Malawi Style Cob Curing.

[Tangwena]

Hey friends, neighbors and Growmies/Gromettes. I just have a question about dosing when eating/chewing. What would you consider a light dose and what dose would make you talk to the universe??? Happy growing folks!!!

Good to see you here brother it depends on your level of tolerance I have found smokers need much more than non smokers so maybe a smoker can answer that for you.
I loose my mind on 0.5g but I know smokers who go between 0.75 and 1.5g of course that all depends on the strength of the pot.

I know I had about 0.6g of GT at my fishing camp and my mate was banging on the door for ages and shouting my name at the top of his voice and it was all echos to me ha ha.
When he finally got in we couldn't hold a conversation as his face kept morphing and I was laughing my ass off all the time.

I gave him 0.5g of Zamaldelica cob and after about 30 mins it started to come on, he suddenly remembered he had to be somewhere, anywhere except where he was if you get my drift ha ha.
The next day he told me it didn't have much effect on him but other friends told me he spent the whole night wandering from one friends house to another visiting for 30 mins then leaving and they couldn't understand what the f---k he was talking about, they all got pissed off and kicked him out ha ha.

If you can stop smoking for week to help reduce your tolerance and the go 0.75g of a potent cob I would imagine that would be enough but everyones different its really personal.
A friend of mine in Australia had 1.75g and ended up stripped off naked in the garden talking to the stars all night ha ha.
But thats Aussies it doesn't take much for them to get their gear off check out any cricket match ha ha I think its all the sun and cold beer.

 

[0x942]

Thats why I keep saying there is no cast iron recipe that works for every type of bud.
Even plants of the same strain can present differently once you start the process, it cant be done on auto it needs human controls.
A master curer is like a master wine maker even more so.
If your good at this your work will be like works of art one off's. Each harvest even of the same strain is different each time and unique.
Older cured cobs are collectables and rare if they are well made and cured well, each crop produces gems unique in every way.
There are too many variables in the process beginning of course with the farmer and the seasons.

Hi Tangwena, i've followed your advice and took them out of the ferment stage from sealed bag (They were in for 2.5days).
Currently drying them to approx 90% before vaccum seal for aging.
The pics does not do justice to the true colors, i think i'm on my way to a "Golden Cure", what do you think ?

The smells is intense and seems to have been preserved from before the chop/cob process

 

[Hombre del mont]

Hey friends, neighbors and Growmies/Gromettes. I just have a question about dosing when eating/chewing. What would you consider a light dose and what dose would make you talk to the universe??? Happy growing folks!!!

Hi Scottay, As a harderned smoker, i'll try and answer. I've been smoking weed for about 47yrs and since retirring 8yrs ago, i pretty much wake and bake. I smoke almost exclussivley Acs Seeds sativas, so consider myself pretty hardcore. For a light buzz i would take around 0.5g and a good strong dose is 1-1.5g. My wife, who only rarely vapes, can be high all day from 0.12g. At 0.2g, she's on the edge of what she can handle and still feel comfortable. Once my cobs are fully mature it is my intention to stop smoking weed completely and go over to eating cob in the mornings instead. Eating cob is a far more ecconomical way of getting very high.

 

[Tangwena]

Hi Tangwena, i've followed your advice and took them out of the ferment stage from sealed bag (They were in for 2.5days).
Currently drying them to approx 90% before vaccum seal for aging.
The pics does not do justice to the true colors, i think i'm on my way to a "Golden Cure", what do you think ?

The smells is intense and seems to have been preserved from before the chop/cob process

Looking perfect brother you have made the right move by drying them and moving to the storage/aging stage you will not regret it.
You need to have slightly drier buds to begin with to get a golden cure and shorter sweat times coupled with a much longer cure period.
But what you have is perfect now for GT and should get you a deep strong trippy high that I personally like the best for chewing.
The golden cure is better for smoking but can also be chewed as well the high is more speedy/euphoric than trippy.

 

[Tangwena]

Hi Scottay, As a harderned smoker, i'll try and answer. I've been smoking weed for about 47yrs and since retirring 8yrs ago, i pretty much wake and bake. I smoke almost exclussivley Acs Seeds sativas, so consider myself pretty hardcore. For a light buzz i would take around 0.5g and a good strong dose is 1-1.5g. My wife, who only rarely vapes, can be high all day from 0.12g. At 0.2g, she's on the edge of what she can handle and still feel comfortable. Once my cobs are fully mature it is my intention to stop smoking weed completely and go over to eating cob in the mornings instead. Eating cob is a far more ecconomical way of getting very high.

Hi brother thanks for answering that pretty much ties in with what I have found.
All I need is 0.2g for a cruisy day 0.3 to 0.5 and things get nicely out of control as a long time non smoker, its been about 10 years since I last smoked.
I have found less is sometimes more as well. High doses can be very overwhelming and you sometimes miss the more subtle effects as they get overwhelmed by the stronger aspects of the high.
Like you I pretty much used to wake and bake and chuffed all day long on the strongest sativas I could find.

However I would never go back to it now, the highs are better chewed and dont even get me started on the length of them ha ha.
I have had 12 hour highs from really good sativas from Ace chewed!
The few times I have smoked I have been severely disappointed not to mention felt dirty and smelly from the smoke.
Dont get me wrong I used to love it dearly I have just moved on.

 

[0x942]

Looking perfect brother you have made the right move by drying them and moving to the storage/aging stage you will not regret it.
You need to have slightly drier buds to begin with to get a golden cure and shorter sweat times coupled with a much longer cure period.
But what you have is perfect now for GT and should get you a deep strong trippy high that I personally like the best for chewing.
The golden cure is better for smoking but can also be chewed as well the high is more speedy/euphoric than trippy.

Awesome infos as usual, thanks Tangwena !
Here is a pic of another plant COBs (Zamal cross), smell makes me addict :

 

[Tangwena]

Awesome infos as usual, thanks Tangwena !
Here is a pic of another plant COBs (Zamal cross), smell makes me addict :

Another amazing cob pic brother love the colours. I can only imagine the smells on opening the vacuum bags.
I like to keep the bags around just to sniff the bags on cobs like that, if you reseal the empty bags and use new ones to age the cobs its like heaven you can keep the aromas as a reference for ages.

Zamaldelica is something very special cobbed. I also had some Zamal hash from a good friend here rocket up the ass gear.
All those cobs you have will be very very potent I'm sure. I would love to try them all in 3 to 6 months time.

Christmas would be a good time for an early test they should be developing the potency very well by then.
Yesterday I had about 0.1g of C5 x Malawi from Ace cobbed about 9 months aged very very fast hit all in the head great sarcastic energised high I loved how fast my brain was working right up my ally that one.
The aged highs are very different its like a new drug.

 

[Scottay]

Man I've read this thread backwards and forwards. I love watching everyone do their cob magic. I've been following this thread and the one on 420. Livin vicariously through all of you!!! I've always been a space head. I've always liked shrooms and many really good sativa strains seem to have that lysergic/hallucinogenic effect which will be awesome. The fact that y'all share the information and help everybody questions is just awesome. There's centuries of ancient knowledge creeping around here on these modern forums. I'm glad to read and/or re-read these forums! Happy Sunday/Monday Cobsters!!

 

[Hartlus]

I'm super excited about cobbing my Golden Tigers. I've only read 30 pages or so of this thread including some stuff from page 212 and on. I don't think I'll be able to read 300 more pages before it's time to sweat the buds though. Please help me plan my cob.

If understand correctly, corn husk or oven paper are completely optional. One could just form the cobs and put them in their vacuum sealed bags. Is stickiness/messiness or bacterial growth an issue?

I was thinking I would use a bamboo sushi rolling mat to roll my cobs in oven paper. I guess I have the option to roll to any diameter. Maybe smaller is better? Like coin size?

The cobs then go in vacuum seal bags (without the oven paper). Sous vide the sealed bags at 40°c for a couple hours and check the bags for shrinkage and moisture. Once a change is observed, dry off excess moisture and squeeze the roll down before vacuum sealing again.

Then sous vide the bags at 40°c for 24 hours, open the bag, dry off, squeeze down, and reseal. Sous vide again for 48 hours, dry it, and reseal it.

Then store someplace warm and dark for a month, open bag, dry off, and reseal. Store for two more months for best cure.

Does it sound like I have it about right? Any advice on this approach? Thanks everyone!

 

[Hombre del mont]

Yes, the above will work. Providing you get the initial fermetation going you can't really go wrong.

Personally, i'm more like, hang dry for 2-4 days. Compress into rolls. I use baking paper inside of an open ended tube to compress, i then unwrap them, before i put them in the vaccum bags. i tend to use 40 or 45c for anywhere between 6-24hrs, though it'sn normally nearer 6-12hrs. After that time, i unseal them and let them dry until touch dry. Vacc them up again and stick them at 35c for 5-7 days. Take them out, sniff them, drool a lot and again let them dry, but his time drier. Seal them up again and cure them somewhere warm for a month, whilst periodically opening and checking the bag for your prefered smell ( don't worry about this as you'll instictivelly know!). It may not take a month. Now dry them again and seal them up for aging.
Or somethng like that. If you have plenty of weed, why not play around with the variables a bit? Providing you get the ferment going, then you can't really go wrong, just end up with a product that isn't so attractive visiably or olfactoraly.

Your going to love cobs!

 

[Tangwena]

I'm super excited about cobbing my Golden Tigers. I've only read 30 pages or so of this thread including some stuff from page 212 and on. I don't think I'll be able to read 300 more pages before it's time to sweat the buds though. Please help me plan my cob.

If understand correctly, corn husk or oven paper are completely optional. One could just form the cobs and put them in their vacuum sealed bags. Is stickiness/messiness or bacterial growth an issue?

I was thinking I would use a bamboo sushi rolling mat to roll my cobs in oven paper. I guess I have the option to roll to any diameter. Maybe smaller is better? Like coin size?

The cobs then go in vacuum seal bags (without the oven paper). Sous vide the sealed bags at 40°c for a couple hours and check the bags for shrinkage and moisture. Once a change is observed, dry off excess moisture and squeeze the roll down before vacuum sealing again.

Then sous vide the bags at 40°c for 24 hours, open the bag, dry off, squeeze down, and reseal. Sous vide again for 48 hours, dry it, and reseal it.

Then store someplace warm and dark for a month, open bag, dry off, and reseal. Store for two more months for best cure.

Does it sound like I have it about right? Any advice on this approach? Thanks everyone!

Hombre is pretty much spot on for his sativas.
I would hang dry the buds for 3 or 4 days 2 is enough if your relative humidity is low ie like a desert.
Roll them thicker rather than thinner 2oz is about right.
You are fine vacuum sealing them straight in the bag its very sanitary.

Sous vide at 40c for 6 to 12 hours any longer makes a darker end product.
Open bag and paper towel dry the water perspiration that should be inside the bag.
Reseal and leave for 5 to 7 days at a warm temp say 25 to 30c
You should see a color change start to occur over this period.

After 5 to 7 days remove and dry until the surface feels dry to the touch, the core will still be a little moist.
Reseal for a month. During the month each week open the bag and surface dry the cob before resealing again
During this month when you open the bags you should start to get a sweet flowery hashish like smell.
Once you are happy with the smell (which could happen anywhere from 1 week to 4 weeks hence the weekly opening and surface drying)

Dry the cob more fully until it feels dry, the core will still have trace moisture which will distribute throughout the cob during the aging process.
Leave the cob sealed up to age 1 to 3 months during this aging check whenever you like but at least monthly drying if they feel too moist.

The best time to start using them is 1 month of aging although they reach their peak at 9 months.
Non of these times is set in stone and with experience you will develop your own prefered time table and your own unique cures.
I wish you every success please feel free to post your creations here I am sure we would all love to see them.

 

[Hartlus]

Thanks Hombre and Tangwena. I'm nervous now. Today is day 4 of drying. When I went to look at them, the RH had dropped from 60% to 40% and the buds were a bit drier than I expected. I wound up separating the buds into two piles: One where the buds still felt a little moist and firm, and the other where buds felt lighter and drier. I'm worried about what will happen if I'm too much on the dry side.

It's just moist enough that I wouldn't smoke it if I had other options. I probably could smoke it as is, but I would probably try to speed dry it first if I did.

 

[Hombre del mont]

if it's not dry, then it's ok. I'd mix the piles. As soon as it's in the bag and vacced, then the moisture will equalize.
I'm about to do an experiement with some very dry (2yr) weed and some fresh bud.

 

[Tangwena]

Thanks Hombre and Tangwena. I'm nervous now. Today is day 4 of drying. When I went to look at them, the RH had dropped from 60% to 40% and the buds were a bit drier than I expected. I wound up separating the buds into two piles: One where the buds still felt a little moist and firm, and the other where buds felt lighter and drier. I'm worried about what will happen if I'm too much on the dry side.

It's just moist enough that I wouldn't smoke it if I had other options. I probably could smoke it as is, but I would probably try to speed dry it first if I did.

As Hombre del mont said mix them but to me it sounds perfect brother if its still too moist to smoke comfortably your good to go.
GT is a great plant cobbed at this stage you should get a nice golden cure if your lucky.
The lighter more colorful cures on GT especially are the craziest zinger highs I always go for that cure on GT.
Every different humidity level produces differing cures you should be onto a great one with this lot.

 

[Hartlus]

The parchment paper was good for rolling the bud. Use it just like a giant rolling paper to get it started:

The bamboo mat was good for squeezing the roll all the way around. I had to keep stuffing the ends back in though:

All that just to drop into a vac seal bag...

And suck it down into a veiny log:

After sous vide (actually the "yogurt" setting on the Fissler multi pot) at 43° to 44°c for 11 hours, I concluded that even my moist buds had gotten too dry. No changes in smell or appearance have taken place. The bags were completely dry inside.

I opened up a bag of sugar leaves left over from wet trimming four days ago. I hadn't meant to seal the bags, so I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened them. The smell was like fresh sweet corn.

I am making a last ditch attempt to get some activity on my cobs. I lined the bottom of the bags with sugar leaves, laid the cobs in, then covered and surrounded them with more sugar leaves. Here's one all vac'd and sealed before going back in the sous vide for another 12 hours:

Who needs sleep?

 

[Hombre del mont]

Don't despair. I think you'll find that they have started fermenting, albeit slowly. I've used alomost dry weed and still had good results. I'd be tempted just to let the vacced bag sit at 35c now for a week. I think you'll be nicely supprised. If the weed is very wet, the the ferment will start quickly and will produce a lot of moisture, but if it's quite dry before you start, then it will take a while to get going and not produce vissable drops of moisture

 

[Tangwena]

Gold info from my brother above he is 100% on the money just leave it sealed in a warm place.
Drier buds cure more slowly but should still cure just double up time wise you should get a great cure still.

 

[Tangwena]

The parchment paper was good for rolling the bud. Use it just like a giant rolling paper to get it started:

The bamboo mat was good for squeezing the roll all the way around. I had to keep stuffing the ends back in though:

All that just to drop into a vac seal bag...

And suck it down into a veiny log:

After sous vide (actually the "yogurt" setting on the Fissler multi pot) at 43° to 44°c for 11 hours, I concluded that even my moist buds had gotten too dry. No changes in smell or appearance have taken place. The bags were completely dry inside.

I opened up a bag of sugar leaves left over from wet trimming four days ago. I hadn't meant to seal the bags, so I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened them. The smell was like fresh sweet corn.

I am making a last ditch attempt to get some activity on my cobs. I lined the bottom of the bags with sugar leaves, laid the cobs in, then covered and surrounded them with more sugar leaves. Here's one all vac'd and sealed before going back in the sous vide for another 12 hours:


Who needs sleep?

Heres a couple of shots of drier cob cured buds after 6 months aging
They look different as they dont amalgamate like moister buds but they smoke smooth and kick ass can be chewed just the same as other cobs.
They are super popular with my smoking friends as well.

Mulanje x Malawi/Ethiopian

Golden Tigerrrrrrrrrr ha ha.

 

[Hombre del mont]

Tangwena my friend, what do you think of my idea of mixing fresh bud with 2yr old and really dry weed. I'm thinking that the moisture would equalise throughout and eventually the bacteria would also spread and do their magic, no?. I'm aware that people sprinkle kiff into cobs, and that is dry, so i'm thinking why not give it a go. I was given sevreal Oz of some old and dry Northern Lights and Malawin and both have lost their edge, so to speak. I'm thiking that i'll make one and after initially giving it a good long "sweat",( all though I dont expect to get much sweat), i'll just leave it bagged up and forget about it for a yr. Can't see it'll do any harm.

 

[Tangwena]

Tangwena my friend, what do you think of my idea of mixing fresh bud with 2yr old and really dry weed. I'm thinking that the moisture would equalise throughout and eventually the bacteria would also spread and do their magic, no?. I'm aware that people sprinkle kiff into cobs, and that is dry, so i'm thinking why not give it a go. I was given sevreal Oz of some old and dry Northern Lights and Malawin and both have lost their edge, so to speak. I'm thiking that i'll make one and after initially giving it a good long "sweat",( all though I dont expect to get much sweat), i'll just leave it bagged up and forget about it for a yr. Can't see it'll do any harm.

I have never done that my friend but its worth a shot if nothing more.
This is a method for curing your harvest not resurrecting the dead ha ha.
I think once the resin has dried it cant change much but thats just my thoughts.
How are you going with your current harvest? The buds looked very nicely matured the cobs are going to be very interesting after curing and aging dynamite in fact.
Really interested in the outcome for the New Caledonia cobs something different this way comes I'm thinking.
Very envious of all the strains you had going this year all grown to perfection and harvested on time as well. All I kept thinking was I wish I had them to cob up, the next few months are going to be cobbers heaven at your casa ha ha.
The testing and managing the cure and aging are the part I love the most.
Have a Merry Christmas ha ha