Malawi Gold Revisited: Queen Sativa

[HopHead]

Day 127 (#5) , 117 (8, 9, 10)

Post 66 should read Day 121/111. I was off one day.

Today I finished cleaning/harvesting #2 and boy what a job; the most difficult cleaning/harvesting I've ever had. First, I've never cleaned a plant with only 2 days of drying time so the trichomes were like airplane glue. Also, the trichomes were abundant on the stems/stalks more so than other plants I've grown in the past. On the plus side the leaves weren't numerous nor did they have many trichomes so picking them off was the easy part. I can be pretty fussy when it comes to cleaning cannabis. I try not to waste any bud but I try to eliminate any leaves and stalk so I usually pick off the leaves and remove the buds from the stalks. The less leaves and stalk the better the taste. Because I was making cobs I didn't let the plant dry for 6-7 days as usual. According to the directions in the 'Tangwena's Malawi-Style Cob Cure: Fermented Cannabis' link provided by Weaselcraker and explained by SweetSue the bud should be 80% humid and even "alive". My thanks to Weaselcraker and Sweet Sue for that. So, Thursday I started to clean the bud and by 2:00 Friday morning a had one cob made and sitting in a 40 C cardboard box. It weighs 47 grams wet including the plastic vacuum seal and paper and string. On Friday I cleaned more bud and ended up with two cobs with a total weigh of 87 grams. Today I cleaned the rest of the bud and ended up with 30 grams wet. I figure I harvested around 130 grams of wet bud which would loose at least half that weight if dried to 62% and cured. So, my estimation of yield from #2 is about 2 ounces of dried bud. I'm quite satisfied with quantity so now I'll wait to see what the quality will be. With the amount of 'airplane glue" I had to deal with I'm expecting the quality to be pretty good. Maybe that's an understatement.

Here's the little pile of bud (30 grams) that I'll dry, cure, sample and compare to the other plants in this grow.

A closer view showing all those pairs of calyxes. I left a lot of small stalks hoping the trichomes may fall off when I handle them after they dry. When I cleaned the bud for the cobs I removed most of the stalks, especially the first cob I made on Friday morning.

Here's a picture of cleaned bud ready to make Cobs 2 & 3. The first cob is to the right in front of my glasses. It's in plastic vacuum seal and wrapped in paper bag with string. I didn't take any pictures Friday morning at 2 am: I was too tired and sticky.

Cobs 2 & 3 ready to be warmed up.

Here's the four remaining girls. Not quite as crowded. #5 may not agree with me as she wonders what the hell is going on. "Why is there no sun up here and what am I hitting my head on?"

She's not liking this. The leaves look like it's too hot but the buds are fine. All growth below the light is fine so I'm not sure what's going on. The temperature difference between below and above the light can't be that different so I can only guess it's a result of no light. She may not want to put too much effort up there but rather concentrate on the growth below the light.

This is interesting. # 5's main stalk and branches are really turning red. The lower portion of the main stalk is primarily green with some red streaks but going up the stalk turns redder and redder.

In this grow there are two distinct phenotypes. It only became evident when they formed buds. #2, 5 & 8 have the thin wispy buds (sativa) and #9 & 10 have the bigger, fatter buds (indica). Also there's differences in the heights and the open growth versus more bushier. Here's from the left #8 and 5.

And here's from the left # 9 & 10.

I have more pictures I'd like to post but I seem to have reached my limit (10) so I'll continue in the next post.

 

[HopHead]

Day 127 (#5) , 117 (8, 9, 10) con't

Nice buds on #9. These will be a lot easier to clean. You can see the indica influence/traits.

A much different bud on # 8; definitely sativa.

And finally, back to where I started; cobs. This is where they sweat at 40 C inside the cardboard box. I nave a temperature sensor inside the box which is on top of a heating mat.

#9 looks like she'll be ready to harvest next. She's only grown 2.25" in the last two weeks and some of her stigmata have turned brown so she maybe getting close. Even though she has indica buds she still has the long flowering period. #10 shouldn't be far behind.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Nice to see some real sativas going. When the buds look like that it feels impossible to even figure out how to go about trimming them. So good on you for putting in the hours. I usually end up just accepting that it’s gonna be kind of leafy. Or I make cobs out of it.

I’ve made cobs with completely fresh trimmed bud and I’ve also made it with dried cured bud that I re-moistened. It worked both ways. Tangwena didn’t really like the idea of using dried bud- figured it wouldn’t have enough microbial life in it or whatever- and just not how he’s used to doing it. But it absolutely did work.

Using fresh bud right off the plant it also worked fine but it was very wet to begin with -so it makes sense to partially dry it.

@bobrown14 has some nice red stems going on right now. He’d probably appreciate seeing your plants.

 

[HopHead]

Nice to see some real sativas going. When the buds look like that it feels impossible to even figure out how to go about trimming them. So good on you for putting in the hours. I usually end up just accepting that it’s gonna be kind of leafy. Or I make cobs out of it.

I’ve made cobs with completely fresh trimmed bud and I’ve also made it with dried cured bud that I re-moistened. It worked both ways. Tangwena didn’t really like the idea of using dried bud- figured it wouldn’t have enough microbial life in it or whatever- and just not how he’s used to doing it. But it absolutely did work.

Using fresh bud right off the plant it also worked fine but it was very wet to begin with -so it makes sense to partially dry it.

@bobrown14 has some nice red stems going on right now. He’d probably appreciate seeing your plants.

Thanks man, I had no problem with the leaves that was the easy part. Trying to cut out stems with airplane glued fingers was the challenging part. I got better at it towards the end after figuring out a better way to do it. When I harvest #9 I may try and explain how I go about cleaning her. There's pairs of calyxes at every node that are fat and covered with trichomes that kind of get in the way so that's what I eventually figured out. It then became a sort of process; time consuming but less frustrating.

The cobs I made were quite wet and moisture was evident inside the plastic within a few hours so I thought that was good. The room the plant was hanging in had no air movement so there wasn't much drying. The cob process is referred to as fermenting and yeast is the agent that changes sugars into ? I didn't read through all of the link you provided; pretty much just the first page so I don't know if there was an explanation as to what is produced. Presumably the THC is enhanced or propagated. I just referred back and there is mention of bacteria. I've fermented vegetables using salt and crocks. It's amazing what bacteria do in that process. Along with good bacteria for your gut, vitamins are actually produced.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Tangena doesn’t care so much about the scientific side of things- more into doing things in a artistic sort of way- so I don’t know if anyone has really looked into what’s going on with the process.

I think we’d figure out more info about this type of process from the tobacco industry than we would ever find on this forum. But I haven’t read through that whole thread or anything so maybe it’s in there.

I am a big fan of fermentation too. Pretty magical. And can be a little bit scary at first. I make a lot of wine and beer. Also yoghurt and kimchi. Right now trying to figure out how to make my own fish sauce which is a little frightening the first time... ha ha.

 

[HopHead]

Tangena doesn’t care so much about the scientific side of things- more into doing things in a artistic sort of way- so I don’t know if anyone has really looked into what’s going on with the process.

I think we’d figure out more info about this type of process from the tobacco industry than we would ever find on this forum. But I haven’t read through that whole thread or anything so maybe it’s in there.

I am a big fan of fermentation too. Pretty magical. And can be a little bit scary at first. I make a lot of wine and beer. Also yoghurt and kimchi. Right now trying to figure out how to make my own fish sauce which is a little frightening the first time... h

I'm no chemist but I'll guess that the yeast rearranges the Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen molecules to make either more THC or more potent THC. Sugar, THC, CBD and alcohol are all comprised of those three elements.

We seem to share a few interests. I've been making wine and beer since the mid 80's. I've never made beer from scratch but have long wanted to. Never made yogurt but have made kimchi. I started the kimchi by making gochujang/red pepper paste which took me two days and a summer of moving the small onggi pot outside to sit in the sun each day. Then I fermented shrimp in a salt brine followed by making the kimchi. I was fortunate enough to acquire two onggi pots from potter Adam Field, an acclaimed American potter who lived in Korea and was taught the art of onggi making by a master. The winter kimchi was so good. I kept it outside until it got too cold and then I kept it in a cold back porch. I've wanted to make more but just haven't had the time. I don't know what goes into making fish sauce but finding a place to make it maybe difficult. From what I've read the smell could be quite disturbing. When I fermented the shrimp I used some juice from one of my fermented vegetable jars which got the process going quickly. For fish sauce it seems to me that small anchovies was an option and that in Asia a similar fish was used; guts and all. The shrimp I used was raw but frozen. The shrimp turned pink and the shell was eaten away. Fermented foods are universal and so beneficial. It turns out that without refrigeration the elders knew how to eat a healthy diet. There's a resurgence in fermented foods which is important because that art and science would be a big loss.

I swear that my homebrew tastes better in these steins.

 

[Enjoil]

A quick search of Santa Maria cannabis indicates it's an interesting variety. Not associated with Malawi but rather the Amazon. A long spiritual history of use by the peoples of the Amazon. From what I read it's recommended to regularly trim the lower vegetation or it can smother itself. Sounds like it has good qualities from both sativa (uplifting) and indica (pain relieving) .

My bad brother. It’s Santa Marta.... not Santa Maria. Lol it’s written in sharpe and kinda hard to read.

 

[HopHead]

Day 138 (#5) / 128 (# 8, 9 & 10)

I got up this morning expecting to move #9 to the dark room starting the harvest process but I decided to give her another day or two. I was also expecting to move the three cobs from the 26C spot to a cooler temp to begin the curing stage but again I decide to give them another day or two. Fortunately, I have a room with its own heating zone so I have it set @ 25C. The cobs are hanging from the ceiling where it's 26C. The sensor in the picture is off(lower) by about a degree so I measured the temp with a more accurate thermometer which confirmed 26C.

My plan is to move #9 to this same room but turn the thermostat down to 22C and add a fan to circulate the air. I'll move the cobs at that time to a cooler place. I'll also start making some beer to take advantage of the constant temp. The 30 grams of #2 is now 20 grams @62% humidity and curing down in the basement. In Post #81 I estimated the wet bud might lose half its weight when dried so I figured I harvested about 2 ounces. I now think its closer to 3 ounces. I tried a sample in an unclean water pipe today. The fruity taste came through but it needs some curing time. I'll roll a joint in a couple of weeks to get a more accurate assessment and clean the pipe.

The girls in the grow room are speeding towards harvest. LOL. Actually, I'm a little surprised at their progress. #5, 9 & 10 are getting closer and #8 has more growing to do; she'll be the last one. From left to right in front are #10 & 9 and in back #8 and 5. Indica-like buds in the front and sativa buds in the back.

On the left is #8 and #5 is on the right. #5's fan leaves are drooping and turning yellow starting at the top and working downward. The bottom leaves are healthy green. She's getting rid of the yellowing leaves to allow light to get to the buds. She'll remove what she can from the leaves to use elsewhere; nature's efficiency. #8 is pretty dense and has grown about 12" in the last eight days so she has more growing to do. Her trunk diameter at ground level is much less than #5's so she shouldn't surpass her sister's height but she will stretch up and out.

This is a branch tip of #5 that got too close to the light. I didn't bend her or do anything but now she's laying horizontal and a safe distance from the light. This is the only damage I've seen so far.

A typical branch on #5. The red stems extending almost to the tip.

This is the bottom of the cola on #9. More red stalk and pretty nice indica-like buds having a low calyx to leaf ratio. These will be a lot easier to clean when compared to the sativa buds.

#9 again, showing a lower branch with brown stigmata which is approaching 25% of the plant. I'm checking on her daily and tomorrow may be the day to move her.

And here is the cola on #10. She's not far behind her sister.

 

[HopHead]

Day 148 (#5) / Day 138 (#8 & 10)

Since my last post I removed #9 from the grow room and kept her in the dark room for approx. 36 hrs. Then I cut her down and hung her upside down for five days. I kept the temperature at 18C and had a fan circulating the air for most of that time. I turned the fan off a couple of times because I found it was drying too quickly. Yesterday, I cleaned her by removing leaves and twigs and weighed the bud at 109 grams or nearly 4 ounces. I found the bud to be fairly dry for the most part and many sugar leaves brittle. After being wrapped up over night the bud was uniformly humid so I'm leaving it out during the day to continue to dry it. I'll wrap it up overnight and spread it out tomorrow again to continue to lower the moisture content and do this until I attain a 62% humidity. I should end up with almost 3 ounces when I'm finished. The bud in the picture fills the two 1 liter mason jars and the dark glass jar. I'm very pleased with the quantity and the size of these buds. I'll see what the quality is after it's had some curing time.

Today, I cut off the top of #5 and hung it upside down in the dark room. Her trichomes are turning amber so I have to harvest but it takes time to process so I plan to remove her part by part and clean her to make cobs. I plan to process her without any drying time and cob her alive. This time I should be able to wrap the bud in banana bark.

So, in the grow room there are #5 (the bottom part) , 8 and 10 left. I'll post some pictures when I have some time, hopefully this weekend.

 

[HopHead]

Day 152 (#5) / 142 (#8 & 10)

Just a quick update. #5 is being harvested without any drying time. I'm cutting off a branch at a time and making cobs. I have 2 cobs wrapped in banana bark fermenting with more to come. This picture shows her on the right without her top which I cut off this past Wednesday. I cut off a few more branches today before remembering to take this picture.

This picture is after I removed todays harvest. She has about 10 more branches to harvest.

And this is today's harvest. All the leaves have been removed but there's still a lot of stem. I'm not exactly sure what I'll do next. The stems are covered with trichomes so I'm thinking about using an electrician's wire stripping pliers to scrape the stems. That should remove trichomes, calyxes and any small leaves. I'll have to sleep on the idea maybe try it out tomorrow.

In the above group picture #8 is on the left in the back. She has reached the ceiling and still growing. She'll be the last to harvest. #10 is in front of her and is ready to harvest after I finish with #5.

Here's the 2 cobs and a strip of banana bark. The cobs are on a heating pad which I cover with a cardboard box. For sweating @40C I insulate the cardboard box and cover it with a towel. To ferment at 25-30C I remove the insulation and towels and raise the cardboard box to leave a bit of a gap so cool air can mix with the heated air.

 

[HopHead]

Day 154 (#5) / 144 (#8 &10)

Today, I cleaned the stems from #5 and made 3 more cobs with a bit of bud left over to dry and cure. I found a little tool in my toolbox that simplified the cleaning process cutting down the time required substantially.
I used the little pair of scissors pictured on the lower left to scrape the trichomes and calyxes from the branches and stems. It worked like a charm.

With the base of the stem in the notch I closed the scissors enough to circle the stem without cutting it. Then I pulled the scissors toward the tip of the branch which removed all the calyxes and most of the trichomes and some purple strands of stem. If anybody grows sativa that produces the type of bud like #2, 5 & 8 then this tool is definitely an asset. It shouldn't be hard to make this tool with an old pair of scissors if a file was available. Just a matter of filing a notch. These little scissors will cut through a stem if fully closed so I had to get a feel of it but then it was easy.

And here are the 3 cobs and a bit of bud to dry and cure. The middle cob was the last one and I made it about twice the size of the other two. These 3 should give me an idea of what amount is the best.

So, now there are 2 plants left in the grow room, #8 and 10. #8 has the sativa buds and #10 has the indica-like buds. #10 should be pretty close to harvest now. I'll be watching for amber trichomes and brown stigmata going forward. Happy April 20.

 

[HopHead]

Day 147

The two remaining plants, #8 and 10 are close to finished. #10 will be moved to the dark room tonight for approx. 36 hrs. before being cut down and harvested. She has great buds much like #9 who is now curing. #8 is close and will be harvested for more cobs and some bud. She's leaning quite a bit which is convenient so she won't get burned from the lights. Tomorrow, she'll have the grow room to herself and will get maximum light. In this picture #8 is on the left with 10 on the right.

Not a bad cola.

Not many popcorn buds; outstanding. The Gavita LED light did a fantastic job on producing bud IMO.

My Cannabis cupboard is getting stocked with some really good bud. I was getting low on the Malawi Gold but that has changed now. I still have quite a bit Afghani/Northern Light in the cupboard but I hardly ever smoke it. Malawi is just so superior IMO. Looking forward to checking out the cobs. The first cob will probably be tasted mid May. I plan to allow the other cobs to cure for 3 months before opening them up and seeing what I got.

 

[APAX]

Absolutely amazing !! I also have one pheno that is very thin sativa like, will update pic's over the weekend!!!! take care

 

[APAX]

The hawk pheno hahaha chamba very similar to your sativa quine

 

[APAX]

And this is the ather pheno ,

 

[APAX]

I cant say now which is the more fruitie and which is the more whoodie spicy one as this is the first year growing them out, but have been smoking malawi easaly24 years on and off whenever we could get our hands on some

 

[APAX]

And this is the ather pheno ,

 

[HopHead]

The hawk pheno hahaha chamba very similar to your sativa quine

My first impression looking at the pics is 'Man is that ever leafy'. You called it a hawk pheno so I'm guessing that's because of the leaf curling. I don't know what sativa quine is. My MG has clawing at the tips of the leaves but no cupping. My suspicion is it maybe caused from a low humidity. Is the air dry where you are? It looks like the thin sativa leaves are throughout the plant. On mine the leaves start out rather broad like indica but then get more sativa-like once she starts to flower. From my research of MG that seems to be the one of its characteristics; starts out with rather broad leaves and then they get narrower. I don't see a lot of similarity to what I'm growing. Your plants are dense with an incredible amount of leaf. Mine are just the opposite with little leaf and space between the nodes and no real bud. Rather, it has a pair of calyxes at every node. To harvest mine I first remove the leaves which is fairly easy and then scrape off the calyxes. There really are no buds. My plants branch freely and they all have varying amounts of red stem. I'm going to post further information which you may find interesting after I get a few things done around the house. I finished this particular grow last night so I have to wrap things up and post my results. Since I first grew Malawi Gold in 2017 I've been trying to understand what's going on with this particular variety of Cannabis. It's a landrace African sativa with at least two distinct phenotypes - a sweet fruity with spice one and the woody/earthy one. But from what I'm learning it appears it's not that simple. This grow has shown me that the sweet fruity and spice pheno has two distinct types - one with indica-type buds and the no bud one with pairs of calyxes at every node. I'll be posting more soon. Thanks for the photos, they help me in trying to figure out this cannabis variety by comparing.

 

[HopHead]

Hello all. I usually start my update by stating the Day but I can't do that now because the grow ended last night/early this morning. Yesterday, Day 155 I harvested the last Queen Sativa, #8 and cleaned her and made 5 cobs with a decent amount left over to dry, cure and smoke. The total yield was 300 grams/10.5 oz. of wet/live bud or about 7 ounces of dried/cured bud IMO. She was 85" or 7'1" tall and 155 days old from when her seed was sown. She first showed her sex around day 50 so she visibly was flowering for around 105 days or 15 weeks. I say visibly because she would have started the flowering process before I had noticed it. There would have been a transitional period. I've read some think it's a week or two. I just document what I see and calculate from there. So, in my books the flowering period for MG_QS#8 is 15 weeks. She reached sexual maturity on day 50 from being sown. I could have harvested her earlier but I think I got her at a good time. I had been seeing trichomes turning amber for days. It wasn't hard to find overripening trichomes but they weren't everywhere. She was still making more trichomes and there was still a majority of white stigmata. She was losing fan leaves but still had plenty of green ones to feed off. So, I could have waited maybe another week but I think I got her at her peak. If not, then pretty close.

In this picture she is not a split trunk. She is merely leaning to the right with the tip of her stalk pointing to the top right corner of the room. The branches lean out in all directions. You can see she is about as wide as she is tall. The amount of branching is extreme and for every leaf or branch node there's two calyxes covered with trichomes.

This was the yield after a day of cleaning: 300 grams of wet bud. The scissors in the picture are for cutting the craft paper for making cobs. The notched scissors I used to scrape the branches is out of view but can be seen in Post 91. The way I usually clean cannabis is to remove 1 branch at a time from the trunk and first remove leaves by picking them off one at a time while I hold on to the stem from the base with the other hand. After the leaves are removed I use needle nose pruners to cut off the buds. The less leaves and stalk the better. For #2, 5, and 8 that method didn't work because there are no buds. There are 2 calyxes at every node and they don't bunch up to form a bud. I just went back to the 2017 grow journal to check to see what the buds on Queen Sativa (the Mother) looked like and they formed buds unlike this present grow. Why? Hmmm.

Five cobs ready for the sweat box with plenty of bud left over to smoke after curing.

So, yesterday I harvested #8 but the day before that I cleaned #10 who had hung 5 days drying in the dark room with a fan on some of the time. I find the fan can dry too quickly if left on all the time so I used it continually for the first couple of days and then alternated days on and off. It seemed to work well. I had always hung my harvest in an open darkish and cool place but this time I couldn't do that so a dark room had to do and because of a lack of air movement a fan is a necessity to prevent molds or other pathogens.

Here's the yield from #10: 111 grams or nearly 4 oz. of approx. 80% humid bud. I should end up with about 3 ounces of cured bud. She was 44.75" tall and 149 days old. She had flowered for about 100 days or 14 weeks and 2 days.

Conclusion:
This grow was basically a scouting mission; I wanted to see what the seeds I collected in 2018 would produce and I was also trying out a new grow room and a new grow light. I am very pleased with the results and also surprised. The yields are more than I could ask for and I believe the quality is very high. Pun intended. A few things surprised me I guess. The 2 distinct differences in the bud surprised me. The flowering of #'s 2, 5 and 8 without forming buds surprised me. I've never seen that before in my grows or in any grow. I can't help but wonder if that is a wild characteristic. To have calyxes evenly spread through out the plant on an extensive branching system would give a plant the best possibility to get pollinated rather than to have the calyxes congregating at branch tips. Nature may prefer #'s 2, 5 and 8 while the human prefers #9 and 10. If it is a wild characteristic then I would guess man and woman selected those plants that formed buds to grow and thereby selectively bred a more harvestable phenotype. I can only hope that it is a wild characteristic. #5 surprised me because she remained small and hesitant to flower for so long and then took off outgrowing the others to touch the ceiling. Their branching surprised me. I never saw so much branching on any cannabis plant I ever grew before.

The three tallest plants grew sativa-like with no buds and the two shortest, about half the height, produced indica-like buds.

So, the scouting mission was a success for me but didn't quench my thirst. I want to grow it again to see what the next ten or twenty seeds or more would bring. Not for the yield of bud but for the phenotypes and possible breeding for the next generation of seeds. I would love to end up with a more original Malawi Gold, whatever that is.

The one thing left to discover from this grow are the cobs. How will they turn out? When I find out I'll post the news. I have 5 cobs in the sweat box and 7 cobs in the basement curing. I want to let them cure for three months as that is what is advised but I may open one up in about a month. The cob is interesting when I think about my grow. It seems to me to be the best way to process the no bud weed. I've only heard about cobs from Malawi and possibly Sudan. One probably got it from the other. Who was first? And why?

Cheers to all. I hope your garden provides.