Stunger's Last Stand: Banned To The Balcony!

You’ve certainly (edit) piqued my interest with that great write up on cobbing. Well done and congrats on the JOTM nom. Can’t wait to hear what you think of your end results, my FIL is in constant persuit of a “good” high and I’m wondering if something like this could be the ticket for him.:popcorn::popcorn:
 
Beautiful bro! Nom nom
Thanks Skottel!
I haven't yet checked the stems that I attempted selective pollination on. It will be cool if it is successful even it thought they would be regular seeds. But currently I have been quite distracted with my cobbing attempt.
I’ve always been curious of cobbing, but have yet to try it. Very nice explanation of it above, Stunger. I will be watching your process, and wish you luck!
Cheers Dutch, it is something that has intrigued me for quite a while, and now I have the harvest and the resolve to try it!
:welldone: Stunger! I'm looking forward to watching you go through the cobbing process.
Thanks Shed, I hope it doesn't go pear shaped!
Congrats mate. You’ve done very well :yummy:
Cheers McRib, good to see you back!
You’ve certainly peaked my interest with that great write up on cobbing. Well done and congrats on the JOTM nom. Can’t wait to hear what you think of your end results, my FIL is in constant persuit of a “good” high and I’m wondering if something like this could be the ticket for him.:popcorn::popcorn:
Hey HH, thanks, it has piqued my interest for a long time too. I've just needed an appropriately sized harvest and the resolve to go for it. So I'm wanting to document it to give back for all the great info I have benefited from where others have shared their experiences for the 420 hive mind!
 
Documenting my own attempt at Tangwena style Malawi cobbing - Sweating and the beginning of ferment

These past months I have spent considerable time reading thru our own 420mag thread on cobbing and also Tangwena's original thread on another site. It has been great because after reading so many accounts of the experiences of other 'cobbers' I feel almost as if I have already had the experience. Yesterday I made an attempt to post how I saw the process of cobbing from all this reading. Today I want to make a post to document my beginning attempt at cobbing. I will try to make it detailed enough to share with others who may want to try this, as I would be lost if it wasn't for the shared experiences by all the other good folk before me!

Bud drying preparation

Based on Tangwena's help and the shared experiences of many others I will be attempting to create a 'golden' cure, which is said to be more aromatic and terpy. This is when the coloration of the cob takes on a golden appearance after fermenting/curing. Greater initial moisture content in the buds and hotter longer sweat stages will usually result in darker cobs.

I am using roughly half of my harvest (give or take) to make the cobs, what I don't use for cobs I will leave on the plant for a continued slow dry and eventual jarring of the buds.

I have chosen to begin preparing my buds after they have had 4 days whole plant drying. At the completion of 4 days drying I then trimmed roughly 4oz from each plant, de-steming them into budlets which I kept in a brown paper bag for 1 more day. Trimming into budlets would result in faster drying, similar to when buds are cut and hungfor drying they will dry quicker and for making cobs they may only require drying for 1-2 days prior, so whole plant drying is slower.

Choosing the time for when your buds are ready to begin cobbing is all relative to how quickly your buds dry, how low or high the RH of your drying environment is, etc. So judging on what I had read, my drying consisted of 4 days whole plant drying + 1 day trimmed & de-stemmed in a brown paper bag.

Making the cobs

A sushi rolling mat is a very useful help, I borrowed the wife's and put it in a plastic bag to avoid getting into trouble if I scented it with bud smell!

I will use about 4oz of trimmed buds from each plant to make two cobs each.

Traditionally the cobs would have been wrapped in something like maize/corn husks. If I had saved some from what I grew in the garden over summer I would have used them, but next time! Instead I have used what in NZ we know as baking paper and once wrapped I will be tying them tightly with twine. Because I will be vac sealing these, it isn't necessary to wrap and tie the cobs but I did so as I wanted to get a smoother finish to their surface before unwrapping and re-vac sealing them. When vac sealed without being wrapped, changes in coloration can be observed. But regular unsealing should be carried out in the fermenting/curing process so the smell can be checked for readiness, where once achieved, the cob can be dried and move to the ageing stage.

The sushi roller in a plastic bag with some baking paper and twine for wrapping the rolled cobs

About 2oz of 5 day old buds from the Godfather OG ready for rolling

Buds are rolled and tightly compressed


The first 2 Godfather OG cobs wrapped and tied tightly

5 day old Mango Sherbert buds rolled and ready for wrapping

2oz of 5 day old Strawberry Cough buds ready for rolling into a second cob

Almost 12oz of cobs wrapped and tied!

Cobs getting vac sealed

The Sweating stage

Plan 'A' was to use a large thermos flask to do a 12 hour sweat. Unfortunately upon retrieving it for use I found it was too small to fit the cobs in. So as a plan 'B', I placed the wrapped/tied & vac sealed cobs into a large pot and after weighting them down I covered with hot water. I started this about 11pm at night and topped up with more hot water 1.5 hours later. By the morning the water temperature was barely warm, so during the day I continued emptying some of the cooled water and topping up with more hot water. So my Sweating stage had several 'hot peaks' and cooled off in between. I tried to check the temperature of the water but the thermometer didn't work, but I estimate the top up temperatures to be maybe 42C to 45C, which of course cooled, probably down to 30C or less.

So, although I kept the cobs in the pot of replenished hot water for 24 hours, due to the cooling off between top ups, I would suggest that the sweating time was perhaps closer to 12 hours over all for practical purposes.

Appearance of the vac sealed cobs after the Sweat stage

At the end of the Sweat stage, the cobs still appeared tightly wrapped and with no obvious sweating, which is roughly what I was expecting because I started with moist but drier buds to aim for a 'golden' cure. I could see thru the vac-seal plastic that the baking paper looked damp, but the vac-seal bag was clear of any obvious condensation.

At this stage if the vac-sealed cobs show vapour expansion (i.e. they no longer have a shrink vac sealed appearance) and condensation is seen, then the cobs would ideally then be removed and a paper towel used to dry the surface, or the cobs would be left out to dry for an hour or two before re-vac sealing. This wasn't necessary due to the drier level of the buds going into the cobbing.

The Ferment Cure stage

At this stage we try to leave the cobs in a steady warm environment for 1 to several weeks. I have chosen to leave them wrapped up in a bag for some thermal uniformity, while they sit on top of the stereo amp where the temperature is around a steady 28C.

Inspecting the cobs


After 2 days of the cobs sitting on the stereo amp I opened them to take a look at their progress.

They appear to me to be going to plan. Their smell is a nice terpy curing type smell. They feel internally moist and are 'bendy' but dry on the surface.

Re-vac sealing after inspection
I then re-vac sealed them without further wrapping & tying, so any further colour changes could be observed without opening the vac seal bags. At this point I will continue to let them ferment/cure at 28C and I will open them up approximately weekly to 'smell check' their progress. The expectation is that the ferment/curing stage will last for 3 or 4 weeks before moving to the ageing stage.

So that brings me up to date. I hope this can be useful to someone and it isn't too cumbersome to read through.

Keep well and may you be enjoying some lovely buds while you do so! :ganjamon:
 
Have you come across anyone in your research who has had their cobs tested to see whether the THCa has actually changed to THC? I keep reading that it certainly seems like it, but no one with a lab test to let us know what is happening on a chemical level.
That is an interesting question and raises yet more about what is going on with cobbing. The reported effects of cobbed bud compared to normal jarred cured bud seem to be quite special, and yet so far it seems from lab reports that not much is happening. I will link to a post by Sweet Sue in the main Tangwena cobbing thread of Neiko's lab test of cob & flower, the cob numbers are mostly lower than the flower so there seems nothing spectacularly obvious to see. It appears there was a semi decarb of about 70% of the THCa in the cobbed sample. I am feeling more and more that the THC% is a big red herring. As I mentioned from my gleanings of Tangwena's cobbing main thread, there was raised what seemed to be a plausible possibility of terpene conversion occurring from less potent to a more potent terpene. Who knows, but it's very interesting to consider what could be happening to change the quality of the high, when cannabis is given a controlled short fermentation period during it's curing. Here is a link from Tangwena's main cobbing thread of Neiko's lab tests of cob & flower here.
 
Wow Stunger! So much happening here.

Congratulations on the harvest. You are gonna be spoiled for sure now. :ganjamon::yummy:

And those cobs! Mate. I was keeping an eye on that thread some time ago and now very grateful that we have you to document and try out the process!

:cheer::ganjamon::thanks:
 
420 day update

Here in the Southern Hemisphere it's already 420 day here so happy 420 days folks!

:party:
The local headshop is offering 20% off today and unfortunately I don't really need anything at this moment to make use of it.

I have been doing some early trimming over yesterday and today, the plants are being hung dried whole, they were harvested 5 days ago. I have taken roughly 4oz off each of the 3 semi dried plants with about the same, give or take, left remaining on each drying plant. Having a small bowl with a bit of olive oil in is great for rubbing into the resin buildup on fingers before soaping off. I found the stems of the Strawberry Cough to be particularly sticky compared to the other 2 plants, if I didn't have jars of buds I'd be looking to boil up those stems because there must be some good stuff in them.

Taken in poor light, here a pic of a close up of each plant's buds.



Keep well everyone! :surf:
Looking tasty
 
Documenting my own attempt at Tangwena style Malawi cobbing - Sweating and the beginning of ferment

These past months I have spent considerable time reading thru our own 420mag thread on cobbing and also Tangwena's original thread on another site. It has been great because after reading so many accounts of the experiences of other 'cobbers' I feel almost as if I have already had the experience. Yesterday I made an attempt to post how I saw the process of cobbing from all this reading. Today I want to make a post to document my beginning attempt at cobbing. I will try to make it detailed enough to share with others who may want to try this, as I would be lost if it wasn't for the shared experiences by all the other good folk before me!

Bud drying preparation

Based on Tangwena's help and the shared experiences of many others I will be attempting to create a 'golden' cure, which is said to be more aromatic and terpy. This is when the coloration of the cob takes on a golden appearance after fermenting/curing. Greater initial moisture content in the buds and hotter longer sweat stages will usually result in darker cobs.

I am using roughly half of my harvest (give or take) to make the cobs, what I don't use for cobs I will leave on the plant for a continued slow dry and eventual jarring of the buds.

I have chosen to begin preparing my buds after they have had 4 days whole plant drying. At the completion of 4 days drying I then trimmed roughly 4oz from each plant, de-steming them into budlets which I kept in a brown paper bag for 1 more day. Trimming into budlets would result in faster drying, similar to when buds are cut and hungfor drying they will dry quicker and for making cobs they may only require drying for 1-2 days prior, so whole plant drying is slower.

Choosing the time for when your buds are ready to begin cobbing is all relative to how quickly your buds dry, how low or high the RH of your drying environment is, etc. So judging on what I had read, my drying consisted of 4 days whole plant drying + 1 day trimmed & de-stemmed in a brown paper bag.

Making the cobs

A sushi rolling mat is a very useful help, I borrowed the wife's and put it in a plastic bag to avoid getting into trouble if I scented it with bud smell!

I will use about 4oz of trimmed buds from each plant to make two cobs each.

Traditionally the cobs would have been wrapped in something like maize/corn husks. If I had saved some from what I grew in the garden over summer I would have used them, but next time! Instead I have used what in NZ we know as baking paper and once wrapped I will be tying them tightly with twine. Because I will be vac sealing these, it isn't necessary to wrap and tie the cobs but I did so as I wanted to get a smoother finish to their surface before unwrapping and re-vac sealing them. When vac sealed without being wrapped, changes in coloration can be observed. But regular unsealing should be carried out in the fermenting/curing process so the smell can be checked for readiness, where once achieved, the cob can be dried and move to the ageing stage.

The sushi roller in a plastic bag with some baking paper and twine for wrapping the rolled cobs

About 2oz of 5 day old buds from the Godfather OG ready for rolling

Buds are rolled and tightly compressed


The first 2 Godfather OG cobs wrapped and tied tightly

5 day old Mango Sherbert buds rolled and ready for wrapping

2oz of 5 day old Strawberry Cough buds ready for rolling into a second cob

Almost 12oz of cobs wrapped and tied!

Cobs getting vac sealed

The Sweating stage

Plan 'A' was to use a large thermos flask to do a 12 hour sweat. Unfortunately upon retrieving it for use I found it was too small to fit the cobs in. So as a plan 'B', I placed the wrapped/tied & vac sealed cobs into a large pot and after weighting them down I covered with hot water. I started this about 11pm at night and topped up with more hot water 1.5 hours later. By the morning the water temperature was barely warm, so during the day I continued emptying some of the cooled water and topping up with more hot water. So my Sweating stage had several 'hot peaks' and cooled off in between. I tried to check the temperature of the water but the thermometer didn't work, but I estimate the top up temperatures to be maybe 42C to 45C, which of course cooled, probably down to 30C or less.

So, although I kept the cobs in the pot of replenished hot water for 24 hours, due to the cooling off between top ups, I would suggest that the sweating time was perhaps closer to 12 hours over all for practical purposes.

Appearance of the vac sealed cobs after the Sweat stage

At the end of the Sweat stage, the cobs still appeared tightly wrapped and with no obvious sweating, which is roughly what I was expecting because I started with moist but drier buds to aim for a 'golden' cure. I could see thru the vac-seal plastic that the baking paper looked damp, but the vac-seal bag was clear of any obvious condensation.

At this stage if the vac-sealed cobs show vapour expansion (i.e. they no longer have a shrink vac sealed appearance) and condensation is seen, then the cobs would ideally then be removed and a paper towel used to dry the surface, or the cobs would be left out to dry for an hour or two before re-vac sealing. This wasn't necessary due to the drier level of the buds going into the cobbing.

The Ferment Cure stage

At this stage we try to leave the cobs in a steady warm environment for 1 to several weeks. I have chosen to leave them wrapped up in a bag for some thermal uniformity, while they sit on top of the stereo amp where the temperature is around a steady 28C.

Inspecting the cobs


After 2 days of the cobs sitting on the stereo amp I opened them to take a look at their progress.

They appear to me to be going to plan. Their smell is a nice terpy curing type smell. They feel internally moist and are 'bendy' but dry on the surface.

Re-vac sealing after inspection
I then re-vac sealed them without further wrapping & tying, so any further colour changes could be observed without opening the vac seal bags. At this point I will continue to let them ferment/cure at 28C and I will open them up approximately weekly to 'smell check' their progress. The expectation is that the ferment/curing stage will last for 3 or 4 weeks before moving to the ageing stage.

So that brings me up to date. I hope this can be useful to someone and it isn't too cumbersome to read through.

Keep well and may you be enjoying some lovely buds while you do so! :ganjamon:
Wow that’s a fascinating project. Anything that enhances this fantastic plant .
 
I am going to document here what the effects seeded buds can have on yields. Now this isn't from my recent harvest, but from a grow buddy who initially and very impressively, grew out a dozen strains this year in his outdoor garden. Unfortunately because he also liked the WW x Gorgonzola cross that I'd previously made he decided to sprout some regular seeds of that cross and also of some regular White Widow seeds that I had previously given him. I did try and gently remind him more than once that when pistils were showing to be very careful with those regular seed plants. Well when it happens there are no neon lights or brass band to announce it, it was a dry summer and when he realised it was too late, he went out to check one day and found the male plants were covered with bees as they were collecting the pollen for 'bee bread' to feed their young brew, and along with the wind were pollinating all his females.

I have previously pollinated selected stems and in order to make regular seeds, but that was from only 1 or 2 careful pollination dustings where I bagged and sprayed water on the rest of the plant to minimise any further unwanted pollination, from which I got a fair number of regular seeds. However, of his plants those bees were obviously back and forth from their hive gathering pollen intensively. Many of his strains I had not tried, so I said can he let me have some samples to try out the strain regardless of the seeds. On the weekend he dropped around several samples. The buds were so seeded it took ages for me to de-seed just 1 packet and by that time it looked like my fingers were probably wearing most of the resin! And plus also, the process of de-seeding takes a l o n g time.

Last night I only had time to de-seed one packet which was Grand Daddy Purple crossed with either WW or/and WW x G. It was too late to try it out, but at least now I have a small mostly de-seeded bag of his GDP cross to try.

So the sample packet he gave me contained 8.6g of seeded bud. By the time I'd heavily 'fingered' it all pushing out the seeds I reckon my fingers were wearing most of the resin, I got 4.8g of seeds!!! Heading up to 60% by weight of seeds! I haven't yet counted how many there were, but I reckon easily 300 hundred.

Here's a pic after the de-seeding was carried out! And a reminder to take care when growing regular seeds with feminised seeds!

Be well folks. :ganjamon:
 
Wow was I far behind. Congrats on the nomination and the bountiful harvest Stunger! I am fascinated by your introduction to cobbing.
Thanks Carmen! I am also fascinated with this idea of cobbing where fermentation is incorporated into the cure, but I must be clear, I am a complete beginner to cobbing. While part of my intention to document this is to present to others the thoughts and ideas that I have been reading about, doing so also helps me understand what it is about as I try to present my beginner's understanding here.
 
Cobbing update - 9 days old

Last night I inspected the cobs while still vac sealed, at this point they are 9 days old, 1 day sweat and currently 8 days at 28C for fermenting.

I really want to open them up but with school holidays the coast hasn't been clear and the best I could do was take some photos of them still sealed up and under artificial light. I would have preferred to have opened and photographed them in daylight like last time for better direct comparison but I'd then need to re-vac seal them which I can't do discretely with family about. But anyway, they're the current constraints that I am working under.

The cobs have shrunken a bit. The ones of the Mango Sherbert and the Godfather OG appeared to now both have a little air gap on the inside. After 9 days the Strawberry Cough appears more vac sealed than the other two.

I am looking forward to the chance of opening these up for a closer look. By from what I could see, they appear in good order, no mold.

And a couple of closer up pics


So they seem to be progressing well. Any day soon, as soon as I get a 'coast is clear' moment in the daytime, I will remove them from the vac seal bags and have a good close look, and smell them for what stage they are at (I'll be enjoying that inhale!), and then I will re-vac seal them to continue the ferment for another week before checking them again.

All the best folks! :nomo:
 
Cobbing update - 9 days old

Last night I inspected the cobs while still vac sealed, at this point they are 9 days old, 1 day sweat and currently 8 days at 28C for fermenting.

I really want to open them up but with school holidays the coast hasn't been clear and the best I could do was take some photos of them still sealed up and under artificial light. I would have preferred to have opened and photographed them in daylight like last time for better direct comparison but I'd then need to re-vac seal them which I can't do discretely with family about. But anyway, they're the current constraints that I am working under.

The cobs have shrunken a bit. The ones of the Mango Sherbert and the Godfather OG appeared to now both have a little air gap on the inside. After 9 days the Strawberry Cough appears more vac sealed than the other two.

I am looking forward to the chance of opening these up for a closer look. By from what I could see, they appear in good order, no mold.

And a couple of closer up pics


So they seem to be progressing well. Any day soon, as soon as I get a 'coast is clear' moment in the daytime, I will remove them from the vac seal bags and have a good close look, and smell them for what stage they are at (I'll be enjoying that inhale!), and then I will re-vac seal them to continue the ferment for another week before checking them again.

All the best folks! :nomo:
Hey every body i found anothaone rofl #peimpshakkrew
 
Back
Top Bottom