Malawi Style Cob Curing.

[Tangwena]

I had some Mulanje x Colombian Gold/Demon Latcher today and this song describes the come up haha.

 

[Landwolf]

@Tangwena Cool songs, they convey that feeling

@Baba Karuna Thanks for sharing, it would be fun to partake of that tobacco log. Maybe the sailors learned the roll from that part of the world? I wonder if the ship captain would want high sailors on his ship... I wonder if they rolled up weed the same way.

 

[moose/MI]

I swung for the fences on this one.
My Panama crossed with Pakistani Landrace. Swabi-Dragon 14wks.

On the stick in Grove bags I was reading 63%on the hygrometer

Still some bound water in the stems

I picked out 55 grams of nice bud and cleaned the sticks out.

Let it dry in the tray and overnight it settled to 60% - 46 grams

That seemed a little dry and with last nights conversation about size.
I decided to mix in 10 grams more of the moister 63% buds.

Did the sushi roll in the bag again

Spoon to get the corners good

My #14th cob and my most serious one yet. Now I just have to be patient.

 

[moose/MI]

The more I thought about it.
I decided i wanted some more compaction on the cob i made this morning.

So I stood on it with my 210# between two blocks of wood

Then gave it a reseal.

Much happier with it now.

 

[spacemanj]

Whoa @Baba Karuna , those are impressive tobacco logs, "kilo sized cob" has me thinking...

The village communal cob haha. You'd have to set up a whole retreat for that alone

 

[Aetheric]

@Landwolf your prior post reminded me to take some photos of the Amazonian tobacco logs. The tobacco is heavily compressed, and soaked in cane spirits to enhance the cure. Super moist in the middle and highly potent. It’s like a kilo sized cob

🪷Om Mādhavāya Namah Svāhā🪷

@Baba Karuna You're bringing back memories of my trips to Peru! I always loved smoking mapacho in ceremony Powerful medicine! I bought a bunch of honey cured mapacho once in Pucallpa, it was so good that I lost my taste for the non-honey kind after that haha but never came across it again

 

[Buzzzzd]

I bought a bunch of honey cured mapacho once in Pucallpa,

Hey eric!!! - I would like to get a few more details on this!! I have added honey to a few of my cobs as an experiment, as well as some brown sugar and molasses. I'm hoping it has good results but won't know for about 6 months. I'm probably going to make 5 more cobs in about 4 days, so any info would be great!!

 

[Tangwena]

I found this from 2019 seems very similar to cobs not surprising as its fermenting/curing.
A forum called dmt-nexus.me




I wouldn't worry a bit about alkaloid content with rustica and flowering, once it starts flowering your best bet, in my experience, is to let it do it's thing. Rustica is incredibly potent, dangerously so, and flowering isn't going to effect the potency in any appreciable way unless you're growing it for insecticide or something. Also once it starts flowering, you might want to consider staking it up as the seed heads can get really heavy and will sag to the ground. I tried to remove flowers one year thinking it would up the yield but as soon as you do, it will simply flower at every node beneath the one you removed and good soil and insect control seem to be the only real magic involved.

I have a curing process I use for rustica and other tobacco that works really well and will produce a perfectly fine usable product in a matter of several days. I talked this over with some other tobacco farmers and they told me I was crazy, but it works for small scale production and really well for rustica. Harvest the leaves when they get as large as you want them to be, don't worry about waiting for the yellowing on the stalk. With Rustica, once I get a pretty good stack of leaves, I get a needle and thread and string them up with a little space between them to allow air flow and hang them in a shaded area with good circulation. Let them hang until they start to yellow and curl up, but way before they get brittle (this takes some experience, but 'moist' is better than 'damp' and 'wet' is ruinous).

Once you have them off the string, stack them up in neat piles, alternating as you lay them on each other, i.e. front to back, then back to front, and press them flat. Put them in a large ziplock bag, press the air out of it, and seal it up and put that bag on a heating pad with a towel for insulation and a fairly heavy weight like a thick book on top of it and set the heating pad on medium. Make sure you keep the heating pad on, the new ones suck for this as they shut off automatically.

Check them once a day, if you see water in the bag then you've put them in there while too moist and will need to take them out, separate them out and let them dry a little before replacing them in the bag and make sure you absorb the water in the bag itself. You will develop an eye for perfect moisture for this over the years. Over about two or three days, the smell of the tobacco will transition from a grassy smell to a sweet cured tobacco smell that is unmistakable if you're familiar with it and the color will give over to a deep chestnut color. When that happens, you're done and have cured tobacco in a few days as opposed to worrying about hanging in in a barn for months and trying to keep it in case etc.
Store it as you would normally, just watch the moisture levels as tobacco is prone to molds.







Reply

 

[Baba Karuna]

@Baba Karuna You're bringing back memories of my trips to Peru! I always loved smoking mapacho in ceremony Powerful medicine! I bought a bunch of honey cured mapacho once in Pucallpa, it was so good that I lost my taste for the non-honey kind after that haha but never came across it again

Peru is such a beautiful place and Pucallpa is wild. I was told it is the witchcraft capital of Peru. I spent most of my time deep in the jungle but was able to make it to Pucallpa a handful of times. I never encountered the honey cured Mapacho but I am sure it was delicious the wild honey in that region was fantastic Mapacho is one of my favorite plant teachers. Such a special medicine I admit that growing up I had some reservations about tobacco because my parents were medical professionals and always expressed that it was a terrible habit to get involved with. Once I learned from my teachers the proper way to interact with Tobacco I realized how powerful it truly is. So balancing, meditative and grounding. I honestly learned more from Mapacho than I did from Ayahuasca. Drinking Mapacho tea is also a deeply satisfying experience

🪷Om Parameşțhigurubhyo Namah🪷

 

[Baba Karuna]

I found this from 2019 seems very similar to cobs not surprising as its fermenting/curing.
A forum called dmt-nexus.me




I wouldn't worry a bit about alkaloid content with rustica and flowering, once it starts flowering your best bet, in my experience, is to let it do it's thing. Rustica is incredibly potent, dangerously so, and flowering isn't going to effect the potency in any appreciable way unless you're growing it for insecticide or something. Also once it starts flowering, you might want to consider staking it up as the seed heads can get really heavy and will sag to the ground. I tried to remove flowers one year thinking it would up the yield but as soon as you do, it will simply flower at every node beneath the one you removed and good soil and insect control seem to be the only real magic involved.

I have a curing process I use for rustica and other tobacco that works really well and will produce a perfectly fine usable product in a matter of several days. I talked this over with some other tobacco farmers and they told me I was crazy, but it works for small scale production and really well for rustica. Harvest the leaves when they get as large as you want them to be, don't worry about waiting for the yellowing on the stalk. With Rustica, once I get a pretty good stack of leaves, I get a needle and thread and string them up with a little space between them to allow air flow and hang them in a shaded area with good circulation. Let them hang until they start to yellow and curl up, but way before they get brittle (this takes some experience, but 'moist' is better than 'damp' and 'wet' is ruinous).

Once you have them off the string, stack them up in neat piles, alternating as you lay them on each other, i.e. front to back, then back to front, and press them flat. Put them in a large ziplock bag, press the air out of it, and seal it up and put that bag on a heating pad with a towel for insulation and a fairly heavy weight like a thick book on top of it and set the heating pad on medium. Make sure you keep the heating pad on, the new ones suck for this as they shut off automatically.

Check them once a day, if you see water in the bag then you've put them in there while too moist and will need to take them out, separate them out and let them dry a little before replacing them in the bag and make sure you absorb the water in the bag itself. You will develop an eye for perfect moisture for this over the years. Over about two or three days, the smell of the tobacco will transition from a grassy smell to a sweet cured tobacco smell that is unmistakable if you're familiar with it and the color will give over to a deep chestnut color. When that happens, you're done and have cured tobacco in a few days as opposed to worrying about hanging in in a barn for months and trying to keep it in case etc.
Store it as you would normally, just watch the moisture levels as tobacco is prone to molds.







Reply

Great post brother I have not yet employed this specific method but will try this out next season when I harvest more Tobacco thanks for sharing I am contemplating wrapping some herb in tobacco leaf and fermenting them together to see what happens.

🪷Om Śivamastu🪷

 

[wuluz]

Hello folks
I've been growing cannabis on my balcony for a good 40 years, I can't remember ever having such bad weather in autumn. I can count the sunny days from September on both hands, first the rain, now the fog. My plants are moldy or full of insects. The yield is very modest because most of the flowers have to be thrown away. I still have two plants that I'm still hoping for

Aladdin’s Skunk
View attachment 2024-10-28-.jpg

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[Tangwena]

Hello folks
I've been growing cannabis on my balcony for a good 40 years, I can't remember ever having such bad weather in autumn. I can count the sunny days from September on both hands, first the rain, now the fog. My plants are moldy or full of insects. The yield is very modest because most of the flowers have to be thrown away. I still have two plants that I'm still hoping for

Aladdin’s Skunk
View attachment 19099076

View attachment 19099077

View attachment 19099078

View attachment 19099079

I was going to say the yellowing buds looked good then I saw the final cobs.
They should cure nicely they look great already so onwards and upwards my friend.

 

[Chemimbalance]

I did two of these mini cobs from some auto Zamaldelica that had kind of a loose bud structure. Don't worry, it's not hair on there, just some dandelion seed thingys.

Left side is just after sweat and right side is after 9 weeks in vacuum bag. I did open it and dried it for 24 hours two weeks in before baging it again.


Same cob again.


I'm working on some Panama x Malawi cobs too.

 

[moose/MI]

Quite the adventure. A little addictive to make.
I'm up to 15 now so getting harder to keep track. A alert on my phone said it was time to check them.

All looked great except this one that seemed to have some grey mold on it.

Turns out it was just the shaded label printed on the bag.

Checked the moisture. Cob smells good.Feels good.

Love the colors.
Vacuumed it back up and put it away. Did get my heart going at first.

 

[Tangwena]

I did two of these mini cobs from some auto Zamaldelica that had kind of a loose bud structure. Don't worry, it's not hair on there, just some dandelion seed thingys.

Left side is just after sweat and right side is after 9 weeks in vacuum bag. I did open it and dried it for 24 hours two weeks in before baging it again.
View attachment 19099231

Same cob again.
View attachment 19099232

I'm working on some Panama x Malawi coobs too.

Nice color change my friend that should age nicely and being Zamaldelica turn into some serious party gear ha ha.

 

[Tangwena]

Quite the adventure. A little addictive to make.
I'm up to 15 now so getting harder to keep track. A alert on my phone said it was time to check them.

All looked great except this one that seemed to have some grey mold on it.
View attachment 19099294 Turns out it was just the shaded label printed on the bag. View attachment 19099302

Checked the moisture. Cob smells good.Feels good. View attachment 19099306
View attachment 19099307 Love the colors.
Vacuumed it back up and put it away. Did get my heart going at first.

Looking good man shame about the moldy one but lucky you have plenty of other to step up and take its place. We all make the odd mistake but its part of the learning curve and par for the course.
Unless of course it was just that grey band in the bag ha ha.