Landrace Genetics 101

[Big Sur]

And even though I have breeding Cannabis for 42 years I am always open to learning something new and always seek great strains to work with. As you can see by my posts I have quite a few top rare, pure high quality selections. If you have such a gem as you speak of, perhaps a trade from my library? Anything but my Oaxacan.
Hell I have reproed in trade, and gave back multiples of fresh seed back to the gifter as well as the given in trade.

I have been growing since 1972 myself. And I started freezing seeds in 1977. I am an experience breeder and grower, and I have a license to grow weed in Oregon. I have also had 4 plant nurseries in California and Oregon, and Cannabis is only one plant that I collect. Others currently or formerly being cymbidium orchids, bamboos, cane berries, Japanese maples, and heirloom hardneck garlic. I have been trading Cannabis beans with landrace collectors around the world for some time now. I am actually long on Mexican and Colombian land race strains, including Oaxacan. I also have a large and growing landrace South African collection that I have done a lot of breeding with lately, IBL and hybrids. And no, the Zac Purple/BSHW beans are not up for trade at this time. Sorry. Nor are my African Black Magic beans, or my Oaxacan super mint beans. These stains are rarer than rare. I get lots of offers for these beans from around the world all the time. Which is odd, in that they were rather common in the 1970s. I will post a reply later here with my experiences regarding BSHW and that area in the 1960s/70s/80s, and my BSHW/Zac Purple strain.

 

[tropics]

ETHIOPIAN HIGHLAND

 

[tropics]

I have been growing since 1972 myself. And I started freezing seeds in 1977. I am an experience breeder and grower, and I have a license to grow weed in Oregon. I have also had 4 plant nurseries in California and Oregon, and Cannabis is only one plant that I collect. Others currently or formerly being cymbidium orchids, bamboos, cane berries, Japanese maples, and heirloom hardneck garlic. I have been trading Cannabis beans with landrace collectors around the world for some time now. I am actually long on Mexican and Colombian land race strains, including Oaxacan. I also have a large and growing landrace South African collection that I have done a lot of breeding with lately, IBL and hybrids. And no, the Zac Purple/BSHW beans are not up for trade at this time. Sorry. Nor are my African Black Magic beans, or my Oaxacan super mint beans. These stains are rarer than rare. I get lots of offers for these beans from around the world all the time. Which is odd, in that they were rather common in the 1970s. I will post a reply later here with my experiences regarding BSHW and that area in the 1960s/70s/80s, and my BSHW/Zac Purple strain.

Very cool!
We seem to have a lot in common, Cymbidium is still my favorite orchid Though Because I move twice a year I cannot keep them. Garlic is still a staple in my garden up north, my favorite strain is Music a purple skinned garlic. The largest part of my adult life was breeding Cypripedium,
{Hardy Ladyslipper orchid Species} of which I named six hybrids From seed in the lab, to greenhouse to out in the field to sale.
I look forward to your future posts.
My passion has always been Cannabis

 

[Big Sur]

Very cool!
We seem to have a lot in common, Cymbidium is still my favorite orchid Though Because I move twice a year I cannot keep them. Garlic is still a staple in my garden up north, my favorite strain is Music a purple skinned garlic. The largest part of my adult life was breeding Cypripedium,
{Hardy Ladyslipper orchid Species} of which I named six hybrids From seed in the lab, to greenhouse to out in the field to sale.
I look forward to your future posts.
My passion has always been Cannabis

Cannabis is only one of my passions. Orchids were more interesting to me and bamboos are more my passion now. My orchid collection is now on permanent loan in Sonoma County, CA. They did not do well this far north. I tried growing them here in greenhouses, but I gave up and took them back south. I was trained in orchids culture by one of the founders of the Orchid Zone in north Monterey Co. He and his partner had a ton of rare orchid genetics. I have grown over 75 strains of garlic, mostly hardnecks. My favorite garlic strain is Italian Easy Peel, but close seconds are Spanish Roja and Premium Northern White. With garlic and orchids I specialized in rare top quality award winning strains that were all but extinct. Similar to Cannabis, though I never thought that these beans would be rare some day.

 

[tropics]

Cannabis is only one of my passions. Orchids were more interesting to me and bamboos are more my passion now. My orchid collection is now on permanent loan in Sonoma County, CA. They did not do well this far north. I tried growing them here in greenhouses, but I gave up and took them back south. I was trained in orchids culture by one of the founders of the Orchid Zone in north Monterey Co. He and his partner had a ton of rare orchid genetics. I have grown over 75 strains of garlic, mostly hardnecks. My favorite garlic strain is Italian Easy Peel, but close seconds are Spanish Roja and Premium Northern White. With garlic and orchids I specialized in rare top quality award winning strains that were all but extinct. Similar to Cannabis, though I never thought that these beans would be rare some day.

Sounds like a you have a very full good life,
Even though I have other gardening passions it seems more difficult to keep the motivation factor in them with the changing in weather systems gardening has gotten more chalendging, like here for instance it has been just to hot for most of what would be the growable crops here. Fortnately the mornings have been descent enough to get out on daily bike rides. Sounds like you have wonderful gardens.

 

[Big Sur]

I only can only offer what I have been told about this line and verify it with the research availble either inherent or on the web And write what has been substantiated by all the available literature that Big Sur Holy Weed is a cross of Purple Zacatecas X unknown Afghani. Two accounts One Jerry Kamstra says in the book of weed 1974 a hippie grower grew Zacatecas in the Hills in southern Cali. but that doesn't say wether he kept it pure or crossed it. The other most widely published account is that a Monk named Perry made the cross after comming back from Mexico doing missionary work there And Kangu of Ocean Seeds Co in southern Cali picked up the line in the late sixties. If that is incorrect I would be thrilled if you would point me to a more accurate documentation.

Yes, there is a lot of misinformation out there about Big Sur Holy Weed (BSHW), Zacatecas Purple and the later SAGE. Not much documentation on any of them either, and much of it is pure bunk. Forums are full of amusing speculation on these strains. Sadly, most confuse BSHW with SAGE, which is available and typically sold as BSHW. Also Zac Purple is often times confused with Zihuatanejo Purple. Anyone can call a strain whatever they want though, so there is little credibility in strain names. BSHW was a local IBL line of Zacatecas Purple grown in Big Sur for at least a decade (from about 1969 to at least 1979 when mine was grown). It was a pure sativa. The tiny purple beans from it grow into huge tall plants that turn purple when flowering. SAGE was the later intentional cross done in the Big Sur area with an Afghani strain. Hence the acronym name for SAGE: Sativa Afghani Genetic Equilibrium. Also BSHW was the sativa in SAGE. It was not Haze as many claim and have posted online.

All the bag weed in the Monterey Bay area in the 1960s through the mid 1970s was primarily sativa weed from Mexico, SE Asia or Colombia, with occasional sativa rarities from Africa, Jamaica and India. The indica came to us in the form of hashish. But there were no seeds in hashish. Big Sur in the 1970s was also a hub for Mexican weed imported directly from Mexico by several groups of hippies. In my experience living in that area from 1966 to 1986, the locals grew sativas from bag weed seed up until the late 1970s. I bought a lot of sinsemilla from various places along the South Coast (our name for the Bg Sur coastline) in the late 70s and early 1980s before the prices ramped up steeply around 1982 and we were priced out of the market (thank the a-holes at High Times for that). Most of it was green weed with red or white hairs. I bought this particular bag of purple weed in Big Sur from a friend in early 1980, so it was grown in 1979. It was simply called, "Purple."

Exactly when SAGE was bred I do not know, but it was done somewhere on the South Coast and SAGE is what everyone calls BSHW now. Dunno why they do not just call it what it is: SAGE. Maybe that does not sell as well? I was not aware of SAGE at the time I lived there and I never saw any SAGE weed. The sativa-indica crosses popped up all over Central California in the late 1970s though, including skunkweed and various Purple strains of sinsemilla. But before then, it was all sativas, and most of that was imported. As for who brought Zac Purple back? The Perry the Monk story fails in my book for reasons that I will not get into. Another story claims that a guy named Danebo brought it back and grew it in Lucia, a small blip on the South Coast just south of Big Sur proper. It could have been him or a dozen other of the guys like him that brought in truckloads of weed from Mexico to the South Coast in the 60s and 70s. What I do know is that I have these purple beans from a bag of "Purple" weed that I got on Partington Ridge in Big Sur in February, 1980 that grow into large purple sativas that match Kamstra's and others' description of Zac Purple exactly. There is no indica in this strain. They grow consistently like most other Mexican landrace sativas that I have grown, with little pheno variation within the line.

 

[CannaFish]

Hey Tropics those ethiopians look amazing. Some of the Africans have some really bold flowers with great resin. I've yet to grow any.

I've never been successful with orchids. My side thing is growing palms and aloes from seed. I have plans to make some novel aloe hybrids. It's slow going. Hopefully I live a long time in a frost free zone haha.

First 2 pics are F2s of chimera's '73 Highland Guerrero x Blueberry. Not quite landrace but working my way up.

the last 3 photos are a colombian cross of punto rojo x mangobiche. i love it.

 

[lazyfish]

Beautiful pics, @CannaFish

 

[Big Sur]

Zac Purple descriptions from Jerry Kanstra's book Weed, a Bantam Book, published 1974:

page 155:

Zacatecas Purple is a variety of marijuana that grows in a particular high mountain valley in the state of Zacatecas. When cured, the seeds from the colas have a distinctive purple hue, and the weed is extremely potent, especially if it is allowed to cure properly. In the late sixties a beatnik dealer planted a crop using some Zacatecas Purple seed in the mountains of Big Sur. The resultant weed came to be known as the Big Sur Holy Weed, and holy it was, too.

page 274:

Purple Zacatecas Purple. A high-quality marijuana that grows in the mountainous state of Zacatecas in central Mexico. Zacatecas Purple is distinguished by seeds that turn purple, or a rich reddish purple color the weed is dry. Extremely good weed, much sought after by heads.

 

[Big Sur]

Zac Purple/BSHW description From High Culture : Marijuana in the Lives of Americans by William Novak, Chapter 11. Varieties of Marijuana

The center of the marijuana-growing industry in the United States is in northern California, especially Humboldt County, where growers use the latest scientific methods to produce first-quality crops. California marijuana is not only as good as most foreign varieties but far more likely to reach American consumers in a relatively fresh state, at or near peak potency. Among the best California varieties is one known as Big Sur Holy Weed, which was originally grown from seeds of Zacatecas Purple, a rare Mexican strain.

 

[Big Sur]

the last 3 photos are a colombian cross of punto rojo x mangobiche. i love it.

Now I want to grow those PuntoMango beans that I have!

 

[tropics]

Hey Tropics those ethiopians look amazing. Some of the Africans have some really bold flowers with great resin. I've yet to grow any.

I've never been successful with orchids. My side thing is growing palms and aloes from seed. I have plans to make some novel aloe hybrids. It's slow going. Hopefully I live a long time in a frost free zone haha.

First 2 pics are F2s of chimera's '73 Highland Guerrero x Blueberry. Not quite landrace but working my way up.

the last 3 photos are a colombian cross of punto rojo x mangobiche. i love it.

Thank you CannaFish!
Well your columbian Cross is as close to pure landrace most people will ever get'
Nice job!

 

[tropics]

Zac Purple descriptions from Jerry Kanstra's book Weed, a Bantam Book, published 1974:

page 155:

Zacatecas Purple is a variety of marijuana that grows in a particular high mountain valley in the state of Zacatecas. When cured, the seeds from the colas have a distinctive purple hue, and the weed is extremely potent, especially if it is allowed to cure properly. In the late sixties a beatnik dealer planted a crop using some Zacatecas Purple seed in the mountains of Big Sur. The resultant weed came to be known as the Big Sur Holy Weed, and holy it was, too.

page 274:

Purple Zacatecas Purple. A high-quality marijuana that grows in the mountainous state of Zacatecas in central Mexico. Zacatecas Purple is distinguished by seeds that turn purple, or a rich reddish purple color the weed is dry. Extremely good weed, much sought after by heads.

Thank you Big Sur for pulling this up!

 

[saltybluegrass]

"Heirloom And Landrace Cannabis Strains"

by Rick Pfrommer, Director of Education, Harborside Health Center

Original landrace and other heirloom strains are often lost in today’s hyperkinetic world of breeding. ‘Landrace’ refers to strains that are indigenous to an area, such as Red Congolese. ‘Heirlooms’ are strains that were collected worldwide during the 1970s and propagated in Hawaii and Northern California. Our constant desire for new strains leads breeders to continually cross and re-cross existing strains looking for the next big thing. There is, however, a small but growing contingent of cultivators who’re returning to our cannabis roots and propagating old landrace and heirloom strains. Varieties range from pure African sativas to Afghani indicas, collected by world travelers on the infamous Hippie Trail (also referred to as the “Hashish Trail”).

All during the 1970s and early 1980s, cannabis aficionados of all stripes traveled the world smoking the finest cannabis and hashish available. From Nepalese temple balls to the famed Mazar-i-Sharif Afghani Black, the Hashish Trail was filled with exotic delights. The trail rolls on through Lebanese Red to Moroccan Kif, with stops in Bangkok for Chocolate Thai, and Columbia and Mexico for their infamous golden strains. Many of these intrepid souls also collected seeds during their travels. It was these landrace strains that became the basis for the nascent cultivation culture that eventually sprang forth in both Hawaii and Northern California.

Talk with any cannabis connoisseur old enough to remember these legendary strains and you’ll come away with tales of their epic strength. Equatorial sativas from Africa to Vietnam flourished in Hawaii’s tropical dreamscape of cannabis cultivation. Indicas from Afghanistan were more at home in Northern California’s cooler climate. I was fortunate enough to live on the Big Island of Hawaii from 1993 to 1997, and I can attest that the best cannabis I have EVER smoked was grown in volcanic soil on the slopes of the largest active volcano in the world, Mauna Loa. By the time I got there almost everything grown in Hawaii was some combination of genetics, no longer a landrace. Yet a few of the old-timers still had access to the classic ’70s strains, making for a wonderfully unique and diverse smoking experience.

From Nepalese temple balls to the famed Mazar-i-Sharif Afghani Black, the Hashish Trail was filled with exotic delights.

The scene in California at this time was slightly different. Northern California, as beautiful as it is, ain’t Hawaii. The Emerald Triangle rests approximately on the same parallel as Afghanistan and the Hindu Kush mountains. While Southern Californians could grow Columbian and Mexican sativas, their northern counterparts found the stocky indica plants much better adapted for their climate. Shorter flowering time allowed harvest to occur before the fall rains came with their mold-inducing downpours. These short and chunky plants produced the infamous skunkweed that became Northern California’s calling card. Again, anyone old enough to remember this cannabis will never forget the pungent, almost rancid, skunk-like aroma. I remember going to parties in the early ’80s with this herb double-bagged-and still being outed minutes after walking in. “Yo man, I know you’re holding, share the love!” Our own Steve DeAngelo also has memories of this era, saying that to this day he’s not seen cannabis like what he saw from Northen California in the late ’70s and early ’80s.

So what does all this nostalgia mean for modern patients and cannabis aficionados? Well, several breeders have also recognized the value in these old-school strains. Ace Seeds, CannaBioGenn, Reeferman Seeds and Tom Hill, as well as the one-and-only Neville, are all selling a wide variety of landrace and heirloom seeds. Look for some of these to be available at Harborside in the near future. Growers who’re looking for ways to stay ahead of the curve in an increasingly competitive environment are turning to these varieties. For patients, many of these strains offer powerful relief in a different fashion than some of the more modern varietals. It’s not that they’re necessarily better, just different, and perhaps more effective for some patients’ specific conditions or needs. In any case, they’re strains definitely worth checking out.

can i recapture the San Diego Navy park where i bought some Humboldt county? Can i rekindle the mexican sense in the 1978 florida beaches? please someone link me. thanks
My friend put me in the car at Pearl Harbor Navy Station to show me a guy growing in his yard- we pulled up and i saw a guy spraying a 9 foot hedge around his backyard as i saw through the driveway. Where’s his plant? i asked my friend. “He’s watering them “ lol - had a BIG DOG too

 

[Ganjagrowergu]

A few more weeks and I will have room to start my Punto Rojo x (Mazar x Guerrero) seed run. I have 6 of these F1 beans left so I will be making some F2s. The fun doesnt really start until I pheno pick those.

 

[Pennywise]

Nice, I recently picked up a pack of Punta Rojo from Cannabiogen. That will be my big project for next summer.

 

[Ganjagrowergu]

Nice, I recently picked up a pack of Punta Rojo from Cannabiogen. That will be my big project for next summer.

I dont have funds to risk purchasing from outside of the USA, or I would jump all over some pure Punta Rojo. So I will have to put in a lot of time finding and crossing the right phenos to try and get it right. This one didn't turn out bad at all. Chopped the lower half (today) about one week after I chopped the tops.

Columbian Red Point x Unknown

• Ganjagrowergu
• Dec 3, 2018

Lowers

Columbian Red Point x Unknown

• Ganjagrowergu
• Dec 3, 2018

Lowers

Columbian Red Point x Unknown

• Ganjagrowergu
• Dec 3, 2018

Root porn

Starting to finally have a decent stash on hand so I dont have to cut "test buds" when the wife and I run out.

 

[Pennywise]

A good head stash is sweet. Nice big chunky flowers for a Sativa!

 

[Ganjagrowergu]

A good head stash is sweet. Nice big chunky flowers for a Sativa!

QBs... don't really know what else to say. Lol. She would have yielded more but she was a victim of poor ph (7.5) for 6 weeks or so in mid flower. I dont recommend laziness in that area...

 

[Pennywise]

I check ph every feeding, I've learned my lesson.