CT Broad Leaf
First the whole plant is cut down and laid out to wilt. Wilting makes the plant easier to handle without breaking the leaves.
Next, after the plants have wilted, they are picked up and handed to the spearer. Plants are speared onto a lath. 4ft lath holds 6 plants.
In this pic, you can see the steel spear that slips over the end of the lath.
The lath is carried over to the tobacco riggin (trailer) and loaded to be taken to the shed. That's me on the back of the riggin...loading.
Once in the shed, lath are then unloaded and hoisted up to the hanger with a 6foot pole. The pole has 2 fingers on the end (like a fork) to grab the lath between the plants. Me again...Poling.
Believe me…that stuff gets pretty heavy. The lath are hung between 6 and 8 inches apart (depending on the tier- level) on 3x5 poles. This is the third tier. There’s four tiers on our sheds.
This shed is now full.
Inside
The plants will hang here til October then taken down. The leaves will be stripped off (by hand) and bundled. A broker should come around to make an offer after stripping is completed. Tobacco is bought by the pound in the bundle.
First the whole plant is cut down and laid out to wilt. Wilting makes the plant easier to handle without breaking the leaves.
Next, after the plants have wilted, they are picked up and handed to the spearer. Plants are speared onto a lath. 4ft lath holds 6 plants.
In this pic, you can see the steel spear that slips over the end of the lath.
The lath is carried over to the tobacco riggin (trailer) and loaded to be taken to the shed. That's me on the back of the riggin...loading.
Once in the shed, lath are then unloaded and hoisted up to the hanger with a 6foot pole. The pole has 2 fingers on the end (like a fork) to grab the lath between the plants. Me again...Poling.
Believe me…that stuff gets pretty heavy. The lath are hung between 6 and 8 inches apart (depending on the tier- level) on 3x5 poles. This is the third tier. There’s four tiers on our sheds.
This shed is now full.
Inside
The plants will hang here til October then taken down. The leaves will be stripped off (by hand) and bundled. A broker should come around to make an offer after stripping is completed. Tobacco is bought by the pound in the bundle.
