Malawi Style Cob Curing.

[Aetheric]

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!!

Hey @Buzzzzd ! I wish I had more info for you but I don't unfortunately, never learned how it was made. Your honey cobs sound awesome, I'd be curious to try next year, let us know how yours turn out!

 

[moose/MI]

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

I love this post.
(this takes some experience, but 'moist' is better than 'damp' and 'wet' is ruinous).
This sounds like good advice.

 

[Scottay]

So here's a few pictures of some small cobs. Couple weeks old at this point. 2 more weeks to go and then I plan on eating .50-.75g of one and see what happens. Put a few drops of lecithin oil in my coffee while I give it a chew. I smoked cigarettes for 25 yrs and I chewed tobacco/snuff for several years as well so the chew technique is right down my alley!! I noticed that the smallest 1.76g is darker than the other 2 larger ones. I tried to take a closeup but my phone sucks. Do any of them look "dangerous" to you!? All the cobs are mixed strains. Happy Friday ya filthy Cob-Heads!!

 

[mike-or-ozzy]

So here's a few pictures of some small cobs. Couple weeks old at this point. 2 more weeks to go and then I plan on eating .50-.75g of one and see what happens. Put a few drops of lecithin oil in my coffee while I give it a chew. I smoked cigarettes for 25 yrs and I chewed tobacco/snuff for several years as well so the chew technique is right down my alley!! I noticed that the smallest 1.76g is darker than the other 2 larger ones. I tried to take a closeup but my phone sucks. Do any of them look "dangerous" to you!? All the cobs are mixed strains. Happy Friday ya filthy Cob-Heads!! View attachment 19100571 View attachment 19100572 View attachment 19100573 View attachment 19100574 View attachment 19100575

they all look dangerous to me @Scottay but the 1.76 g one looks like a fossilized mouse, eeek, haahaahaaa. Enjoy those, mixing them is a good idea imo.

 

[moose/MI]

they all look dangerous to me @Scottay but the 1.76 g one looks like a fossilized mouse, eeek, haahaahaaa. Enjoy those, mixing them is a good idea imo.

That's good to hear.
I just made my first mixed one the other day.

 

[mike-or-ozzy]

That's good to hear.
I just made my first mixed one the other day. View attachment 19100632

Thanks @moose/MI, all your cobs look great. I do lots of regular tinctures using a mix of 2 or 3 different varietys and those are the preferred ones. Cob on brother.

 

[CDNINCA]

Okay Gents, term used with all sincerity..., I just harvested my last plant to come in from the season, the seed of which was gifted to me from the numero uno brother here that he named "Mulanje Big Cola Fast Pheno"! I'm not sure about "fast" - 224 days from seed planting to harvest (a record for my longest-growing plant), but she did produce some mighty buds and was an incredible plant. I can hardly wait to try some, and cob most of it... the aromas are spectacular!!. Following the "Pics or it didn't happen" theme, some pics to share below.
This was so fun to grow, epic experience, and it's going to produce some incredible cobs that I will definitely share pics of, cheers!

(Challenges posting pics again, let's see if this works...)

View attachment 1Small.jpg

 

[CDNINCA]

(Deleted post) Shouldn't there be a way to completely delete this and keep the thread clean? If anyone knows how to do it I'd love to know, thanks.

 

[CDNINCA]

(Deleted post) Shouldn't there be a way to completely delete this and keep the thread clean? If anyone knows how to do it I'd love to know, thanks.

View attachment 19100732

 

[Tangwena]

So here's a few pictures of some small cobs. Couple weeks old at this point. 2 more weeks to go and then I plan on eating .50-.75g of one and see what happens. Put a few drops of lecithin oil in my coffee while I give it a chew. I smoked cigarettes for 25 yrs and I chewed tobacco/snuff for several years as well so the chew technique is right down my alley!! I noticed that the smallest 1.76g is darker than the other 2 larger ones. I tried to take a closeup but my phone sucks. Do any of them look "dangerous" to you!? All the cobs are mixed strains. Happy Friday ya filthy Cob-Heads!! View attachment 19100571 View attachment 19100572 View attachment 19100573 View attachment 19100574 View attachment 19100575

They all look nicely done but still very young.
I find them to be very stony/ sleepy when young after aging sealed up for around 3 months plus they start
to evolve and the high emerges.
But experimentation is the only way to learn ha ha.

 

[Tangwena]

Okay Gents, term used with all sincerity..., I just harvested my last plant to come in from the season, the seed of which was gifted to me from the numero uno brother here that he named "Mulanje Big Cola Fast Pheno"! I'm not sure about "fast" - 224 days from seed planting to harvest (a record for my longest-growing plant), but she did produce some mighty buds and was an incredible plant. I can hardly wait to try some, and cob most of it... the aromas are spectacular!!. Following the "Pics or it didn't happen" theme, some pics to share below.
This was so fun to grow, epic experience, and it's going to produce some incredible cobs that I will definitely share pics of, cheers!

(Challenges posting pics again, let's see if this works...)

View attachment 19100681 View attachment 19100685

Brother that first pic is amazing I can only imagine how the aromas are phew!
The cobs will be crazy I'm sure.

 

[dilettante]

Last year's cob:

New cobs:

What do you think of the colors? I'm shooting for a lighter and drier cure this time. My friends didn't like the heavily cured taste for smoking and vaping.

I've taken them out of their bags and will now let them dry for a couple of days. They were curing for about a month. The pungent fruity smells when opening the bag subsided.

Sweat differs between no sweat and 48 h at 40 °C. Most did the sweat for 24 h at 38 °C.

 

[CDNINCA]

Brother that first pic is amazing I can only imagine how the aromas are phew!
The cobs will be crazy I'm sure.

Thanks @Tangwena, in more ways than one! The crazy thing is that first pic was a bud lower-down on the plant, not even one of the "best" ones! It sure was beautiful though, just had to take a pic of it

Once again, an amazing plant and if the cobs turn out as I hope they do we'll be in business! Cheers!

 

[CDNINCA]

Nice looking cobs there @dilettante, the texture and colors are beautiful and I can only imagine how they smell! What strain/ phenotype is that? Nicely done brother, cheers.

 

[Tangwena]

Thanks @Tangwena, in more ways than one! The crazy thing is that first pic was a bud lower-down on the plant, not even one of the "best" ones! It sure was beautiful though, just had to take a pic of it

Once again, an amazing plant and if the cobs turn out as I hope they do we'll be in business! Cheers!

Nice colors on those cobs brother to bad about your friends their loss ha ha.
Trying differing sweat times and drier material should give you a nice range of tastes and effects.

 

[moose/MI]

Opened my second cob from 10/12
Purple Satellite - this is my wet one
84% when vacuumed. It hung 4 days.

Looks great - smells good. Hard but with a little give like good twist plug tobacco

November 1st- I opened it and left it to dry overnight.So here it is 2 weeks later

I'll let it dry overnight again then reseal

How's the color look?

Pretty happy with it. I'm not too worried about the moisture in the middle. Seems to be under control.
But I'll defer to the group wisdom.
Plan was to dry overnight, reseal and give it until Christmas.

 

[CDNINCA]

Looking good @moose/MI, nice colors too! As for the potential moisture in the middle, I'd keep it vacuum sealed and every week or so open it up to take a look. When the smell is where you want it (takes practice but you will know when it smells "good"), and the cob has the look you want, then you can dry it further to "freeze" the state that it is in, so to speak. Then, seal it up and leave it for a month, then open it to see that it's not still changing, then be patient! The hard part is waiting for it to fully develop - longer is better, at least from what I've found. It will be worth the wait! Cheers!

 

[dilettante]

The new cobs are from Purple Satellite, NepJam x Kali China and crosses of Purple Satellite with Shogun and Bangi Congo x Panama.
Last year's cob is Bangi Congo x Panama.

The smell is down from the gorgeous fruityness that was there after one week in the bag. Do you think it could have been preserved by earlier drying?