[ReikoX]

Are you sure you lost vacuum, fermentation produces CO2 it may be from that.

[SweetSue]

Mick, I've used the dehydrator many times to quick dry a harvest, and the end result has been just as potent as line dried. Only low and slo in the fridge beats it out. I hang dry because it's in my hallway to the kitchen and I love walking by a drying plant.

repuk...... Awwww...... The universe has its reasons. Thank goodness this is a forgiving process.

led05, I gotta tell ya, I impressed myself in how tightly compressed those cobs were, but you speak from experience where I'm coming straight from the adrenaline of passion. I'll be interested to see the inside when fermentation is complete. Experience is the best teacher, and there's nothing lost. I'll make use of every microgram. Lol!

Thanks for the heads up Tangwena. I'll be certain to check them after three days. So I sent them into fermentation during the sweat? Lol! Duly noted. That means they already had around 12 hours of that fermentation stage at 104 F, given the floral structure.

Let me see if I have this correct:

* Fluffier flowers mean a shorter sweat - 12 hours may be adequate - and watch the cob carefully because it may ferment faster in the next step.

* Alternatively, dense buds will benefit from a longer sweat - between 1-3 days, depending on density - and may be more pronounced in effect if left to ferment longer.

* In all cases, be attentive and thoughtful. Test at different points in the fermenting stage to learn your preferences. Trust the olfactory system to clue you to that point when it's ready for you.

* Keep notes. Telling yourself you'll be able to track the progress in a thread is madness. Lol!

I'm doing my best to catch on. I'll open the cobs on Monday and take some pictures for you. This is great fun guys. Hehe!

[SweetSue]

Aha! I may now edit my posts. WooHoo!

Oops! Tried to post too fast. Lol!

[repuk]

ReikoX I also thought maybe it was off-gassing... but compressed the bag and perceived how air escaped slooowly from the inside.

It was my fault for being such a cheapskate... I reused the same bag too many times I'm afraid

[SweetSue]

Originally Posted by repuk

ReikoX I also thought maybe it was off-gassing... but compressed the bag and perceived how air escaped slooowly from the inside.

It was my fault for being such a cheapstake... I reused the same bag too many times I'm afraid

Ahhh.... frugality got in the way. I figured out with the first attempt at resealing that I wanted to use new every time. You've reinforced that inclination.

[clearheaded]

anyone able to source organic non sprayed corn husks?? or is idea just not to use corn husk at all now?

[Tangwena]

Originally Posted by repuk

Argh... reached for the curing cob to unseal and sniff and found it had lost vacuum!

Good news is there's no mold at all.

It hasn't dried too much, it feels moist on the inside, cob is pliable and soft. Hope enough for the curing to keep going.

Just after the initial sweat stage:
View Image

Today after 9 days curing
View Image

Macros:

View Image

View Image

I feel the fermenting kind of slowed down maybe too much, temps here are between 10-16C, I sealed it again using a new vacuum bag (my fault!!!), Tangwena, do you think placing it again on a 25-30C spot (behind a TV which is turned on almost all day long) will help the fermentation further?

I took all required measures to ensure color rendition. Sadly there's little to do with icmag's maximum picture file size, even having them 1024x1024 @110k isn't enough for a good macro, my images get resized and sharpness killed.

Looks good to me my friend. I see no green so it has been working.
If you use higher temps in the sweat the bags swell up with gas or vapor the vacuum is usually still ok.
McKush uses 60c to 65c and the bags blow up like a balloon then shrink back to a loose fit on cooling.
The seal is still good remember when the buds sweat they shrink also as they loose water.
The color of the buds/cobs also depends a lot on the strain of cannabis Indica types giving darker colors from their wider sugar leaves in my experience.
You dont need the vacuum but its insurance against mold so if theres no mold your still good to go.

[Tangwena]

Originally Posted by Neiko

Thank you for taking the time to put all this great info out. I am ready to dive in. When you say you don't like indicas, is that a personal preference or cobbing them doesn't improve them? I'd like to try a 65% sativa dominate hybrid that already has an impressive citrus terpene profile. I'll try it just to see but if you know it would be a waste of time with hybrids or indicas then I won't bother.

Thanks again for your guidance.

I have on line friends who get great results across the board with all types from Indicas to sativas.
Its just a personal thing I dont like being couch locked.

I am getting a bit long in the tooth so I love stimulating weed.
Plus I was brought up on very speedy trippy grass in Africa and only experienced the Indica type high when I went to Europe and discovered hashish for the first time.

Its just my personal taste in pot, its whatever floats your boat friends who use potent Indicas report it changes the high on those to, its just whether its to your taste or not.

I recently grew an Indica dom plant and while the high was pleasant enough at first it died a quick death and I was then left with a long tranquilised boring day and haven't touched it since ha ha.

[Tangwena]

Originally Posted by HaHaHashish

Tangwena - did you ever see surface mold on cobs you bought in Africa?

I did get a few in the rainy season probably caused by bad storage on the dealers part.
We smoked them anyway once dried it all but disappeared plus we didn't know it was supposed to be bad.
Most of the cobs sold were well aged and hard like wood.
Sometimes we scored new seasons cobs and they were still sweet and pliable.

I never had a clue what the buds looked like uncobbed until we left Africa. I had no need to grow it myself it was too easy to get the cobs already cured by professionals.

You can imagine my shock when I was introduced to green uncured dry flowers. They were def weed but tasted harsh and the high felt uncivilized and raw compared to the smooth smoking cobs we had had in Malawi. I was heart broken and thought my world had come to an end.

It was my wife who suggested we try and make our own cobs but it took years of trial and error to get even close to the originals.
But as soon as I joined a couple of online forums clues from other members interested in the process sparked a new era in this cure and now we have managed to nail it.

What would have taken me 10 years of trial and error was condensed into a couple of years of frantic experimentation and resulted in what we have today.

Still heaps to do to perfect the varies different cures possible but so much easier when everyone pitches in, the essence floats to the top and is creamed off.

All I have is the mental pictures of every good cob I ever scored and the smells OH! the smells I live for those smells.

[Tangwena]

Originally Posted by clearheaded

anyone able to source organic non sprayed corn husks?? or is idea just not to use corn husk at all now?

If you cant source clean husks just do it without them you dont need to use them check out these fine examples of fermented weed by a very cool cat in the UK.