Stunger's Last Stand: Banned To The Balcony!

35 day old cobs - update

My curing cobs are now 35 days old. This morning I took them out of their vac sealed bags and have left them on a rack in the dark to dry before I re-vac seal for ageing/curing in a few days time.

They are surface dry to touch but still 'bendy' so there is still some moisture in them. Drying them out now will halt the fermentation process. Some "bloom" can be seen on the surface, more on the Mango Sherbert and Godfather OG, but a few tiny spots are on the Strawberry Cough too. Bloom is the term used for the fine white powder that forms on the wrapper of the curing tobacco leaves used for cigars, it caused by the oils and salts that exude from the tobacco in the curing process. Bloom in tobacco indicates the leaf is considered alive, which is why when curing cannabis by cobbing we need to do so while the plant still has some moisture, some 'life' left within it, then wild yeast present can kick off the fermentation process, that's my understanding. Some folk have tried to re-hydrate dried/cured buds to make into cobs but I understand that once fully dried it is generally considered not as successful for cobbing as it is then thought to be more tricky for a fermentation process to start when the buds have already been fully dried/cured.

All 3 plants were harvested at the same time, the Strawberry Cough was perhaps fractionally drier than the other two, they all were hang dried for 4 days then trimmed into paper bags for a further 24 hours before being made into cobs.

They have a sweet fermented smell with a somewhat piercing underlying terpene smell. I will cut a piece off them to test in a day or two. If the weather is good on Thursday it'll be a king tide and I'll be off fishing with my brother and may utilise some to have a test of it, but I don't want to go too crazy in the black of the night with waves crashing around us.

Cobs after sweating and ferment stage, 35 days old.
From top to bottom, Mango Sherbert(x2), Godfather OG(x2), Strawberry Cough(x2)

Mango Sherbert close up


Godfather OG close up


Strawberry Cough close up


So that's where I am with cobs so far. Thanks for dropping by and I hope everyone's gardens are going great! :ganjamon:
I’ve never personally seen a cob, but these look perfect to me.
 
Wish we had Smellovision for this one!
Thanks Sy, hope you're keeping well, I miss dropping in on your grows.
Cobs are on track to being highly elevating Stunger! I'm thinking you're hitting the cob making solidly right on the head!
Cheers Otter, hopefully they work out good.
I’ve never personally seen a cob, but these look perfect to me.
Thanks Stinker, these are the first cobs I have seen too haha.
Nice work @Stunger

Very impressive journal, not to mention your skills as a grower. Well done.

Stay safe, and grow well my friend,

Tok.. :bong:
Thanks Tok I am glad you liked it. Altho, I am afraid I can't take much credit for any 'skills' seen in my journal, as they have all been 'acquired' from the many generous talented folk here in our 420 community without their skills I'd be lucky to get a single ounce off a plant! Thanks for dropping by.
 
These days my eyesight which used to be pin sharp is no longer. I used to be able to look at a seed and tell you how many stripes it had, but now, it's like where is that 'effing seed!:nerd-with-glasses:

I have a cupboard that I've been using to store some jarred decarbed bud and my different strains of pre-ground bud that I use for quickly packing a vape with. On opening the cupboard I had been squinting at the clip lock containers with the pre-ground bud in and struggling to see which was which, so I decided to remedy that by putting big friendly labels on them and now I am quite chuffed on opening the cupboard that I can see what I want next.

While mentioning pre-ground bud. My current grinder is useless, it's wide but slimline, what a dumb buy, with hands too big I can barely grip it because it is slim which I stupidly didn't realise at the time. So I put an order in for a Brilliant Cut Grinder whose functioning I didn't appreciate until I read thru some grinder reviews, sounds great. Family made in Canada, they only make to order so it'll probably be 3 months before I get it. So I'll be saving some bud for then. :ganjamon:
 
Those cobs look amazing Stunger!
Reminds me of the coconut / apricot bars we had as kids.:drool:


:green_heart:
Thanks Dohc! These should be even better than those coconut/apricot bars which I remember too, because these cobs, you can do more than eat them, you can smoke them too! :laugh:
 
Hey Stunger, it's been a while since I popped in on mates' grows. Your cobs are looking amazing. I am so impressed and keen to have a go at these someday. I like your neat as a pin stash cupboard.
 
Hey Stunger, it's been a while since I popped in on mates' grows. Your cobs are looking amazing. I am so impressed and keen to have a go at these someday. I like your neat as a pin stash cupboard.
Thanks Carmen, the cobs are all new to me too, but they seem to be coming along fine!:hookah:
 
wow this is an impressive journal. That whole cobb process just blew my mind, I can't wait to hear how good they were
Thanks Costanza! I was really taken with what I had read on the cobbing method. I'm hoping mine turn out to be good ones.
 
Cobbing update - slicing off samples before going into the ageing phase

My cobs were initially prepared and vac-sealed after 5 days of whole plant/bud drying, then following by a 24 hour 'sweat' phase, then a fermenting phase for 35 days. They were then removed from their vac-sealed bags, at which point they were dry to touch but still 'bendy'. They were then allowed to dry for 5 days where they became quite rigid.

From L-R, Strawberry Cough(x2), Godfather OG(x2), Mango Sherbert(x2)

Yesterday, I cut some pieces off to sample and to give away. The cobs after 5 days drying felt very dry on the outside, but when I cut them with a very sharp knife they at first compressed like hash before the knife cut through them. It was an oddly pleasurable feeling as there was a soft resistence where it briefly squashed down before the knife cut through. I kind of wanted to continue cutting pieces off!

From L-R, Mango Sherbert, Godfather OG, Strawberry Cough

This morning I cut a 0.3g piece from the Mango Sherbert sample and chewed it. I kept it in my mouth chewing it until it was gone perhaps 20 minutes later. I had a little olive oil as well to give it the best shot of getting absorbed but apparently there is no need to. After about an hour I was feeling the effects, which in itself is interesting as the bud used for cobbing is not decarbed first. So this first try of early cobbed Mango Sherbert worked very well.

Mango Sherbert sample piece close up

Last Friday I finely cut up a little of the Godfather OG and tried it in my Dynavap, I wasn't even sure if I had put enough in, as it was only really half filled whereas normally with bud I stuff it in. But it seemed to work well, altho for testing completeness I heated the vapcap reasonably hot to ensure I got some fairly full shots of vapour to test. So far this has been my single vape test of a cob. It was hard to say how much different it was when vaped in cob form instead of cured buds. But as a one off, it had a familiar good 'whack' to it, and if anything it came with perhaps more 'clearness' in the delivery but too early to say, I was just pleased it 'worked'!

Godfather OG sample piece close up

I have not tried the Strawberry Cough yet.
Strawberry Cough sample piece close up

I will of course dip into these test samples more over the coming days and weeks. The rest of the cobs have been re-vac sealed and will ideally remain so for a minimum of a further 2 - 3 months, the longer the better, but if needed I can alway break into a pack and take another sample before vac sealing again for more ageing. Folks who have a lot of experience with making cobs, say that aged and stored like this will result in them preserving their potency for years. Sounds good to me!
Anyway, thanks for dropping in, wishing you all well and may your gardens be blooming! :bong:
 
Harvest update - 22oz

Since the balcony plants were given the chop 1 month ago there hasn't been a lot to write about. The plants were hang dried whole, and after 5 days around 120g was trimmed off each plant and made into cobs.

The cobs are still in a ferment phase which they have been in now for about 26 days and will be 'released' from ferment soon and then allowed to age at room temperature. I will carry that out and have a good inspection and try a sample, and once done I will do an update on the cobs.

Seed making

I have yet to go thru the 2 stems of each plant that I attempted to pollinate with some pollen from a male White Widow XTRM x Gorgonzola. It wasn't very promising as the pollen made available to me was just sparse dust stuck to the inside of a plastic bag, it had been very poorly stored with moisture. However, when I started squeezing the Godfather OG buds from the pollinated stems I found a couple of very dark seeds, so some of the pollen was viable, the stems will be at best are only very lightly seeded. I haven't yet gone thru the 2 Godfather OG stems fully to see how many more there are, I don't think there are many, but hey, even half a dozen would be a triumph. Hopefully I will also find some seeds amongst the pollinated stems of the Mango Sherbert and Strawberry Cough.

Yield figures

From each of this year's 3 photo plants I took about 120g (about 4oz) from each which were used to make 2 cobs of each strain. Their cob weights have now reduced to around 100g per plant.

The totals per plant of dried cobs and dried herb after 4 weeks since harvesting are:

Godfather OG 235g
Mango Sherbert 205g
Strawberry Cough 175g
-------
615g
====
This is a better yield than I was expecting when I started this grow, because I did so almost 2 months later than last year and yet it seemed that the plants grew more virulently and almost made up for their later start. Last year I harvested 23oz. This year it is about 22oz.

Although I carried out regular spraying to prevent pests, I was still hit by caterpillars, they especially liked the Godfather OG, perhaps for it's fruitiness, I think I would have got 10oz off her but instead got about 8.4oz. But next grow I intend to double up on my pest prevention spraying!

Here is a pic of the harvest. The top shelf is mostly the White Widow, White Widow x Gorgonzola & Gorilla Glue from last year. The bottom shelf is the Godfather OG, Mango Sherbert & Strawberry Cough from this year. Last year's jars look almost as much as this year's jars, but the bottom shelf also has the 6 vac sealed cobs which weigh 11oz.

Anyway, the updates have dwindled off, but that is the best I can do today. All the best everyone and I hope your day is going well. :ganjamon:
Thats a nice collection of produce
 
Cobbing update - slicing off samples before going into the ageing phase

My cobs were initially prepared and vac-sealed after 5 days of whole plant/bud drying, then following by a 24 hour 'sweat' phase, then a fermenting phase for 35 days. They were then removed from their vac-sealed bags, at which point they were dry to touch but still 'bendy'. They were then allowed to dry for 5 days where they became quite rigid.

From L-R, Strawberry Cough(x2), Godfather OG(x2), Mango Sherbert(x2)

Yesterday, I cut some pieces off to sample and to give away. The cobs after 5 days drying felt very dry on the outside, but when I cut them with a very sharp knife they at first compressed like hash before the knife cut through them. It was an oddly pleasurable feeling as there was a soft resistence where it briefly squashed down before the knife cut through. I kind of wanted to continue cutting pieces off!

From L-R, Mango Sherbert, Godfather OG, Strawberry Cough

This morning I cut a 0.3g piece from the Mango Sherbert sample and chewed it. I kept it in my mouth chewing it until it was gone perhaps 20 minutes later. I had a little olive oil as well to give it the best shot of getting absorbed but apparently there is no need to. After about an hour I was feeling the effects, which in itself is interesting as the bud used for cobbing is not decarbed first. So this first try of early cobbed Mango Sherbert worked very well.

Mango Sherbert sample piece close up

Last Friday I finely cut up a little of the Godfather OG and tried it in my Dynavap, I wasn't even sure if I had put enough in, as it was only really half filled whereas normally with bud I stuff it in. But it seemed to work well, altho for testing completeness I heated the vapcap reasonably hot to ensure I got some fairly full shots of vapour to test. So far this has been my single vape test of a cob. It was hard to say how much different it was when vaped in cob form instead of cured buds. But as a one off, it had a familiar good 'whack' to it, and if anything it came with perhaps more 'clearness' in the delivery but too early to say, I was just pleased it 'worked'!

Godfather OG sample piece close up

I have not tried the Strawberry Cough yet.
Strawberry Cough sample piece close up

I will of course dip into these test samples more over the coming days and weeks. The rest of the cobs have been re-vac sealed and will ideally remain so for a minimum of a further 2 - 3 months, the longer the better, but if needed I can alway break into a pack and take another sample before vac sealing again for more ageing. Folks who have a lot of experience with making cobs, say that aged and stored like this will result in them preserving their potency for years. Sounds good to me!
Anyway, thanks for dropping in, wishing you all well and may your gardens be blooming! :bong:
Geez those cobs look outstanding, well done
 
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