It still might be a couple more months, but I am on it.
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Here is the definition for a landrace strain for those that are interested:
Definition of ‘LANDRACE CANNABIS’
Landrace Cannabis Strains are strains ( varieties ) of cannabis plant that have developed over time for at least 100 years in their natural environment and have not been crossed to other varieties, Over a large number of generations this reduces the genetic variation of the plants and often makes the plants from a landrace stain very uniform in appearance and growing characteristics. Each unique cannabis cultivar has adapted to a very specific location and climate.
Over time, these strains will have developed unique characteristics to better survive in their distinct climate. Said another way, landrace strains are indigenous cannabis plants.
Some are cultivated to make unique types of hashish, charas, fiber of for flower, others grow wild in their respective countries.
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unless you acquire the land race seeds on location its all trust so definitions are limited.
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Yes, I agree it is hard to know what is a true landrace based on someone’s word alone. There are some strains that you can tell are landrace such as some of the very wispy sativas with very thin leaves are a good sign of a landrace…
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But I would not say it changes the definition, It is only that you can not know for sure if it is as described unless you are someone you trusted personally retrieved them on location… Also there are some breeders that are honest and actually retrieve them. Even then it can be hard to tell if that strain might have been polluted with another strain…
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Who is the self appointed authority to make such definitions of landrace Cannabis strains? 3-5 generations of human growers is a really long time. Never mind 100 generations of Cannabis growing. Cannabis diverges RAPIDLY in any new climate and environment, naturalizing in as little as 3-5 years. It would stabilize in as little as 20 years, and be a landrace by then IMO. I believe that the rapid adaptation to local climate is due to gene switching, and starts in the F1 generation.
I would also argue that many landraces in Colombia were not 100 years old in the 1970s. I believe that the eastern Colombian strains being related to Thai genetics would have appeared in Colombia and Panama after the Panama Canal was built in 1914. I also believe that the SW Mexican strains are far older than people think, dating back to the early 1500s when the Spanish logged bringing Manila hemp seed to New Spain, and growing hemp in what is now Mexico and Chile. In the 1700s it was briefly noted that the local Indios grew what outside observers though was just ordinary hemp for the tops and steeped them as a tea. But those plants were grown in in small plots and away from large cultivated hemp fields.
Which is another argument I have with the types that believe that you need to grow 100-1,000 plants to maintain landrace genetics. The plots noted in the 1700s and 1800s were far smaller than that. Grow plots were very small in Mexico and the SW US up until the brief increase in weed popularity in the very late 1800s in Mexico and the later dope explosion of the 1960s. Also as we have seen landraces are pretty much disappearing around the world. The use of parquat pretty much did in many landrace strains in Mexico in the 1970s. After that, the introduction of indica crosses has done in many landrace strains previously grown in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
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Well here is where I got the definition from :
http://budzu.com/terms/l/landrace-cannabis
I’m no expert by any means,say a landrace that has come from the african region and then was grown unmolested in any way in "Australia"since the year “1997” would you consider that strain now an “Australian” landrace since it was grown unchanged genetically for 20 years? Or say for example one of the californian strains that have been grown since the 1970’s or 80’s in California, Would you consider that now a N american landrace?
My personal opinion is that if I went around the world looking for rare landraces I would only be looking for the oldest known strains to have been grown in that area and I would not include such strains that have been known to appear in the 80’s and 90’s on my list of landrace must haves as it would tell me that it was a possible transplant from another region or mix of an original landrace mixed with something else. I just feel if you started including strains that are 30 years or younger then you end up coming up with tons of supposed landrace strains which in my mind would just muddy the waters so to speak… But I think you have to draw the timeline somewhere that is not too recent, Maybe not 100’s of years but the older the better in my opinion as I would think the older the line is verified the better the chances of the strain to be genetically purer.
Maybe my thinking is flawed but where do you start to draw the line to what is considered to be a true landrace strain… Of course all strains originated from an original to begin with and then they changed due to being grown in different parts of the world which caused the traits to change in the original strain therefore evolving into what we would call different strains these days. Well what do I know, This is just my opinion on what I think it takes to be considered to be a landrace strain…
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Well, to start there was no one original Cannabis plant or cannabis strain, any more than there was one human couple that started our species. Cannabis evolved from a population of some other species, just like we did. And as a population with variable genetics. Many debate the species classifications today, and where Cannabis originated from. Likely the stepps of Asia, north of the Himalayas. However, the plant has been used by humans for a long long time for multiple purposes, and dragged all over Eurasia, dating back at least 10,000 years, and we have dragged it all over the rest of the planet since 1500 when the Pope split the world between Spain and Portugal. So we have been cultivating and hybridizing it as we go. The factors involved in making ‘landraces’ or strains are several, but they are mainly due to Cannabis genetics, climate and human selection.
My reasoning on landrace establishment being a lot sooner than later is based on the fact that Cannabis has a super-wide gene pool, and the fact it changes very rapidly to adapt to new climates. Hemp growers noticed this several centuries ago in North America. That rapid adaptation is likely the result of gene switching, which can result in a mere 1 generation and is the direct result of environmental conditions. If you plant a landrace strain (or any strain of Cannabis) in a new environment, it will not stay as that landrace or strain for long. It will rapidly change. In Cannabis generally by 4 generations the plants adapt to their new diggs. This has been observed by many of the Holland seed producers, and noted for centuries by hemp growers. As such, the genetics do not seem to be what is changing, its the phenotypes due to gene switching. This similarity in genetics is popping up in the latest genetic testing by the likes of Phylos Bioscience. For example, Colombian strains are closely related to Thai strains. Mexico landraces are most closely related to Indian strains. Yet they grow completely differently.
So my belief is that landraces are created in rather rapid time frames, and not over centuries, as many suggest. Nor do I believe that Cannabis stays stable in any one particular area over such long periods of time either. Particularly in the cases of the western hemisphere. If you look at the Spanish galleon logs of the 1500s, you will see that they transported hemp seed from Manila to New Spain. This was low THC hemp for making sail and rope. But there was some THC in there. It is surmised that the Indians near the early hemp plantations figured out that the hemp tops had psychotropic value, and hence they started harvesting tops for making infused teas. They drank that tea for the next 300 years or so, and the use spread and the plant spread. Not the hemp, but what would become Marijuana in Mexico. They grew it in small plots, and in out of the way places where the church would not get wind of it. They (the also favored certain terpenes, and some of my landraces taste like mint, while others are lemony). At any rate, by the 1960s there were hundreds of variable landraces in Mexico. No two really taste the same (I have smoked hundreds of different Mexican bags of weed) and they all have variable highs. If the landraces were stable for a hundred years or more, as suggested, then all the weed in Mexico would pretty much be the same, would it not? Same original source of seeds, same genetics. Why such a huge variation after 500 years?
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Very informative and I can tell you know your cannabis… I agree with all of what you said but I still prefer a longer timeline myself, before I would want to consider something a landrace strain… A Thai landrace is still a thai landrace no matter where it is grown afterwards as a Blue Dream is still a blue dream even though some characteristics may change due to environment and selective breeding ,But as I said earlier that is just my opinion. And I also agree that cannabis strains do change with different environmental variables and phenotypes … I simply think it should require more than 20 years or so to classify it a landrace for the sake of not having a list a mile long of what we call landraces. In my mind a landrace is a rare selection of strains from around the world that were unchanged by man for many years, such as a certain Thai that an old hippy smoked in the 60’s, That if he smoked it again now he would still recognise the specific characteristics of that strain such as the smell,taste,looks and the type of high he got from it… But hey we’re all entitled to our opinions… It keeps things interesting for people to be able to debate such things… 
O
100’s of landrace varietys in Mexico in the 1960’s, don’t think so. Try growing for a while with the same plant in different climates and you will get the idea. I have grown the same cut from the same mom 3 different times in one year, and each time it looked different. Why would that be?
http://geo-mexico.com/?p=9512
Also, you must understand the process of how commercial weed is grown and harvested here. In your mind do you see a farmer walking through a field of 8000 plants looking for the ripe ones to harvest? Hell no, they cut everything the same day. Trust me, when you grow 1000’s of plants from seed, they do not finish all on the same day. Sooo, they all are not ready the same day, how can you expect the high to be the same?
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I’ve been on the wrong forum this whole time guys.
Not to get off topic but I only have 5 landrace strains and when I do an outcross I also set clones aside for an incross to keep source genetics clean.
I’ve got a grow of sinai coming up that was supposedly smoked by the pharaohs lol. It will get a full seeding sib cross before its touched by anything else.
I’ve got some Mexican seeds of unknown origin that are absolutely huge, kinda like the pua mana stuff from hawaii.
I’m trying just as hard to preserve the “ibl” and true breeding strains, as well as develop some new true breeders out of the muck coming off the market.
I hope everybody keeps in mind that regardless of background ANY seed has the potential to become your personal ibl, true breeding,head stash.
You can make an heirloom strain out of bagseed that no one else has with work selection and love.
I’ve been doing this with tomatoes and collard greens and onions and garlic and corn etc etc for decades.
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I was actually in Mexico many times in the late 1960s and 1970s. It was a different world then than it is now there. That was from Baja and Sinaloa all the way down to Chiapas. In Michoacan, Oaxaca and Guerrero, commercial weed was ramped up during the 1960s and in many places was grown instead of corn, or along with it in smaller plots. The weed was different from region to region, and even from valley to valley. That entire method and process was WIPED OUT by paraquat spraying in the mid to late 1970s. Subsequent to that for a brief time weed growing in Mexico moved inland to the highlands and central plateau, they were funded by hippies, and grown on even smaller plots. They produced some excellent sinsemillia then. AFTER the short period when the hippies dropped out of funding weed in Mexico and the bulk of MJ imported into the US shifted to Colombia, the cartels took over weed growing in Mexico and the whole operation moved north into states like Sinaloa and Baja. Production increased and seed stock shifted to Dutch crosses. Its a completely different thing there now.
Before the swell of marijuana growing began in the 1960s it was grown on small plots and the buds and seeds were sold at local markets. That happened going back to at least 1770 when it was recorded by several investigation botanical plants in New Spain. Again, the weed was different from region to region. My father used to do tours in Mexico when he was in college in the late 1940s and 1950s, and he has photos of that.
As for weed being completely different depending on what day it is harvested, that may or may not be true but only to a very minor extent. I have been growing weed for 45 years and early harvest weed is more cerebral and lighter. But the taste is pretty much the same and the overall high is the same. While the terpenes and flavor vary some as to when it is harvested and the heat during the day, and how it is cured, and the way it was shipped, there is just not a huge difference from one day’s harvest to the next. I have noted that in my 45 years of harvesting weed, taking early cuts, cuts into harvest, and leaving some buds on plants long after the main harvest, in most cases to ripen seeds. In the case of harvesting my 6 strains grown this year? They are all virtually identical even from different clones, and from siblings, and from first harvest sample to last cuts with seeds. Not really that different.
I will reassert here that Mexico had a huge variety of landraces in the 1960s/early 1970s. It was nothing like it is there today. I was there, bub. I was also in California from '66 to '86 and there was a pipeline of weed flowing into places like Big Sur and Los Angeles all through the late 1960s into the late 1970s. I also have 20 some odd Mexican landrace strains in my collection. They are all very different. The various Morelos strains that I have are somewhat even in taste and high, but there are distinct differences, and Morelos is a very small state. I have a friend growing several of my Morelos landrace strains in Europe, and he says they are all distinct, and he is crossing some of them now.
So I will reassert here that there were at least 100 different landrace strain in Mexico and likely far more before 1980.
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Wow, I wish I had so many mexican landraces to work with @BigSur, I only have 2. If you don’t mind me asking which of the mexican landraces do you find to be the most euphoric or cerebral out of the ones you have? Can you list the various mexican landraces you have?
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would love to know more about Mexican history of cannabis in the 40’s all the way up through the spraying. I guess I am just interested in the diversity of the plant.
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Well, that is a tough one to answer, about the quality of the highs. All the Mexican landraces that I have are sativas. I made notes on all the seeds that I froze starting back in 1977 when I learned that you could freeze Cannabis seeds, virtually forever. Some of my Mexican seed strains from my notes that I have info about the highs. I guess I liked the Morelos and Guerrero the best:
Acapulco Gold. Guerrero, Mexico, June 1973. Seeds failed to shoot after 5 years. Tossed out. Classic Acapulco, but not the best Mexican in my opinion. Rather rushy weed with some paranoia.
Guerrero, Mexico, July, 1975. $300 a half pound. Loose long tops. VERY stony. Warn people about this stuff before the smoke it. Very intense high similar to Kerala. Second most potent sativa that I have ever smoked, only Kerala ganja (also in 1975) was stronger.
Oaxaca, Mexico. December, 1976. $40/oz. Typical green weed from Mexico at that time. Good strong sativa high but not as rushy. Ojos rojos (red eyes after smoking this stuff).
Guerrero, Mexico, January, 1977 $35/oz. Exceptional high, fluffy green with gold tops, not many seeds (apx. 50 seeds/oz). Sent some of this stuff my my brother on Maui. He said no one there believed it was from the Mainland. Grew in 2006 and again in 2015, early bloom, nice long buds, good resin, some rot.
Morelos, Mexico. February, 1977 $45/oz. Mellow sativa high, really good buzz factor, fluffy green tops, very seedy (over 200 seeds/oz).Grew in 2007, early bloom, nice fat buds, lower growing, good resin, no rot.
Sinsemilia (nearly) from Morelos, Mexico. March, 1977 $40/oz. Mega knock-out weed, exotic buzz, fluffy green tops with white hairs (harvested early), very few seeds. Grown in 2017. Later blooming, skinny leaves, tall narrow plants.
Oaxaca, Mexico, December, 1977. $35/oz. Typical Oaxacan from Mexico at that time. Stony but not rushy or heady. Good middle of the road weed. Seedy. Green tops with red hairs. Grew in 1984. Resulted in good crop of colas, but they had a strong minty taste that for me overpowered the weed (sort of like smoking menthol cigarettes). People loved it though.
Sinsemilia (nearly) from Morelos, Mexico, February 1978 $50/oz (this stuff was cheap!) Good buzz, no paranoia, green tops with red hairs, few seeds (apx. 20 in an oz). Grown in 2017. Wider leaves, even later blooming, tall narrow plants.
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The issue with the history of weed in Mexico is that most of it was not recorded. Mainly because the Catholic Church frowned heavily on its use from the start, and the Church dominated New Spain and Mexico. Contrary to that was the local mezzo American indigenous culture that revered Cannabis for its cerebral effects along with many many other plants for all kinds of purposes. So weed use went virtually and completely unreported from the 1500s though about 1770, when there was some research done on it. But then it went virtually unmentioned until the later 1800s when it got a lot of negative press. Most of the weed grown between 1500 and 1860 was for making teas, BTW, and smoking did not become popular until the later 1800s. During the Mexican Revolution weed got a bad rep, and in 1913 California banned it. Other SW states followed shortly after, and Mexico banned it in 1927. The US banned in 1937.
By the late 40s it was black market in Mexico and the US, but law enforcement was pretty lax. Marijuana was not that popular here. My father had photos of it being sold in markets in Mexico the late 1940s, both tops and seeds. He also had photos of pharmacies there (in Mexico City) with stacks and stacks of heroin kits for sale, complete with heroin from Germany, needles and syringes, and latex tie offs, all in a tidy clear plastic case. Pharmaceuticals were always allowed in Mexico, and when I was there from the 60s through the 90s you could just walk into any pharmacy and get things like lomotil and Percodan w/o an Rx. I used to go to Tijuana when I lived in Sandy Eggo to get all kinds of Rx drugs there for super cheap. Ventolin inhalers were like $2.50 each. In the US they were $25.
Anyway, during WWII, hemp was a mandatory crop to be grown by many farmers in the US by law. It was considered a critical resource.During and after WWII hemp production also ramped up in Colombia. In 1943 TIME magazine published its first full article about what the magazine called “the weed.” Its popularity was growing in use, but still small compared to the 1960/70s. Here is part of that article:
To its users, the drug has many names—many of them evasive. Marijuana may be called muggles, mooter, Mary Warner, Mary Jane, Indian hay, loco weed, love weed, bambalacha, mohasky, mu, moocah, grass, tea or blue sage. Cigarets made from it are killers, goof-butts, joy-smokes, giggle-smokes or reefers. The word marijuana is of Mexican origin and means “the weed that intoxicates.” It is made from the Indian hemp plant, a spreading green bush resembling sumac. Known to the pharmacopoeia as Cannabis sativa, it is a source of important paint ingredients and rope fiber as well as narcotics. It can be grown easily almost anywhere, hence tends to be inexpensive, as drugs go. Its recent prices (10¢ to 50¢ a cigaret) have placed it beneath the dignity of big-time racketeers. But its furtive preparation and sale afford a modest living to thousands.
> In most U. S. cities the marijuana salesman peddles his cigarets to known clients in public places. He is known to his clients as a “pusher.” His clients are known as “vipers.” Etiquette between pushers and vipers is necessarily delicate. When he wants to buy, the viper sidles up to the pusher and inquires “Are ya stickin’?” or “Are ya layin’ down the hustle?” If the answer is affirmative, the viper says, “Gimme an ace” (meaning one reefer), “a deuce” (meaning two), or “a deck” (meaning a large number). The viper may then quietly “blast the weed” (smoke). Two or three long puffs usually suffice after a while to produce a light jag. The smoker is then said to be “high” or “floating.” When he has smoked a reefer down to a half-inch butt, he carefully conserves it in an empty match box. In this condition it is known, in Mexican, as a chicharra, or in English, as a “roach.”
The term ‘roach’ comes from the song about Pancho Villa’s car, the car and song being named “La Cucaracha.” The end of the song goes “Marihuana que fumar” meaning that the car ran on weed. Amusing too that Time references the language in Mexico as “Mexican,” and not Spanish.
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Another interesting article I found about Weed inside Mexico in the 1940s.
Inside Mexico, others also disputed claims against the correlation between marijuana use and madness. Mexico’s secretary of public health, Dr. Leopoldo Salazar Viniegra, led a campaign to explain marijuana use and its effects from a medical perspective. In 1938, Dr. Salazar Viniegra published “The Myth of Marijuana,” a study that argued that marijuana posed no risk to society, and did not promote criminal activity, as some had believed. Pervasive marijuana use, however, had never been a serious threat in Mexican society. Throughout the 1940s, only the occasional American tourist and some U.S. mafia organizations obtained their drug supply from Mexico.
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thanks for taking the time to put that info up pretty interesting read.
As far as land races I think next year I will be working with Chitral, Mazar, or Kumoni from the real seed company or peshwar pakistani from bodhi.
I would love to run more sativa heavy land races but am going to have to wait till I can get a better green house setup. but I am really interested in the Kumoni as it should have no problem in the pnw and has sativa phenotypes.
Real Seed Co. has pretty good stuff. They are probably the best available landrace seed source that there is out there.
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The REAL strain hunters. From a blog at RSC online (I want this book and video!):
What does the future hold for The Real Seed Company?
At the same time as collecting these strains, I’ve been documenting the cultures for a book. From this year I’ve teamed up with a German filmmaker to start putting these places, the plants and the people on video.
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