Hi all! My next grow is getting underway. In addition to all of the JS F2’s I’m growing, I’m also going to run a few plants from around S. Africa.
I have a few varieties in the tent this run:
3x Cannabiogen Durban
5x Durban (Dutch x Landrace)
1x Lesotho
My main goals for these plants are to reproduce some more CBG seeds for myself, observe differences between theirs and the influence of Skunk in the Dutch varieties, and test/compare the Lesotho.
Earlier this year, I traded a collector for about 100 seeds from Lesotho. I don’t really know much about them other than that. What I do know about the country is that they are a large producer of cannabis in S. Africa. Much of the cannabis sold as “Durban” is exported from that region. Most importantly for me and other Colorado growers, is that Lesotho is mainly a mountainous region ~5k feet (similar to the front range). It’s also an arid climate, and suitably far enough South that it should have similar growing seasons. At face value, it seems like a rare chance for an easily adaptable sativa to Colorado’s outdoor growing season.
My hope is that I can find some quality plants in this stash of seeds, and do some selection on them before the next outdoor season here. This run is just to get a first look at what I can expect from those seeds… and to help inform me about whether I’d be wasting my time with them.
Here’s what the CBG Durban looks like. Very narrow leaves and surprisingly stinky in veg. This one is much farther along than the other 2. I had some issues with germination, initially sprouting 5. 3 survived, but the other 2 nearly damped off. I re-buried them after their initial stretch and nursed them back to health.
Just pulled clones from her last night. Chopped off 4 lower branches and a top. Preflowers suggest this one is a lady. It’s farther along than the others, so I also topped it so it doesn’t get too tall.
I’m going to denote these two Durbans as Dutch Durban and CBG Durban, because they’re quite different looking. Dutch Durban is actually half landrace, so should actually be even a little more sativa leaning than a regular Dutch Durban. Nonetheless, ain’t nowhere near as narrow leaves as the CBG. As you can see, it’s denser and squattier as well.
The Lesotho is already looking great. It seems to love the ~40% humidity in my basement much more than most other plants. Easy to grow for me so far compared to the CBG. Happy to see that the leaves are pretty narrow, and interestingly is producing 5-finger leaves much earlier than the CBG Durban. Also has softer serrations on the leaf margins. A few differences in the leaf morphology seems to indicate it’ll be distinct from the CBG line.
fill those trays up with water man, that extra humidity is worth it in veg
or run hot water over some towels and line them dudes around the inside of your tent. pain in the ass resoaking and putting back into place though
I do have a drip tray underneath that’s got some water in it. And now that my bubble cloner is filled up, should help out it my little starter tent. I need to get more humidity into my flower tent where the bigger plants are. Towels is a great idea… lots more surface with the towel area should do a really good job at adding humidity.
Love the subtle leaf variations. Super healthy. Same temps and humidity, but we’re squeezed between the ocean and the mountains. I thought that was about the perfect humidity. Hopefully with the low humidity I won’t run into mold issues. Looking beautiful my man.
Nice I was wondering if you were some kind of indica junkie or something seeing most of your grows. I occasionally like a strong indica, but I’d take the durban any day…this should be good!
Quite the opposite, but I can understand why it seems that way.
Actually, I think I generally like sativa leaning hybrids most. I’ve been growing a lot of indica lately, because I want something to different/new to breed with. I needed to try a bunch of stuff and find what I like. Once I stabilize some of my lines and get them where I want, I’ll be spending a lot more time working with pure sativas.
I’m the same way, a sat leaning hybrid is where it’s at. Between the pure indicas you’ve been selecting from and some pure sativas you should be getting some great crosses without the overly diluted genes of modern stuff.
I’ve been drooling over the jungle spice, I think it will be the type of hybrid I really enjoy. Gonna let it go 9 weeks although I could probably have taken it at 8, it chunked up and started ripening really quickly in the last week (7-8)
Anyways… rambling lol. I’ll be following this one!
9 weeks is about right for this strain. You’re gonna love it! There’s probably a lot of variation in the F2s… I’ve definitely already culled some freaks. But I’m still expecting to find plenty of very terpy lemon/pine phenos.
Exactly! I understand the value of breeding with a Kush (which is all the rage right now…), but IMO Afghanis produce much more interesting hybrids. So one thing I’m trying to do is bring those Hindu/Bubba Kush large, dense resin glands along through several more Afghani crosses, but really try and downplay the other aspects, like the kush smell and effect that is so prevalent now.
I was really happy to see it in the 1st generation cross of the Black Domina x Dakini (Hindu x Bubba). BlackDak came out with all the peppery terps of the Domina I used, but had resin glands more like a Kush than Domina.
Actually my jsf2s were very similar. The one I lost the mom of is freaking huge…I was pissed that I didn’t have a copy but the second has almost caught up in size and has a way more exciting smell. I’ll be keeping it around for a while.
That’s interesting about the afghanis. Do you find in general that indicas are better yielding than sativas? I’ve really only ever grown hybrids…
Really depends on a lot of things. Really pure sativas usually have pretty light airy buds. As far as weight goes, they don’t yield well and the effect is usually pretty different from indicas and hybrids.
But there’s also a big difference between sativas that have been worked indoors for generations (eg. Ace or CBG) and unworked like you would buy from RSC, for instance. One time I grew a seed I brought back from Thailand and that was a miserable experience. Aside from not being acclimatized to Colorado, it had HUGE internodes… like 1ft plus. Yield was almost nothing and I had to top it during flower several times. I made some rosin from it… turned out just a wee bit, but it was pretty awesome to smoke.
Hybrids are usually the best yielders indoors, but some indicas too depending on what variety. A lot of indicas have very dense buds, but don’t have much branching structure. Afghanis often have large dense central colas and minimal branches. Hybrids can usually take advantage of the denser buds contributed by the indica, and branching from the sativa. But you can pick out exceptions to every case. There’s no true biological line between sativas and indicas as I understand it.
Cool stuff.i used to have a friend who grew different landrace sativas indoors and they were just terrible lol. So stretchy and 100+ day flowering times for tiny yields.
I remember smoking a few and you’d have to stop and think ‘am I high?’, and it turned out you were haha. A very different effect from what we’re used to…
The Durban should be pretty manageable, it’s always been one of my favorite strains to smoke!
Here we have the 2 smallest. Left is the CBG Durban and right is the Lesotho. Both are males! This is probably a good thing for the Lesotho. I really love how this thing is growing, but alas no room for more ladies right now.
I’m fairly certain the preflowers on the CBG are indicating male. Glad I managed to pull that one through. I definitely wanted to make more of these. They’re kinda stinky and stem rubs smell like cucumbers.
The Lesotho is definitely inspiring me to do a fully run. I wish I could have seen female flowers and tested it out. I’ll just have to suck it up and burn a full tent of women next time. Hopefully get something good!
As I’m hurting for space in the female tent, I had to follow through on my promise to myself and cull some of these. I want to keep most of my tent for JS, and there’s just not space right now. But look at the roots! I’d bet you could clone these in dry air.
2 main phenos - short and tall. I killed the tall phenos. Since these are already hybrids, decided to go with the ones that are going to be easier to grow. The shorter ones look the same, just more compact. Same kinda skunky smell to them.
Kinda feeling meh on #2. Wider leaves, very stretchy. Number 1 looks amazing. It’s been underfed for weeks now while the others catch up. It’s older than the rest. Huge big trunk, fairly compact. Looks like it’s going to be a good producer.
Looking good. Those Lesotho sounds interesting, especially here in CO. The true question is, can they handle a snow randomly in the middle of flower, since that seems to happen every year. Always seem to get an early October storm.
Yeah no kidding. Outdoor plants have a rough environment to contend with here. I think that’s just going to have be an experiment. I’ll send you some seeds next spring if your want to have a go at it. I’m gonna get a few out in the yard next year myself.
I’d love to put some plants outside at my place, just know they would get stolen out of my yard within 24 hours. I’ll get back to growing in the great outdoors someday.
