Ok back to some African ganja landraces that I’ve been growing before.
I remember back then, the only commercial sources for African genetics were these two seed companies, African Seeds and Afropips. Also Seedsman, who had their own version of African Seeds Swazi and Malawi, as some of these companies were located in the UK.
Of course African bagseeds were common in places like coastal Spain and Portugal and also the African communities living in South London, where Nigerian or South African weed was also failry common. In Amstedam some coffee shops also had available South African weed from time to time, so if you were lucky enough you could find a bunch of seeds and try them at home. I still remember my first trip to Amsterdam, rather than visiting the most famous coffee shops, I’ve decieded to hit the smallest ones that instead of fancy hybrids still had some Thai, Jamaican, South African or Ghana buds in their menus. The vendor was looking at me with surprise, offering me the most sold strains from their menu instead and preaching about potency and quality… but I knew what I wanted.
Anyway, back to the Afropips company… I’ve always wanted to try the infamous Malawi dagga so I’ve decided to grab a package of African Buzz from Seedsman and germinate some Malawi Gold seeds that a friend had left from an original Afropips pack, which I’ve found were the best representations I could access. I’ve only obtained a few females but I’ve found interesting plants at the time:
Loved the maroon petioles and slender leaves:
The flowers had the classic airy and spiral structure from other African ganja types.
Later I’ve had access to other interesting Malawi accesions, after several discussions at the Vibes Collective, we found out the most interesting versions were the one from Green Hornet Seed Co, followed by Doc GT’s Malawi Gold, who also had an interesting Swazi strain.
This is Doc GT’s Malawi, that was originally preserved by my fellow Lynx from the Vibes Co:
Around 15 years ago I had the chance to get in touch with Green Hornet’s breeder and former owner, an US expat called John who had moved to Switzerland and started a small seed bussines in the golden era of Swiss Cannab scene.
After exchanging lots of messages and experiences, we got a long very well and knowing my interest in preserving and breeding with tropical landraces, he decided to gift me his seed collection. Despite there were many other strains like Very Berry, Erdbeer and some other works too, the main focus was trying to preserve the NLDs.
I’ve received two different lines of the Malawi Gold, one that was released and the other that was slightly
longer flowering.The Malawi #1 was green, large and vigorous. The Malawi #2 was more compact and produced purple and gold colors in the end of the flowering. I’ve also received fresh F2 seeds from a good friend from the Vibes Co who had reproduced the Malawi already.
These are some of the Green Hornet’s Malawi Gold plants I grew that season:
Interesting red stems as well on this line:
Shape is quite different from Afropip’s Malawi:
Males were good, unlike other different landraces that seem to be usually intersex:
Flowering Malawis indoors:
Very wispy but still better leaf/ratio than Doc GT’s and better terpenes than Afropip’s, since apart from the African spicy piney phenos, there are some nice fruity ones that can smell a bit like strawberries or pinneapple mixed with turpentine:
I’ve been working with this Malawi line for several years and me and John had some plans on releasing some of this collaborations after he gave me his blessing to carry on with his work, after all he didn’t have the time and space to grow sativas and was focusing on other projects instead, as he was planning to start a seed bussiness again. But due to some health issues and difficulties to start a legal seed shop it never happened in the end.
I’ve also grown the “Killer” Malawi cut that ACE used to produce their version but I never enjoyed that because being too sedating and not up to the standards I expect from a true Malawi ganja type. The compact look and abundant trichomes show some serious degree of hybridization, which made me loose any interest on using those for my own projects.
I had a friend who seem to love Mulanje Gold from Malberry Seeds and i’ve seen some decent looking pictures from the Malwai from SOA Seeds a well. No experience with any other versions so far.
and I am also a freelance author, although in a different area than yours 
and I want to grow food with my organic solutions 
