Malawi Style Cob Curing.

ZanzibarDawa · Jan 22, 2016

Ya, I can't wait.
But I'll be patient, was it you who said to let them pistil out fully? Would you recommend a late..ish chop on both or just on the Zamaldelica?

Have you ever tried to cure the cobs longer so they get really dark? Or would that already ruin them?
I am not talking composting here, just a longer/stronger fermentation

ZD

Tangwena · Jan 23, 2016

Hi ZD the longer you leave them the better they get, you will notice the blooms of pistils come in flushes every 3 weeks or so after the first flush starts to turn red a new flush of fresh pisils will start and so on. After you have 3 flushes all red they will be fat calyxes.
Sometimes they will go 4 flushes but the 4th is very sparse compared to the first 3.
All sativas should be flowered this way from what I have learn't on IC and observed in practice
With the cobs if they are vac sealed you can leave them as long as you like they will get better.
If you have enough buds stagger the curing times to see which gives you the result you want.
I have some Panama buds that I sweated then vac sealed for about 4 weeks and even without aging they are amazingly strong and very trippy. From what I had read in other posts I was expecting a mild cruisy high but it was off the scale totaly blew me away its just the type of extreme high I like.
I have some jar curing to compare them to but I wasn't expecting the intense high that I had. I am hoping it was the sweat curing that brought out the extreme effects but I will not know until I try the jar cured (dried) buds to compare them.
Tangwena

Sforza · Jan 23, 2016

ZanzibarDawa said:
Pics or it didn't happen!

Says the guy who hasn't posted any pictures in this thread to a guy who has posted a series of pictures showing the process he used to produce a cob.

Sarcasm, irony, haven't read the entire thread? Darned if I know.

Lacocina · Jan 23, 2016

ZD

Tangwena is spot on with your Malawi and Zamaldelica and the same with golden tiger

When you think it's time give it another week thy will swell and turn greasy and dense .. worth the wait... I prefer 75% amber but that's me... The cobs he taught us = best Christmas gifts ever !

Trip for sure and a bit intense at times .. Make sure you have the time to enjoy !

Old school flavor and charm.

ZanzibarDawa · Jan 23, 2016

Sforza said:
Says the guy who hasn't posted any pictures in this thread to a guy who has posted a series of pictures showing the process he used to produce a cob.

Sarcasm, irony, haven't read the entire thread? Darned if I know.

Very sorry, lol, couldn't see the pics, can see the links now where I quoted you. Strangely enough they show up as a single pixel wide and high on my end, no idea why.

ZD

Sforza · Jan 23, 2016

ZanzibarDawa said:
Very sorry, lol, couldn't see the pics, can see the links now where I quoted you. Strangely enough they show up as a single pixel wide and high on my end, no idea why.

ZD

Sorry man, I didn't realize that the pictures were not showing up. They show up fine when I look at my posts. I probably did something(s) wrong.

Thanks for alerting me to the issue.

Sforza · Jan 23, 2016

Shot of the cob after it spent a few days in a dry, dark, and cool spot drying out after being removed from the banana bark. It lost about .2 oz of water weight or about 6 grams or so.

After drying and weighing, I sealed it up in a vacuum bag to age and cure.

Sealed with a kiss.

[YOUTUBEIF]ZvP42bkrhO4[/YOUTUBEIF]

Tangwena · Jan 23, 2016

Sforza nicely done looks just right, please post a smoke report when she is cured. She should make a big difference to the taste, and high.
Tangwena

Sforza · Jan 24, 2016

Thank you.

That is high praise indeed, Tangwena, coming from the master himself. I couldn't have done it without the guidance and instruction you provided.

I will proved a smoke report when it is fully cured in a couple more months.

I learned not only from your instructions but also from the other posters on this thread who provided not only information but also photos of their attempts and followups on their results. I thought I would contribute, either by showing a way to do it correctly or by being an example of what not to do. As the old saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words."

I am really happy that I attempted this, because while I was worried about mold, there was never even a hint of mold and the smell of the damp cob was indeed the sickly sweet that you described.

ZanzibarDawa · Jan 25, 2016

Sforza,
that looks really good! Can't wait for your smoke report. Does yours look a bit darker than Tangwenas or is that the camera? Maybe it has to do with banana bark vs. corn husks? Actually it might be because yours is somewhat tighter, or at least it looks like it is more compacted, that should theoretically have sped up the process, who knows.

I thought it would lose more water, quite astonishing that it only lost about 10%, thanks a lot for that info, helps me when i'm, going to cob! How far did you dry it after cobbing? Really dry or the "normal smokable" dry?
ZD

P.S. the pics work now, thanks!

ZanzibarDawa · Jan 25, 2016

Tangwena or anyone else for that matter,
does anyone have experience how hybrids and indicas respond to cobbing?
Not that I had any indicas but I am curious more from a theoretical standpoint. Maybe it can give us some hints to what happens inside the cobs.

Although cobbing seems to be much more an art form than straight science (maybe like making a good bordeaux) it certainly wouldn't hurt understanding the mechanisms behind it as thoroughly as we possibly can without any complicated lab setups

ZD

Tangwena · Jan 25, 2016

Hi ZD the cured cobs can vary from dark brown almost black, through yellow to light green depending on the buds. The amount of time you sweat them prior to vac sealing and the amount of time spent aging and whether they are aged in a jar, vac sealed or left exposed to air.
This only effects the taste IMO the high remains more or less the same after the initial cure.
The first sweat and then aging say 3 months after the initial drying is what produces the amber trichs.
IMO the amber trichs are what makes it special the high can be nothing short of mind blowing if you get it right. Practice will get you the flavor and high that you want.
It works on hybrids so it will work on Indicas its just a question of whether you like the effects it produces. I prefer to use it on very strong trippy buds to begin with, that way you get a devastating high that gets you to a special level you cant get from dried buds alone.
Tangwena

Sforza · Jan 26, 2016

ZanzibarDawa said:
Sforza,
that looks really good! Can't wait for your smoke report. Does yours look a bit darker than Tangwenas or is that the camera? Maybe it has to do with banana bark vs. corn husks? Actually it might be because yours is somewhat tighter, or at least it looks like it is more compacted, that should theoretically have sped up the process, who knows.

I thought it would lose more water, quite astonishing that it only lost about 10%, thanks a lot for that info, helps me when i'm, going to cob! How far did you dry it after cobbing? Really dry or the "normal smokable" dry?
ZD

P.S. the pics work now, thanks!

It looks a little darker in the photo than it does in natural light. I just left it in a dark cabinet in a cool dry spot for a few days. The outer surface seems dry, but it is hard to judge how dry it is under the surface. When I wrapped it up, I took a lot of turns and pulled it really tight. I watched that video that someone posted a link to: [YOUTUBEIF]FgQ0kTvU5-s[/YOUTUBEIF]

And saw that the people making cobs were wrapping them tightly. As Tangwena mentioned, if you are going to use banana, use the bark, not the leaf. The bark is fairly thick and tough, so I was able to wrap it tight without tearing the bark. The bark was dry when I put it around the ganja, but it was damp and bit broken down when I pulled it out of the vacuum bag.

The result of using moist ganja, wrapping it really tight, and then keeping it in a warm area while it was in the plastic vacuum bag resulted in a very hard cob, so it does not have any give and it is hard to judge how moist it is in the middle. When I am ready to smoke it, I will cut it in half and work off of half while I seal the other half back up. I'll do a smoke report when the time is right.

Tangwena · Jan 26, 2016

Hi Sforza that cob will be hard like a piece of wood you will have to carve chunks off. Idealy it should be slightly moist in the centre only slightly.
I think you have aced it first time and you will have no problems, it should be like a block of crude hash.
i have been really high on Panama cob, its several times stronger than the jar cured. Yours is I hope going to impress you, all the best for the future cob making.
Tangwena

ZanzibarDawa · Jan 26, 2016

Hello Sforza,
thanks for the link. You are right, they roll them pretty tight in the video. Theoretically it should be the tighter the better as there is less oxygen. I will keep that in mind when doing mine!
Depending on what my three Zamaldelica ladies will put on the scale, I will try laying one cob aside for an extra long fermentation.

ZD

Sforza · Jan 28, 2016

Tangwena said:
Hi Sforza that cob will be hard like a piece of wood you will have to carve chunks off. Idealy it should be slightly moist in the centre only slightly.
I think you have aced it first time and you will have no problems, it should be like a block of crude hash.
i have been really high on Panama cob, its several times stronger than the jar cured. Yours is I hope going to impress you, all the best for the future cob making.
Tangwena

Yes, that is what I am shooting for. Hard and slightly moist and crude hash-like in the inside.

It seemed like most of the guys who tried to do cobs previous to me, besides you, used bud that was just about ready to smoke and it came out OK, but not wet, so I decided to go ahead and use bud that was damper than I would be comfortable putting into a jar. I am looking forward to, as Ralph Kramden would put, "To the Moon!" when I try the smoke.

[YOUTUBEIF]98qw86DsdZ0[/YOUTUBEIF]

Tangwena · Jan 28, 2016

Hi Sforza, I can more or less be 100% sure it will blow you away my friend. I have been getting so high on the early tastes of the sweat cured bud I haven't even got near my cobs from the last grow. By 1st April they will be starting to get awesome.
Going by the care you have taken you will develop a feel for this and never look back.
I recently inspected 4 cobs I have dried and now aging and I think I have hit the nail on the head this cure. Now I just need to harvest a bit later and it cant get any better IMO
I know the type of result I want and this is getting well up there.
Tangwena

Dave Coulier · Jan 28, 2016

Congrats Sforza on your cob results. It looks great, and will be a real treat in the near future for you and anyone lucky enough to know you. Tang isn't full of it when he says, its all you and your friends will want to smoke afterwards.

The cob claimed another buddy of mine. I shared some regular cured buds with him, and the next day he tells me he wasn't very happy with the buds. Sooo, I gave him a gram of my Thai/Durban Cob thats been aging for 2 weeks or so, and the next morning he gave me a big grin with two thumbs up.

Tangwena · Jan 28, 2016

Hi Dave you got that right its just such a pleasant smoke and the high is very addictive.
I have never met an experienced grower who hasn't liked it.
It adds a whole new level of interest after the excitement of the grow, harvest and cure.

This last lot of buds I have were not all harvested at their prime time as I had to go away fishing, but even so the high I am getting from the 2 strains I have sampled, even before aging is blowing me away.
I still have 2 other strains to indulge in and thats just the sweat cured buds, the cobs will take me to the next level when I sample them in April.

I want to grow other seeds, but this last lot will last me forever with the small amount I need to ingest each time.
The other day I was starting to find the high hard to handle when I got a phone call to take my father in law to hospital as his lift had fallen through.
Well it was one of those trips where you look at the gear stick and think " what the F--- dose that do?"
We got lost 4 time but eventualy made it 15 mins late no harm done but that was a very hairy ride. The place looked like a different town ha ha.
I dont get this high from dried buds anymore, one of the cobs looks so good I am finding it hard to avoid it ha ha
Best vibes to all the people who try this I know the first time is a leap of faith, but after it is worth it.
Tangwena

palmero · Feb 4, 2016

Banana LEAF COB @3weeks

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Malawi Style Cob Curing.

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