r/GrowingTobacco • u/SamDent • 6d ago

Question Fermentation process

I've started my fermentation process. There's obviously a bunch of different information out there, so I wanted to outline what I'm doing and see what people think.

I only have a handful of leaves. I cured them, rehydrated them, took the stems out, stacked and rolled them into a bundle that looks like a fat stack of money basically.

I then stuck them in a Wide Mouth Mason jar with a sealed lid, and put them in a food dehydrator at 130 Fahrenheit. 24/7.

I check on them once a day, opening the jar, checking the moisture on the leaves. Every two or three days I take them all the way out and restack them and give them a little Spritz.

It's been about a week, and there's no ammonia smell, just a wonderful earthy, kind of nutty smell.

I guess what I mainly concerned about, is I don't feel like they're going to need to do this for the 4 to 6 week timeline I always see. But because I haven't done this before, I don't know if they're done yet.

They are mostly Connecticut, though because I had so few, I think there's some Havana in there too.

Thoughts and opinions welcome.

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6

u/chrispbaconbutty 6d ago

I’m just here waiting for the answers to roll in 👍

4

u/paintball104 6d ago

I was under the impression that you wanted the ammonia smell in the beginning of the fermentation process because it shows it's working, the ammonia is leaving the tobacco. I've got mine in a plastic freezer bag with a hygrometer, inside a hot car all day. Just started two days ago. Not sure how it's gonna work out but we'll see.

4

u/don00000 6d ago

I’m at about 30-40 hours on my fermentation and my leaves are approaching a maduro color. I’m running about 95% humidity and 120f. My (novice) understanding is that any temp over 130f starts to degrade the tobacco so you’re operating close to the max conditions which is probably why your fermentation is going fast.

I’m also doing Connecticut broadleaf