in other threads about varieties and curing methods.
Crash - No worries, mate! We're still on the topic of growing your own, and I haven't used an internet forum yet where the conversation didn't meander some. Because, you know, it's a conversation.
To bring it back around to my initial inquiry, though: Although some varieties of tobacco are adapted to certain climates and soils, it seems that with a green enough thumb one could grow any one of them any place. Soil chemistry will be just one of many influences on your final product so there isn't a master list of climates/soils to varieties. There are traditions that put some varieties with specific curing methods, but it's not the only way to do it.
Does that about sum up where we are?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Chilllucky, that’s about it. Cyprian to Syrian to what I have read are different varieties altogether, not just a location thing. Books could be written on differences in perique. And, as for cigars, there is a particular standard or group that tries to get that one specific small margin of flavor that it is difficult to pin point exactly what is being done differently from cigar to cigar. Pipe tobacco isn’t quite like that. Unless you are trying to imitate one specific blend, down to the exact flavor, it’s not a big deal. Why try to make Balkan Sobranie, when you can have an excellent but unique Virginia or Burley. Just look at how all Virginias prepared by different companies worldwide have such vast differences in flavor. Maybe just focus on making something YOU enjoy. Besides, it’s illegal to sell or trade it anyways. So, it’s you that has to be pleased with the results anyways. Sure, share with a few friends. But, you will probably find that it doesn’t matter what everyone else thinks, in comparison to pleasing your own taste buds. That’s what makes the effort worth it in the long run.

 

[chilllucky]

 

[chilllucky]

I'll post a couple of pics later, but here's a quick summary of the Edgerton, WI Tobbacco Heritage Days I attended over the weekend. I'll put it here, because the only folks looking for the info are already in the thread, and it also turns out to be not so on-topic for a pipes forum.
Apparently, Edgerton was once the center of the American chewing tobacco industry. The downtown area had 7 enormous curing warehouses with (originally coal-fired) boilers to bring the temperature up on the hung stalks after harvest. As that form of tobacco consumption declined in popularity, fewer and fewer acres in the area were being sown with "Wisconsin tobacco", which I am told is a Burley variant bred for the local climate/soils and it's end use as chew. In the last 5-10 years, the local buyers and processors have encouraged the remaining tobacco farmers to grow a Maryland variety for use in (mostly gas station) cigars.
The tobacco judging at this year's festival was handled by three men, two from 4H and one from the buying company. 24 whole plants were picked that morning from various fields and brought to the contest. They were evaluated on leaf thickness, breadth, and length (A few hadn't been topped, they didn't win) and given ribbons and cash prizes.
Afterwords, the farmers and their families went to enjoy the fair. I got to talk to one of the 4H judges for just a couple of minutes, which is where I got most of this information.
Sorry for the blank post above. I tried to post a picture. It didn't work.

 

[chilllucky]

I'll just make this my "grow you own" thread so as not to clutter up the boards too badly.
Most recent thing to report in my on-going quest: Books! I am now a proud owner of "How to grow your own tobacco; from seed to smoke" by Ray French and "Making tobacco Bright; Creating an American commodity 1617-1937" by Barbara Hahan. Both bought from Ebay.
If any of you all have read these, or have any others to recommend, I would love to hear about it!
I also saw a couple of older college and USDA textbooks and pamphlets on tobacco growing and curing that might be able to shed some light on my original question about selecting a species or hybrid suited to my soil and region. But that kind of writing is so dry that it's hard for me to read, even with the meditative aid of a pipe in hand.

 

[chilllucky]

I finally manufactured the three minutes it took to learn how to post pictures. Here's one of the tobacco plant judging at this summer's Tobacco Heritage Days in Edgerton, WI.

 

[jpmcwjr]

You got the thumbnail.... Just select the full sized image from your album and get the URL from that, then slap it into the IMG tag.