Malawi Style Cob Curing.

[Digger102]

Thats beautiful Funky Horse!!

 

[funkyhorse]

This is the second banana cob posted here:

Very interesting article Tangwena, I decided to make an experiment after reading it
It is impossible to find food vaccuum bags, but banana bark is no problem at all, fresh from the garden and gliphosate free, this year there are a few babies, the plant is happy here

So I made a banana cob with the TRSC repro of Malawi Gold and I put it in the greenhouse where it will have temperatures ranging from 20-40C for the summer and will receive some morning dew as well. It will stay until after Carnival.

Tomorrow I am trying a cob in the yoghurt maker with the nylon bag of my Arizer Q Extreme which should be of same quality as the Volcano one. Thank you Nivek for the tip, I like this nylon, is much easier to work with than the milk bag which is the only food grade bag available here

This is different than the previous thin cob, it clearly fermented and smells are fermented. I am very happy with the results. Weight now is 20 grams and I took 1 gram to test it. It has the same high as the flowers and smokes super smooth. But I think it needs time to cure now. I took it out of the banana bark and I sealed it with nylon film and scotch tape for longer cure in the flower room at 22-24C and they are wrapped in a couple of sweaters to bring the temperature closer to 25-26C. I will check it out in 3 months. I hope by then the fermentation smells are gone

 

[funkyhorse]

These are the banana bark cobs coming, my window time for natural fermenting is over, I will try to ferment with the banana bark on the yoghourt maker to see what comes up:
(Purple Haze x Malawi) reg from Ace Seeds crossed with a sativa leaning Pakistan Landrace male from DCC. This is from my first year growing. I expected the mother to be dominant but the paki male took over this cross. It came out an indica plant ready in 13 weeks with an indica high. I dont expect much from the cob and I will never grow this again but it is so cool to compare with the stuff you have now and the stuff you started with

Lemon Thai. This bud shown here is pure alchemy. I am growing the seed which is a cross with a THH male from Xiskito repro colombian leaning I am growing in veg at the moment. And after I took the seed out, the rest of the bud to the cob it went. I will open it up in 8 more days, it is fermenting since 15th January, I am curious about this one, only 18 grams, it wasnt very productive. I just kept 2 grams of buds to compare with the cob. I hope it fermented well

Also coming is this last cob made with the lower buds I picked from THH21 from MadMac

And this one I posted at another thread, I have no hopes for this to be decent but I am ready to get surprised:

First I would like to point out that I decided to post only on not commercially available strains
There are a lot of interests in the canna world that are being touched when you post truth, and I am not into affecting commercial interests for good or bad with my posts. It doesnt matter if I like the people behind these businesses or not, facts and truth affects commercial business, I hope you understand, I certainly disagree with all the semantic manipulation bullshit going on and the lack of respect it implies and the way it misleads purposedly to customers.
For instance, Ukhrul is part of Manipur bordering with Nagaland but it is certainly not Imphal Valley. When you sell a strain called Manipuri which is from Imphal Valley and the freebies you give under Manipuri name are from Ukhrul, this is a prime example of semantic manipulation bullshit I find when I grow these Manipuri freebies together with Ukhrul. Beautiful plants but this semantic bullshit makes provider not reliable, it makes me waste space and time

Now with the questions asked:
Those faggot Congo ladyboys went hermie outdoors, not indoors. Girls were kept indoors because I suspected if I take them out, same thing would happen. I am seeing from this seedbank plenty of hermies in at least half the strains. It seems when these seedbanks preserve and open pollinate the only thing they are preserving are LGBT genetics
TDS, you can see the progress of the plants at this thread:


All plants are chopped. Congo 1 and Congo 2 are Congo rope. When you see and try stuff like this the first answer arriving to your mind is that those Gatersleben doctors are biopirates but not ganja smokers. And then you ask yourself why this shit is being copied and repirated in Spain. I can understand Angus selling whatever bullshit people want to buy

Out of the 5 plants I grew, Congo 3 holds little hope for some quality, she is the only resinous girl. All of the girls have same green smell, cant describe it, but is kind of herbal. Not coffee nor leather in any of my samples
This is Congo 3, it was chopped at 124 days, same like Congo 2 which was ready at the same time than Congo 1 but I used the plant for supporting others until I took the indoor plants outdoors. Congo 1 was chopped at 110 days

Congo 3 banana bark fermentation

I made 2 cobs out of Congo 3, yesterday made another one with 82 grams of only buds, no sticks nor seeds in this brick. Very productive strain, I hope the fermentation brings some high to it, I have some buds left in the jar to compare how they smoke

Have a nice weekend everybody

 

[Tangwena]

This is the second banana cob posted here:


This is different than the previous thin cob, it clearly fermented and smells are fermented. I am very happy with the results. Weight now is 20 grams and I took 1 gram to test it. It has the same high as the flowers and smokes super smooth. But I think it needs time to cure now. I took it out of the banana bark and I sealed it with nylon film and scotch tape for longer cure in the flower room at 22-24C and they are wrapped in a couple of sweaters to bring the temperature closer to 25-26C. I will check it out in 3 months. I hope by then the fermentation smells are gone

Excellent work I love the colours man. Those should cure beautifully I can just imagine how they will look in a few months time.
That golden look at this stage is a real winner in my opinion they should cure very well from here.
Thanks for posting such informative posts and the pictures just cap it off so well.

 

[Guest]

golden cobs!!!!! everywhere i look. nicely done... its pretty to see a seed here and there upon slicing....

 

[funkyhorse]

Tangwena, I took today 2 cobs out and I am finding new stuff
The first 2 cobs I only wrapped in the banana bark and tied tightly. When I took them at 54 days both were dry enough to smoke them. The golden one clearly fermented and it was a little humid but not too much. I didnt dry it and put it back on vacuum for slow cure

Cobs I took today had the banana bark wrapped in masking tape to ensure vacuum. When I open them they were fermented big time and wet as if they would have come out of the yoghurt maker. I am lucky today humidity is low at 62-65% so I am giving a full day dry and if they need more, I will give them. I will wrap them again for slow curing only after they are dry enough to be able to smoke them
This is the (Purple Haze x Malawi) x Pakistan Landrace cob view from both sides

And this is the Lemon Thai cob

Here you can see side by side Lemon Thai on the left and PHM x Pak on the right for comparison. I will weigh them when they dry. I didnt expect this method would make it so wet like youghurt maker and I am wondering if 54 days fermenting naturally with the masking tape or scotch tape wrapping is too long of a time and maybe 30 days or less is enough? When wrapping the banana bark and making vacuum, the whole process changes and with the extra wrapping it is the mother of fermentations

And this is current modern paraguayan sativa brick. Once was stellar today is very sad. Rotten buds, sticks and plenty of seeds go into this stuff and smells are ammonia. But it gave inspiration for fermenting with cheap locally available materials

 

[Tangwena]

Tangwena, I took today 2 cobs out and I am finding new stuff
The first 2 cobs I only wrapped in the banana bark and tied tightly. When I took them at 54 days both were dry enough to smoke them. The golden one clearly fermented and it was a little humid but not too much. I didnt dry it and put it back on vacuum for slow cure

Cobs I took today had the banana bark wrapped in masking tape to ensure vacuum. When I open them they were fermented big time and wet as if they would have come out of the yoghurt maker. I am lucky today humidity is low at 62-65% so I am giving a full day dry and if they need more, I will give them. I will wrap them again for slow curing only after they are dry enough to be able to smoke them
This is the (Purple Haze x Malawi) x Pakistan Landrace cob view from both sides

And this is the Lemon Thai cob


Here you can see side by side Lemon Thai on the left and PHM x Pak on the right for comparison. I will weigh them when they dry. I didnt expect this method would make it so wet like youghurt maker and I am wondering if 54 days fermenting naturally with the masking tape or scotch tape wrapping is too long of a time and maybe 30 days or less is enough? When wrapping the banana bark and making vacuum, the whole process changes and with the extra wrapping it is the mother of fermentations

And this is current modern paraguayan sativa brick. Once was stellar today is very sad. Rotten buds, sticks and plenty of seeds go into this stuff and smells are ammonia. But it gave inspiration for fermenting with cheap locally available materials

Man you are doing a great job. I agree with everything you are saying especially regarding the changes in time spent fermenting. You are doing great work and coming to all the correct conclusions regarding time and effect.
Those two cobs side by side look amazing. By fine tuning your technique I predict you will find mind blowing terpy cobs with highs that will amaze you my friend you have the Midas touch for sure.

The bricks with the Ammonia smell come from over fermenting while being too moist in the bricks. Someone does not take care of the product once bricked.
I wish I could sniff and try your cobs brother they take me back to some of the amazing cures I used to score in Africa, its very exciting seeing your work my friend I cant thank you enough for sharing it with me and other cob fanatics on line, bless you my friend.
Its this brotherhood we feel in the cob club that is special my friend, selfless sharing is so rare in this world of patents and greedy money grabbing companies, greed and secrets stifle creativity.
True artists like yourself flourish in a free environment. Your observations are both intelligent and priceless.

 

[Guest]

That yellow/ gold color has gotten so crazy..... thank you for posting also for posting that bricked herb.

 

[Raziel819]

Hey Tangwena well I'm up to pg 279 and had to say something... "I hope that I can achieve or surpass the out of body experience I had the first time I did edibles back in the 70's."

I have performed my first cob and loose leaf/bud vacuum cure.

I rediscovered your thread after cruising thru "SweetSue's" thread on another site talking about "low and slow" drying and curing bud. I had two stains (SuperSkunk and Zkittlez) in the fridge that was ready for the cure. Soooo, I decided to use a little and lose my..... lol

I decided to use your cob and lose leaf styles. But, I didn't have a yogurt maker nor a heat mat, but the mother of invention led me down this road....I had been reading about water decarb'ing and I decided to try this to get the fermentation process going, (90 min vacuum water bath at 212 degrees),


The 2 cob cures were prepared as followed:

1. straight SS (on the top w/tweewers) and the other a mix of SS/Zk since I didn't have enough Zk to make a decent cob.
2. fermentation started with water bath then placed on space heater for 12 hours.
3. smell: slightly sweet
4. left out to dry, rewrapped and vacuum sealed, and setting aside for cure.

The loose leaf style: I wanted to have something I could smoke on, the cobs are for chewing.

1. Fermentation: Sitting on space heater, temp 90F
2. Time: ~20 hours

 

[Tangwena]

Hey Tangwena well I'm up to pg 279 and had to say something... "I hope that I can achieve or surpass the out of body experience I had the first time I did edibles back in the 70's."

I have performed my first cob and loose leaf/bud vacuum cure.

I rediscovered your thread after cruising thru "SweetSue's" thread on another site talking about "low and slow" drying and curing bud. I had two stains (SuperSkunk and Zkittlez) in the fridge that was ready for the cure. Soooo, I decided to use a little and lose my..... lol

I decided to use your cob and lose leaf styles. But, I didn't have a yogurt maker nor a heat mat, but the mother of invention led me down this road....I had been reading about water decarb'ing and I decided to try this to get the fermentation process going, (90 min vacuum water bath at 212 degrees),


The 2 cob cures were prepared as followed:

1. straight SS (on the top w/tweewers) and the other a mix of SS/Zk since I didn't have enough Zk to make a decent cob.
2. fermentation started with water bath then placed on space heater for 12 hours.
3. smell: slightly sweet
4. left out to dry, rewrapped and vacuum sealed, and setting aside for cure.

The loose leaf style: I wanted to have something I could smoke on, the cobs are for chewing.

1. Fermentation: Sitting on space heater, temp 90F
2. Time: ~20 hours

Well thats a new twist for sure it def looks like it fermented alright you got a sweat going for sure.
You do realize cobs are made for smoking too dont you, it will be awesome to get your impression of the loose buds versus the cobbed buds smoked once aged.
Whats really cool is all you guys posting your take on this style of curing, true artists and explorers in every sense of the word.
Please keep us informed at every step of the way the more pics (bigger) the better as well I just cant get enough pics of cobs brother ha ha.

Flying so high at the moment pure bliss on some Purple Honduras x Panama from my first grow of this strain a year ago phew!
I'm one hour in and just taking off for Mars ha ha love this stuff.
One BIG hint is give up smoking it will never get you anywhere or at least it stopped me getting anywhere after I was 18.
Cleanse your system get rid of your smoking tolerance, no doubt built up over many years I'm sure.
The highs you can get from chewing quality sativas well cured and well aged are so unique and beautiful its like a new drug. The one you have always been looking for just didn't know it.
Its not like smoking high its waaaay beyond smoking ever was ha ha and likely to get IMO.
I am going to try and upload some pics wish me luck ha ha

 

[Tangwena]

Honduras x Panama and Purple Honduras x Panama cobs
Well so far so good I am drying these three cobs from my last batch sweet hashish and fermented fruit.
Check out the crystals (bloom) on a couple of them as they age this builds up sometimes coating them aged they are the trippiest chewed its like salts or something from the cure.
In the 3 cob pics I have one from each of the 3 phenos pictured.

The top cob is from the plant with big calyx and best smell wise.
The Middle is from the lemon smelling big donkey dick pheno
The last is from the Purple Honduras x Panama fem seed. Check out the crystals on the surface already at only two months since it was harvested.
I have tried the middle one its too early to be full power but its a MDMA trip chewed already. I felt very very energized and in love with everything and everyone for a full day just bliss.
These were taken at 12 weeks actual flowering. They looked to go another 2 I would hate to think how strong the high could get in those extra 2 weeks ha ha.

 

[Raziel819]

This is my first grow in a few years so I'm really hopeful that this cob cure delights. When I first started growing "indoor" back in 2012, I started with sativa dom plants. Little did I know, at the time, that growing indoors took more than providing light, water and warmth. And those plants didn't have a chance of growing indoors to maturity. But I feel in my spirit that I can handle those sativa dom plants today. This is the seed stock I had back then that still waits to be popped today... What say you???

(Fem.) Barney's Farm Acapulco Gold, Green House: Arjan's haze #1, World of Seeds: Colombian, Delicious: Critical Super Silver Haze, Royal Queen Power Flower.
(Reg.) Seedman: Kerala x Skunk #1 and Mr. Nice: Skunk Haze

Thanks for your help and suggestions in advance.
much respect
stay frosty

 

[Tangwena]

This is my first grow in a few years so I'm really hopeful that this cob cure delights. When I first started growing "indoor" back in 2012, I started with sativa dom plants. Little did I know, at the time, that growing indoors took more than providing light, water and warmth. And those plants didn't have a chance of growing indoors to maturity. But I feel in my spirit that I can handle those sativa dom plants today. This is the seed stock I had back then that still waits to be popped today... What say you???

(Fem.) Barney's Farm Acapulco Gold, Green House: Arjan's haze #1, World of Seeds: Colombian, Delicious: Critical Super Silver Haze, Royal Queen Power Flower.
(Reg.) Seedman: Kerala x Skunk #1 and Mr. Nice: Skunk Haze

Thanks for your help and suggestions in advance.
much respect
stay frosty

Wow! I would grow all or any of them nice selection of sativa heavy strains. Its not as easy as it seems, people like Funkyhorse make it look that way buts he is gifted believe me ha ha.
When you come to curing it you could do a lot worse than post here and get advice from the group who hang around this forum.
Any advice you got would be golden I'm sure.
i'm still trying to get over your list ha ha

 

[MedBelgUsr]

I'm wondering : as planned, I just checked the status of my first cobs after one week of curing/aging ( so the stage when the cobs are kept at room temperature in the dark for months, and simply opened once every week at the start to check .... ).

When I opened them, I noticed right away that there was zero humidity and, as expected some nice crystals already appear on the outside.
And due to those crystals, the cobs are starting to be slightly sticky. Of course, the smell is also not suspicious.

So obviously the check was not needed as all is going well and the outside shell was still/already dry ...
... do you think I should still check the cobs for another 2 weeks ? considering that I dont really see how they could get wet again on their outside, wouldnt it better to leave them undisturbed already for the planned duration ?

Cheers
MBU

 

[Tangwena]

I'm wondering : as planned, I just checked the status of my first cobs after one week of curing/aging ( so the stage when the cobs are kept at room temperature in the dark for months, and simply opened once every week at the start to check .... ).

When I opened them, I noticed right away that there was zero humidity and, as expected some nice crystals already appear on the outside.
And due to those crystals, the cobs are starting to be slightly sticky. Of course, the smell is also not suspicious.

So obviously the check was not needed as all is going well and the outside shell was still/already dry ...
... do you think I should still check the cobs for another 2 weeks ? considering that I dont really see how they could get wet again on their outside, wouldnt it better to leave them undisturbed already for the planned duration ?

Cheers
MBU

Despite not being moist plenty will still be going on its good to keep checking so that if things start to go south ie smell starts changing for the worse you can nip it in the bud before it changes too much.
They sound to be progressing well the sticky crystals (bloom) are a very good sign all is well.
Everyone has their own prefered smell, taste, looks ect.
Learn how they all progress and the changes that occur it will help you guide the cure to the best conclusion for your own taste.
This is the best part for me I'm very particular about the aroma and taste as they all effect the high at the different stages. Dont relax until its aging then you can seal it up and forget about it for long periods at a time as it will age slowly.

 

[MedBelgUsr]

Without kidding : if I have to use the aroma to evaluate the readyness of a product, I am f*cked ....

Be it flowers, hash, extract, whatever you can imagine related to cannabis smell, I have always considered describing the smell as to be too abstract for my cartesian brain.

When I read description like : "rotten meat and earthy scent mixed with tones of fires and ash" ... yeah, yeah people .... you've lost me there

 

[funkyhorse]

Hi Tangwena
I am sure you can find banana bark in WA, please try it, the material is the trick. That article you posted blew my mind. It was very enlighting, the material is incredible, much better than teflon. It makes a better job than corn I think
And to wrap the banana bark cob with scotch tape is a serendipity, I never expected such results. I mean this natural fermenting method is foolproof, it doesnt seem to fail

I made a cob on february 17th with 30 grs of these buds of Tom Hill Haze 3/1 Xiskito repro, this is the oldest of the rest of cobs coming

This is 30 grs material on 17/2 going into the cob

Today after 22 days fermenting at temperatures ranging between 15C-38C I opened it up. If it wasnt fermented I would wrap it up again and back to nature. To my surprise the banana bark was wet. The cobs I didnt wrap with Scotch or masking tape had the banana bark dried. I am thinking these 22 days out is equivalent to 6-8 hours in the yoghourt maker. I think this cob will not lose too many terpenes, but it has fermenting smells. It is not too wet but I am drying for as long as needed in my very high humidity environment until I get a window of enough hours with humidity at less than 65% and then I send it for long cure. In comparison the Lemon Thai is really very wet, I believe it is overfermented, something like 48-72 hours of yoghourt maker, this one will need a long time to get dry. I hope you can see on the first picture that the banana bark is wet after opening it from the scotch tape wrapping

So here we have Tom Hill Haze cob on the left, Lemon Thai cob on the center and PHM x Pak on the right. Pictures are from both sides. Lemon Thai and PHM cob are changing colours while drying

Pd: guys, instructions are very clear. Your cob should have the thickness of a big man penis. A penis with prepuce, puce and postpuce. And if you dont have enough material to make it, then dont make long finger thin cobs, change shape. It might be possible that you have never seen a big man penis, but I am absolutely sure that you people have seen big turds more than once. So make a big turd shape cobs. Or make round cobs, it will ferment and cure better. Fermentation smells are very clear. You dont have to have a gourmet nose for this. It is fermented or not, there are no third options. If it ferments it has a very typical unmistakable smell, I am a newbie and I am getting lucky, but I am trying to help luck by following instructions carefully

 

[MedBelgUsr]

Well Tangwena also makes long and thin ones ... and it's up to people's preference : those cobs might cure differently.

There's room for everybody's cobs

You see the picture : yes, it's long and thin, but it's also packing 50 grams of flowers. Your cobs might be bigger, but you could squeeze them much tighter too ...

​

 

[funkyhorse]

Hi there
My cobs are smaller than yours. The biggest one so far I picked is the one from today at 30 grs of buds, I didnt weigh now, I will do after drying. If it is thick, it ferments better. The Lemon Thai cob is 18 grs of loose buds. The PHM x Pak was just 16 grs of buds. Try making a ball or a square. Look at the paraguayan brick posted above. It is thick as a brick
Maybe a big turd isnt nice but it is effective way of describing it simply. My cobs have the shape of a Kibbeh. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibbeh

 

[MedBelgUsr]

Well ... you are right that cobs with an oval shape are keeping their moisture in their inner core for longer.

However, even with different shapes, the flowers located on the peripheral layer of any cobs are as good as those located in the inside ... which means that no matter the shape, the quality and fermentation happened mainly when the flowers were still wrapped .

As my aging and curing is done in a very tight oxygen free vacuum, the process will happen mainly all over the cobs' volume, no matter its shape : the proof being that for a well fermented cob, the external layer also becomes coated with crystals.
And yes, it will ferment longer in its core simply due to geometrical distance.

But as you seem to be a purist, dont you think that for curing/fermenting the most evenly it would be even better if the cob was shaped as a ball, no ?

And to tell you the whole story, I'm waiting for the end of covid to go in a shop to create a "cob shape creator" that would be a cylinder of 4 cm diameter and 20 cm long ... I guess it would require more than 100 gr of flowers to fill it, but it would be a better size for fermenting, imho.
Of course, it would need to be coated with silicon in the inside otherwise, removing 100 gr of tighly stuck fresh flowers might require the helpd of a nuclear bomb ....