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How to Harvest Tobacco
How to Harvest Tobacco. Harvesting tobacco is a complicated and exact science. Your schedule for harvesting tobacco leaves depends on various factors, including the variety and type of the tobacco, the age of the leaf, the contents of the water at harvest and the position of the leaf on the stem.
Harvesting tobacco is a complicated and exact science. Your schedule for harvesting tobacco leaves depends on various factors, including the variety and type of the tobacco, the age of the leaf, the contents of the water at harvest and the position of the leaf on the stem.
Begin the harvest about 60 days after transplanting. Harvest tobacco leaves from the bottom up. Each leaf has a different chemical content based on its position on the stem, and the leaves ripen at the bottom first.
Use a tobacco harvester designed with small seats on it for the workers. The seats can be adjusted to an appropriate height so the workers can pick the leaves from the bottom up.
Harvest tobacco leaves in the morning after the dew dries. This prevents the leaves from arriving wet to the curing barn. You can also pick in the afternoon when the sun isn't as strong.
Pierce tobacco stalks for stringing on tobacco sticks. Use a tobacco spear on the end of a tobacco stick and thread the stalks onto the stick.
Gather the sticks and remove them to the tobacco barn.
Air cure the tobacco in the barn for about 8 weeks. This allows all the moisture to be released from the tobacco leaf. It will change color during this period.
Tips & Warnings
The purpose of curing tobacco is to remove any unpleasant smell that the tobacco may have.
Homegrown tobacco may be cured in smaller, homemade versions of tobacco barns.
Smoking and being exposed to second hand smoke has been directly linked to lung cancer and other forms of cancer.
