Stunger's Organic Balcony: Growing Daughters Of Mulanje: Watering Via Root Aeration Chambers

[Hombre del Monte]

Update - Cob making

Greetings 420 enthusiasts! This post is about 'cobs'. From my recent harvest of Mulanje Sherbert I have made some cobs which I'll soon tuck away and forget about while I let them 'cure'. Cobs are said to be good after a 3 month cure, but 1 year or more is even better.

But in the meantime, I will do this post to show that making cobs is pretty straight forward, but of course excelling in them comes from experience, as there are an infinite number of variations that can be created by differences in the moistness of buds used, to the time and duration of the 'sweat' and 'ferment' stages, and not to mention the strain used.

This is only my second time making cobs so I make no claim of expertise but instead I just want to show the process I took for any who may be interested. I would have preferred to have used 100% sativa but I didn't have that as an option so I used the Mulanje Sherbert which is 70% sativa, which I have found from vaping to be very powerful.

Cobbing

Tangwena's thread is a rich resource; Tangwena's Malawi-Style Cob Cure: Fermented Cannabis

Here is repuk's excellent cob making overview flowchart copied from the thread; Cobbing: The Essentials
where more detail and further flowcharts can be found.

Overview

Making the cobs

Starting off with some buds and a sushi roller to help shape and compress them

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• Stunger
• Jun 7, 2023

Buds ready for compressing

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• Stunger
• Jun 7, 2023

Buds rolled compressed to cob shape

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• Stunger
• Jun 7, 2023

Cob wrapped and tied ready for vac sealing

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• Stunger
• Jun 7, 2023

Vac sealed

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• Stunger
• Jun 7, 2023

The 'Sweat' stage - 24 hours @ 40C

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• Stunger
• Jun 7, 2023

After sweating, I removed their wrapping and twine, and re vac-sealed them. I did this so I could check their progress during the ferment stage through the clear vac-seal plastic without having to cut them open, but as it turned out I never ended up utilising that, altho I did re vac-seal them twice in the ferment stage. I now have a lot of confidence in the benefit of vac-sealing which takes out virtually all of the air which tremendously reduces the risk of any mold forming.

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• Stunger
• Jun 7, 2023

The 'Ferment' stage - 6 weeks

I ended up keeping mine in the ferment stage for 6 weeks. Initially it was my intention to leave my cobs wrapped in a towel on top of the stereo amplifier, but I didn't really feel confident that the surface heat of roughly 28C would translate into a suffused even heating of the cobs.

So, I decided to wrap my vac-sealed cobs tightly in 2 plastic bags, and then encase them in a wire cage to protect against any rodents, and then bury them in the compost pile for a nice warm cosy even heat.

The bottom of the garden is overgrown and easy to get lost, but eventually we found the compost pile.

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• Stunger
• Jun 7, 2023
• 3

Haha about the bottom of my garden, but I wish it was like that, I could then enjoy a toke or have a bit of mushroom and enjoy a lovely wander through the undergrowth! Thanks to @Cold Jack for the pic!

Cobs ready for their 'ferment' stage in the compost heap

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• Stunger
• Jun 7, 2023

After 6 weeks of being nice and toasty, I have already shaken off a bunch of worms. I could smell the funky terpiness even at this point fresh out of the compost, I am guessing the worms could too.

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• Stunger
• Jun 7, 2023

Some visual comparisons over time

After a 24 hour 'sweat' stage

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• Stunger
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After 3 weeks in the 'ferment' stage

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• Stunger
• Jun 7, 2023

After 6 weeks in the 'ferment' stage

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• Stunger
• Jun 7, 2023

Closeups

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• Stunger
• Jun 7, 2023

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• Stunger
• Jun 7, 2023

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• Stunger
• Jun 7, 2023

A little bit of testing

Without waiting for the 'cure' stage to begin, I cut off a small piece about the size of one end of a cotton bud. After 30-40 minutes I could feel a familiar tingle through to the finger tips and a body awareness of it's effect starting. For a bit hit I think combustion gives the best that I have had, but these days with not wanting to stress the lungs too much I opt for vaping which also can also produce a very good 'hit'.

But in my experience in consuming edibles, which is usually either decarbed bud or cob, the effect is different. Of course, if you take too much edible you can blast off even more than combusting or vaping! But I noticed after 3.5 hours of taking the cob piece that I was quite high. I like the blast off I get with vaping (especially this strain) but I also like the long gentle enhancement to my day that having an edible like a cob brings.

I think as I get older that my future in bud is going to be far less of vaping and more utilising cobs, decarbed buds and perhaps some sort of extracts.

But anyway, for now I will let these fermented cobs dry, then I will re vac-seal them to be put away for a nice long cure stage.

Thanks for swinging by, I hope you and your gardens are going great!

What an awesome tutorial! Couldn't have put it better myself.
Enjoy your well earned bounty.

Yesterday I was enjoying some 2 yr old cob. I love the stuff and cob all my harvest these days.

 

[Azimuth]

Nicely done, @Stunger . But where is the goat urine in your proces? I was told there would goat urine.

 

[StoneOtter]

Beautiful Cobbing Stunger! Thanks! I'll be doing some this fall!

 

[ThirdUncle]

nice to hear from u again stunger & pleasing to see the cobs are coming along as expected , great write up & photos .by the way is the mulanje HP still growing?
take care

 

[Stunger]

What an awesome tutorial! Couldn't have put it better myself.
Enjoy your well earned bounty.

Yesterday I was enjoying some 2 yr old cob. I love the stuff and cob all my harvest these days.

Thanks Hombre!

Nicely done, @Stunger . But where is the goat urine in your proces? I was told there would goat urine.

Cheers Azi, there was chicken poop, leaves and grass clippings keeping them cosy warm but no goat urine!

Beautiful Cobbing Stunger! Thanks! I'll be doing some this fall!

Thanks Otter!

nice to hear from u again stunger & pleasing to see the cobs are coming along as expected , great write up & photos .by the way is the mulanje HP still growing?
take care

Cheers Uncle! I gave the Mulanje HP the chop on June 3rd, she is currently hang drying. I intend to do a smoke report on both soon.

 

[Azimuth]

Cheers Azi, there was chicken poop, leaves and grass clippings keeping them cosy warm but no goat urine!

Yeah, just messin' with you. I read some articles about the process in Africa and they talked about how they would store the cobs below a goat shed. I guess the urine and poop fall through the slats in the floor and form a bit of a compost pile, kind of like you're doing but way more more old school.

 

[Stunger]

Yeah, just messin' with you. I read some articles about the process in Africa and they talked about how they would store the cobs below a goat shed. I guess the urine and poop fall through the slats in the floor and form a bit of a compost pile, kind of like you're doing but way more more old school.

Yes truly old school, and they didn't have vac-sealing technology which without you'd think would allow some poopy urine infusion to result. I am not knocking it but I wasn't sure about going that far and then chewing the cobs afterwards!

 

[CaptainLucky]

Yeah, just messin' with you. I read some articles about the process in Africa and they talked about how they would store the cobs below a goat shed. I guess the urine and poop fall through the slats in the floor and form a bit of a compost pile, kind of like you're doing but way more more old school.

I read that one also and thought to myself I would prolly smoke it but don’t know about eating it. lol CL

 

[InTheShed]

Excellent cobbing tutorial Stunger.

I could smell the funky terpiness even at this point fresh out of the compost

You mean your vacuum sealed bags aren't smell-proof?

 

[Stunger]

Excellent cobbing tutorial Stunger.

Thanks Shed.

You mean your vacuum sealed bags aren't smell-proof?

Even though they are under vac-seal and are airtight, the smell was clear in addition to the standard compost smells that surrounded it. The vac seal bagging roll which I used is just standard food grade plastic.

Once many years I bought an ounce of super smelly skunk, and I thought I had cleverly sealed it all up in plastic with a couple of rubber bands no-one would know, but wow and shit, the whole flat smelt of it soon after! Normal plastic is definitely not odor proof!

 

[Azimuth]

Normal plastic is definitely not odor proof!

Nor waterproof. I've decarbed in a sous vide water bath and got soggy buds by the end.

 

[Hombre del Monte]

A little Golden Tiger cob.

No goat poo or compost, just a dehydrator at 30c for a week and then sealed up for 6months.

 

[CaptainLucky]

A little Golden Tiger cob.

No goat poo or compost, just a dehydrator at 30c for a week and then sealed up for 6months.

I can only imagine what the high is like but I’m sure it’s gotta be great. I can hardly wait to smoke some of mine. lol I’m also a little nervous because of the warning . Lmao CL

 

[Hombre del Monte]

I can only imagine what the high is like but I’m sure it’s gotta be great. I can hardly wait to smoke some of mine. lol I’m also a little nervous because of the warning . Lmao CL

The warning is true! It's is very powerful weed indeed. A little and your super high and full of energy and ideas but it is easy to over indulge and find yourself for 4 hours in a very powerful almost psychedelic world that is too strong for many.
It does really need 6months curing to bring out the best in it. 12 is when better, but who can wait that long.

@Stunger apologies brother, not trying to side track your diary.

 

[CaptainLucky]

The warning is true! It's is very powerful weed indeed. A little and your super high and full of energy and ideas but it is easy to over indulge and find yourself for 4 hours in a very powerful almost psychedelic world that is too strong for many.
It does really need 6months curing to bring out the best in it. 12 is when better, but who can wait that long.

@Stunger apologies brother, not trying to side track your diary.

Wow CL

 

[Stunger]

The warning is true! It's is very powerful weed indeed. A little and your super high and full of energy and ideas but it is easy to over indulge and find yourself for 4 hours in a very powerful almost psychedelic world that is too strong for many.
It does really need 6months curing to bring out the best in it. 12 is when better, but who can wait that long.

@Stunger apologies brother, not trying to side track your diary.

No worries at all Hombre, thanks for contributing, and thanks the beautiful pic of your Golden Tiger cob, something to aspire to!

 

[Stunger]

Update - Photo tribute and smoke report of the Mulanje Sherbert!

Greetings 420 enthusiasts! I've not had a lot to post lately so hence my lack of forum time!

<edit> I forgot to mention, for reasons which I still don't understand, my plants didn't seem to get hit by pests like what would be normal for me in a grow, I always think of it as being like the "angel's dram" that the whiskey makers would accept losing from their casks as they age.

Usually I get a rash of white butterfly caterpillars once flowering starts, the caterpillars make damage that you don't often see until eventually big chunks of rot appear. This year I didn't do a single pest spray! Which seems remarkable. I intended to, usually when the bugs are spotted I then whip into gear and commence my spraying, but they didn't really show so I never did. It further surprised me that in trimming the Mulanje Sherbert, I didn't find 1 single rot or dead patch! In my experience there has always been a few bits found when trimming that I have to 'gouge out' or cut out, where caterpillar damage has changed an area of nice bud to be brown and lifeless, or turned it to rot. So I was really surprised to not find a single such bad bit when trimming.

Sorry for the edit, but just saying, that was a first for me.
<end-edit>

This post is a photo tribute and a smoke report of my recently harvested Mulanje x Mango Sherbert, a homemade cross of seeds I made the previous year and this is the first time I have grown it out. To shorten the name of the cross, I generally refer to it as the "Mulanje Sherbert".

A few days before harvest, she is looking quite fierce.

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• Stunger
• Jun 21, 2023

She is 70% Sativa and 30% Indica, and the thinner leaves of her colas show her Sativa dominance.

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• Stunger
• Jun 21, 2023

But up close her bracts were plenty 'gluey'

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• Stunger
• Jun 21, 2023

Even her popcorn rubbish buds looked like sugary jewels and they vaped exquisitely

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• Stunger
• Jun 21, 2023

Like her mother the Mango Sherbert, she looked striking with her red stems

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• Stunger
• Jun 21, 2023

Towards the end of flowering she had purples too

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• Stunger
• Jun 21, 2023

Total 253gm or just over half a pound at 8.75oz!

3 oz - cobs
5.75oz - jarred bud

I initially thought I had a yield of about 5 - 6oz, but as I completed the trimming I felt the brown paper bag that I was dropping the bud into was 'heavier' than I expected. And on weighing it was, over half a pound in total which very pleasantly surprised me.

Buds ready for jarring, and 3 cobs drying before being re vac-sealed for their curing period

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• Stunger
• Jun 21, 2023

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• Stunger
• Jun 21, 2023

Appearance
Fairly airy bud structure while 'damp' with resin. I feel my outdoor balcony grown plants always tend to grow their buds in an airy fashion. I think if they grew hard bats then I'd probably lose a lot to bud rot from the lengthy outdoor periods of rain we get, so I guess it is in response to the outdoor environmental stresses the plants encounter.

Aroma
Present but overall fairly subdued. I read where someone said that Indicas tend to be stronger smelling. I don't know if that is generally true, but in this case her aroma was lovely without announcing it to the entire neighbourhood which I was fine about. A mixture of a nice 'piney' type smell with some fruitiness and a hint of fuel/diesel. Her mother the Mango Sherbert had a fruity fuel/diesel smell, but combined with the Mulanje the fuel is just a tiny hint and now it also has a pine fragrance.

'feel'
These buds are the 'dampest' I have yet grown. I'd touch them and swear the feeling was that they were wet even though they had been drying for weeks. I think this must be the 'greasiest' plant I have ever grown. When trimming her under the lights, with just one touch of her buds my skin looked wet, like I'd wiped oil on hand.

How grinder friendly is it?
I did manage to get some droughting on her in her final weeks with repetitive leaf drooping occurring. And in my experience droughted buds are more 'resiny' than undroughted. To me the objective unbiased way to determine that is from the grinder! I have a lovely 'free to turn' grinder that I am very happy with, but this strain wrecks it! Well it doesn't actually wreck it, but the Mulanje Sherbert's buds really gum it up, and it gums up my vape quicker too than other strains.

Potency
Powerful, strong.

When it comes to strains, I look for outstanding strains, I prefer that they be strong. I am not a fan of 'mid range average' weed. I have smoked/vaped/consumed cannabis for more than 4 decades, the majority of the time it was bought on the blackmarket usually without any idea of what strain it was. So far I have grown barely more than 1 dozen known strains, but in spite of that I would say that this is likely to be strongest named strain I have ever grown (ok, it is a homemade cross but I still know what the strains are that made it). It is hard to say where it sits over my lifetime of indulging, because these days I pretty much consume and vape weed every day so piss weak weed is really disappointing to me, and I am always on the lookout for top shelf contenders!

I have had wild Thai, wild Nepalese, and Columbian Gold decades ago that was really powerful and outstanding, and that was probably helped by the fact that I was not a regular smoker back in those days simply because weed wasn't always available to buy. So it is hard to judge where the Mulanje Sherbert sits, but I feel it is up there and belongs in a place on the top shelf! I felt the strongest plant I grew last year was the Malawi/Ethiopian x Mulanje, but so far I have been solidly testing the Mulanje Sherbert for over a month, and I think this is even more powerful, and so far it's been my one and only go to which says something. Sometimes you can have a strain and think wow, but after a couple of weeks it's effects seem to diminish to become more average, but I have been hammering this daily and it continues to impress me for it's power and potency.

Effect
Uplifting, euphoric, sweeps you up and carries you. It gives a headband type feeling but in a good way where it gently squeezes your head where the feeling is like being supported in an enhanced zone where you're happy and content to be.

Length of effects
Long lasting when vaped, up to 4 or 5 hours. Consumed as a cob, it lasts even longer.

Anyway, thanks for dropping in. I hope your own garden efforts are going great. Be well, keep well and all the best!

 

[Hombre del Monte]

Great smoke report.

Awesome looking buds too. Picture 2 looks very much like a Malawi I grew outside a few seasons ago.

Enjoy your well earned rewards.

 

[Trala]

Informative
Beautiful grow
Great yield

Photo of the Month for July

 

[InTheShed]

Luscious plant and splendid haul Stunger! Nice wrap to the summer grow. on the harvest and the amazing pics.

Even her popcorn rubbish buds looked like sugary jewels and they vaped exquisitely

One man's rubbish is another man's treasure.