Landraces and heirloom

I’m on the hunt for some old school Hindu Kush. @Upstate @Heritagefarms you two seem to have your fingers on the pulse of which breeds/banks have the most legit versions of a lot of the classic strains… do you guys have a recommendation?

2 Likes

Most of the good genetics on the east coast came from the west coast , I don’t remember ever hearing about people bringing packs to California :+1:

1 Like

The real seed company or Indian land race exchange, I used to recommend the landrace team but apparently there prices have more then doubled sense I last got anything from them and are to much at this point.

3 Likes

Yeah. That’s the reason I asked here, I checked the landrace team a couple days ago and was shocked at how expensive their beans are

2 Likes

Because we are mostly greedy New Yorkers😉
My area didn’t see any Cali genetics until about 20 years ago. I’m sure the city is another story, but even there much came in thru the port, not Cali.

2 Likes

There is a growing culture in my area that goes back over 100 years. Maybe 250 years. Lots of very old stuff from Korea, Vietnam and Mexico.

4 Likes

Yes, I also be in contact with them… and after they give prices… well… hell, that are not prices for preserving… I think.

3 Likes

Landrace Warden, Pakistan Landrace Exchange, Afghan Selections and Landrace Mafia can be added to @Heritagefarms list.

6 Likes

I buyed from The Real Seed Company. All went very well, and also includes freebies and their prices are normal.
Other sites have prohibitive prices, at least for me.

3 Likes

I just ordered the Tirah from RSC. Sounds like what I’m after in terms of Hindu. But we’ll see once I can grow some.

I’ve also got 2 Mazar I sharif plants I just put into flower… but those were freebies from an unknown breeder, so no real idea what type of genetics they came from

3 Likes

I’m growing that same heirloom now, if you want to see it grown, only mine is from the Landrace Warden, who has very fair prices and gives a good portion of the money to the farmers. A larger % than anyone else I know. of…Tirah Valley, Pakistan Landrace grow

5 Likes

I like kwikseeds/realseedcompany

2 Likes

Damn. Wish I had waited a few minutes before pulling the trigger on RSC, then I would have read your thread and ordered them from @LandraceWarden :cry:

1 Like

Is baaba Afghans selections ? I have the Kandahar and sholgar from them if so.

2 Likes

Cannabis was legal 100 years ago a lot of places had it growing and it was a common ingredient in over the counter medications , can you name one modern or historically relevant strain that comes from the east coast.
The diesels originated from west coast genetics, the piff plants are northern lights haze , both lines from west coast. Kush is a mix of strains from the west coast. I’m sure some great plants have been grown over there threw out time but have any of them made a name for them selves.

1 Like

Maybe. I think so but Im not sure.

I’m not surprised you’ve never tried or heard of anything from my area or maybe even the East Coast. Until reading high times i hadn’t heard of even The emerald triangle and their now famous weed… I won’t argue that most well known strains come from Cali or Europe these days but to say all East Coast strains come from the West coast is a bit Calicentric, especially with NYC and its busy port being here along with the millions of other city dwellers in need of a supply.
The early legalization in Cali allowed farmers and their handywork to come out of the shadows and the reduced pot prices as a result made smuggling weed from Cali to the East more profitable as the police pressure and weed prices here stayed high. Eastern growers couldn’t compete. Growing for your average person is still not yet legal at home here 27 years later after proposition 215. This early legalization allowed California to corner the weed market and the legality of growing out there allowed them to since corner the seed market too
Some of what was in my area was smuggled out of Cornell University. Most of my friends growing up had hybrids of Cornell genetics based on one killer cutting. It was said to have been g13. I dont know if thats what it was, only that it came from Cornell. The pure version, a cutting, was purple, 20 feet tall with 3 foot top colas. The potency was ridiculous. The cops filled a tractor trailer with it one year and that was the last of it pure unfortunately, so far as I know at least in my circle…
No one I knew had a real name for their grass. Lots of old farmer strains that have been around here several generations or more. Probably afghani based mostly but lots of Durban Afghan crosses were made here in the 70’s and before that lots of crosses with faster Mexican strains too. Probably Nepalese and Chinese/ Korean should be included and i know of one local whose brother brought back vietnamese. I think Cali was better suited for Colombian, Thai and other extreme tropicals but any and all fast flowering import was surely used here for breeding. There are genetics that predate 60’s and 70’s import. Most of the stuff no one knows what it is. When I’ve asked, they shrug. When i ask how old the strain is the favored answer is " older-n- yew". I’m 50.
Not many people know that a little Upstate county of 30,000 people on the fringes of the Catskill mts once supplied the 11 million people of the NYC area with 40% of their pot up until the indoor scene hit in the 90’s. I would imagine that’s why none made its way out West. It was consumed here at a handy nearby market that paid well. No sense moving the weed out west. They had their own as we did…and as far as genetics…i was serious when i said New Yorkers are greedy… The genetics are held tight and typically are not even shared with friends. Just passed down in the family. People were tight lipped about growing too. Tough Rockefeller laws in my youth. Conservative area too. I knew people and did not know they even smoked and then one day they get busted for hundreds of plants. A 4 acre patch was found 3 miles from my chidhood home where I used to fish. Growing up I didn’t know many friends my age that weren’t growers. I couldn’t go on a long walk in the woods without bumping into someones patch. The growing culture was already firmly established for a long time by the time I got into it in 91. Its a very poor area where i live. Not much work. People grew and still grow to survive. Farmers supplemented their meager salaries selling weed. Just like the Emerald Triangle in that regard. Except here weed was hidden in the corn in the river bottoms instead of amongst the Redwoods. Choppers really changed the scene here. C-130’s flew low in a zigzag pattern along the bigger rivers too, taking heat signature photos. . Harvest season sounded like a war zone with choppers flying in the background every day. People stayed further in the shadows after that picked up. There are not many remote locations here like out West. Flying one river in one chopper could do a lot of damage.
As far as the potency of the local outdoor weed here? The best is ass kickin. I’ve been to Petrolia. Smoked well grown strains while there. A dozen or more. I don’t recall them all but they were plants grown from the best cuttings from very well known names and all the areas top growers used the same source. Blue Dream, Super Silver Haze, sour D , casey jones, Bubba and San Fernando kush, 3 kings… and others…purple urkle and purple ak47…cherry lime…
I’m Being completely honest here when I say that i only felt that the San Fernando Kush and the 3 Kings were as good as what I was used to here, with Sour D really close. I had a bunch of Hells Angels call my local strain the Viper weed back in the day. Once bitten, 3 steps and you’re down they’d say. Lol.
I worry the local strains will be replaced with new ones by the younger generation. I have only one of the old local strains, but found out my high-school friend is still growing his famed puke weed and I’m growing some of another friends old family heirloom this summer. I don’t know what it is but when the grandma was asked back in the 70’s how long she had grown it she said the family had always grown it, possibly even to colonial times. His family are Lenne- Lenape, a subsect of the Tuscarora, the Keepers of the Hemp and the 7th Iroquois tribe…there are KO phenos.
I sincerely hope you’ll get to try something from here someday. Appalachia is full of camouflaged rebels and their gear will not disappoint. Thats a promise.

12 Likes

Having lived, smoked, and grown in both NY and CA,

NY was better.
Beasters were the lowest acceptable commercial grade here. In Cali, their commercial is like Mexi schwag.
As for genetics, NY had a lot of vets/agency, and Woodstock / Ram Das / Seneca community. The Catskills, well if you like Sour Diesel, thank the Catskills. As for science, Cornell and SUNY.
But, you had to be in the right circles to get good access here in NY. Ive smoked Piff straight from the Dominicans only a few times, but that pretty much beat anything from Mendo.
California is good these days if you like Hindu Kush / Afghan. Because thats pretty much all they breed there these days. I really think Cookies destroyed the breeding scene in Cali because of fucking SoCal brokers coming up and only buying what college kids in Orange County heard on the rap songs. Whereas in NY, there is no hype - its just a very high bar for quality.
Honestly, when I went from NY to the West Coast, I was shocked how many shitty farmers there are and how people smoke such boof. Of course, comparing top of the line to top of the line, Mendo is more gas/fuel/spice and NY is more berry/incense.

Now, California allowed for larger scale breeding. And then MMJ of 96 really opened the doors for large plant selections.

It will be interesting in the next few years when we see greenhouses pop up all over NY to see how NY GH compared to Cali GH.

I can say the absolute best weed Ive ever had were from these areas:
Catskills/Seneca/FingerLakes NY, Covelo/LostCoast/Willits CA, Rogue River Valley, OR.

10 Likes

That part, right there… I’ll bet them Lenape kept the fires lit for a long time. I would really like to know where those ganja genetics originated from.

5 Likes

Vikings?

They made it here around 985. Set up communities as far west as Lake County CA.

Unless prehistoric Africans or Asians made it here.
Shit, maybe the Native Americans carried the seeds with them as they crossed the Alaskan pass when they first arrived.

2 Likes

Seeds can get carried in storms, or in bird digestive tracts too & dropped elsewhere. It doesn’t “always” have ro be humans that moved cannabis around the globe. …???

2 Likes