u/WinChunKing

For seeds always pick the nicest and biggest plant. If you have other varieties around and want to keep the seed's genetics intake and pure you need to bag them to avoid crossing them with the others. In this case I'm not bagging because I want to have a Bosikappal/Orinoco hybrid to see if I can grow a Bosikappal with more nicotine. There's a couple stag horns there that won't hurt if it adds size to the hybrid.

If you are in a dry climate you'll want the leaves to be 90-95% yellow at least to avoid drying green or chlorophyll blotches stuck in the lamina. If you're in a hot and humid area, like me in Montreal in July and August, you can aim for 60-70% yellow then hang. Once the process of yellowing is started and humidity is high it will complete itself rapidly while hanging. The needle and thread method allows you to slide the leaves closer together or more apart like vertical blinds depending if you want to speed up or slow down the drying process. You want your leaves to complete the yellowing process and dry slowly but not too slowly that it starts to mould. Checking them regularly is key to having a nice cure. As they dry they will start to have their final colour. Different varieties dry different colours. Virginias usually end up a yellow or gold, burleys usually finish with a caramel light or dark brown, dark Virginians like the Stag Horn in the picture will be a dark red/burgundy or dark brown. The leaves change colour gradually as they dry. Once the lamina is dry, the middle stem will usually have moisture left in it, make sure the middle stem is 100% dry and snaps if you bend it before putting your leaves in an airtight environment. I move the leaves from the line to a box for a few weeks to complete the stem drying and do a natural fermentation before it's 100% dry and ready to jar/bag.

Picture #1: Bosikappal blooming in plot #2. Picture #2: Stag Horns growing some major height in plot #2. Picture #3-#4: Front yard grow with Bosikappals blooming.

When you choose to do this method make sure there's no dirt or water on the leaves. Open the towel once a day and restack the leaves changing side and wipe any moisture with a paper towel. Picture #1 is how they should be stacked, I do a maximum of 30-40 leaves per stack. Picture #2 is how you wrap the towel loosely, fold the edges and add a weight on it to press the pile down.

Once the leaves are approximately 80-90% yellow they can be strung up with a needle and thread and hung to dry. The time to turn from green to yellow will vary on the variety of tobacco, how long it has been on the plant and environment(ambient humidity and temperature where you're keeping them).