Landrace Genetics 101

[lonergreen]

Nice healthy start!!

Thanks tropics.
"Beginnings are such delicate times." Frank Herbert, Dune
By the way, I notice a couple of purplish stems.

 

[parnelli]

Tropics - any concern about bugs after plants are brought indoors to flower? If you are growing outside in the Great White North tho one may not have a choice but to bring them inside.

 

[Lerugged]

Here are a couple Durban heirlooms and a Malawi landrace grown for breeding right through winter. Seeds tossed into the pots and left to do their thing. Only absolute strongest make it which is what works for my preservation runs. They are a little loose due to the weaker sun and colder temps. The purple is a super heavy aniseed smelling Durban bred from a mother that was from the Durban area and the male was a beast from just inland of the St Lucia area. Pic one is another Durbs but from different areas. original seed stock from 1943. Malawi 1950.

This run was more to isolate certain phenos and yielded thousands of seed which have germinated 100% during the testing round. Now will grow some monster trees this summer. Have an awesome day.

 

[Lerugged]

And Here is another purple pheno from the Kosi bay area. Just doesn't grow to full potential during winter but she was tasty and yielded some back crossed seeds for me. Then just a pic of the general winter vibe. Again all plants started and left outside. Cheers

 

[tropics]

Tropics - any concern about bugs after plants are brought indoors to flower? If you are growing outside in the Great White North tho one may not have a choice but to bring them inside.

Usually not a problem most of the time a good inspection before they are brought in and then once in a good inspect about a week later. I have brought in spider mites but they are very easy to deal with. But if concerned a good spray down before flower of murphys oil soap diluted in water about 1 TBS/gallon works wonders one days leading up to preflower outside.
I do keep pyrethrum bombs on hand but rarely use them and never the last weeks of flower.

 

[Nine Toed Hippie]

"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.

I know this is six years old what what a cool little write up.

NTH

 

[tropics]

Here are a couple Durban heirlooms and a Malawi landrace grown for breeding right through winter. Seeds tossed into the pots and left to do their thing. Only absolute strongest make it which is what works for my preservation runs. They are a little loose due to the weaker sun and colder temps. The purple is a super heavy aniseed smelling Durban bred from a mother that was from the Durban area and the male was a beast from just inland of the St Lucia area. Pic one is another Durbs but from different areas. original seed stock from 1943. Malawi 1950.

This run was more to isolate certain phenos and yielded thousands of seed which have germinated 100% during the testing round. Now will grow some monster trees this summer. Have an awesome day.

Your Africans are exquisite!
They have got me itching to start up my Mulanje grow next month.

 

[lonergreen]

Here are a couple Durban heirlooms and a Malawi landrace grown for breeding right through winter. Seeds tossed into the pots and left to do their thing. Only absolute strongest make it which is what works for my preservation runs. They are a little loose due to the weaker sun and colder temps. The purple is a super heavy aniseed smelling Durban bred from a mother that was from the Durban area and the male was a beast from just inland of the St Lucia area. Pic one is another Durbs but from different areas. original seed stock from 1943. Malawi 1950.

This run was more to isolate certain phenos and yielded thousands of seed which have germinated 100% during the testing round. Now will grow some monster trees this summer. Have an awesome day.

Lerugged, are you saying you germinated 70+ year old seeds?

 

[Lerugged]

Lerugged, are you saying you germinated 70+ year old seeds?

No. My grandfather was a general in the army and collected wherever he was stationed throughout Africa. He had been preserving the lines every 3 years until he passed away. He left me his world war 2 rain coat and one day I was hiding a box of ciggies in the pocket and found envelopes with all the different seeds and the exact area he had collected them. I have been doing pres runs pretty much every winter for the last 20 years or so to keep them untainted and pure. That's the short story.

 

[lonergreen]

No. My grandfather was a general in the army and collected wherever he was stationed throughout Africa. He had been preserving the lines every 3 years until he passed away. He left me his world war 2 rain coat and one day I was hiding a box of ciggies in the pocket and found envelopes with all the different seeds and the exact area he had collected them. I have been doing pres runs pretty much every winter for the last 20 years or so to keep them untainted and pure. That's the short story.

Wow! Talk about a cool inheritance.

 

[lazyfish]

Thats pretty amazing @Lerugged

 

[Lerugged]

Whenever I light up one of these, it's pretty special to smoke strains that really don't exist in that form anymore. My hope is to leave them to my kids one day if everything works out.

 

[Willydread]

Jamaican sativa aka Jamdung Weed

 

[lonergreen]

Good morning Tropics, (and anyone else who wants to answer)
I'm curious. How many individuals should one use for a good preservation run (or any other breeding project)?
I've heard 20 is a good number to avoid genetic bottlenecking.

 

[Lerugged]

Landraces should be pretty uniform genetically from hundreds or more years of open pollination. F2's don't show much difference to any other F's if that makes sense. I use about 10 each.

 

[Willydread]

Thai

 

[lazyfish]

Pretty thai!

 

[lonergreen]

Your Africans are exquisite!
They have got me itching to start up my Mulanje grow next month.

Good afternoon, Tropics.
Can you tell us a little about your Mulanje?
You seem to be very fond of her.

 

[lonergreen]

Cool!
You are most welcome.
Yes Because mountain gold is a cross of two very extremely stable lines seedlings will grow and look almost as if they were clones, so you will be able to stabilize your own line of Mountain Gold for your own desired traits very easily. As far as cloning they do clone very easily but I found it hard to pick a favorite plant again because how uniform they grow.
Also they are very resilient to frost but certainly not hard freeze.

Hello again, Tropics.
Can you tell us about the ideal light schedules for an indoor grow of Mountain Gold?
You mentioned, in one of your previous posts, something about gradual reduction of photoperiod.
Can you elaborate?
Kind regards.

 

[tropics]

Good morning Tropics, (and anyone else who wants to answer)
I'm curious. How many individuals should one use for a good preservation run (or any other breeding project)?
I've heard 20 is a good number to avoid genetic bottlenecking.

Hello Lonegreen!
The more plants/seeds you start out with the better, but after some years you will start to get bottle necking. This can appear as plants becoming more sensitive to illness or lack of general vigor or worst case slide in potency. My Oaxaca Gold from 1979 tarted to lack vigor and became very nute sensitive after about 35years of running her. The best thing to do in hat case is find another IBL or landrace strain which is stable and as close to the desired genetics as your original, outcross one time then back cross three times to your original strain you are trying to preserve and each time use mothers most closely resembling your original.
In the case of my Oaxaca I tried out crossing to African genetics of various types but the f1s were just to unlike original Oax. I really lucked out when I outcrossed Oax to a pure IBL line of Hawaiian Sativa, that was named Mountain Gold the f1s showed great vigor and very similar traits to original Oax after back crossing three time to original Oax the line became totally homogeneous and identical to original Oax. and vigor is remaining very good.
Every strain at some point needs an infusion of new genes even in Landrace strains. Farmers from near by areas trade seeds and of course there is pollen drift from nearby fields.
Hope that helps.