The hemp/cannabis plant

[sativaindicaruderalis]

This is one of my greatest ponderings on the hemp/cannabis plant.

 

For I have not seen any mention of heirloom seeds for this plant. What appears odd is that their are so many hybrids/genetically altered hemp plants, but I know of no place to get heirloom seeds for the sativa / indica / ruderalis differing hemp types. I have searched quite a bit for this but they just don't seem to exist.

 

This leads me down a line of thought making me think that these plants are alien to this world to some extent, now that really sounds crazy but, where are the heirlooms are they just really difficult to find/get? Are they no longer in existence?

 

If you don't know what a heirloom is i will explain.

 

Heirloom plants/seeds are the first domesticated version of a particular species and type of plant.

[louise]

For I have not seen any mention of heirloom seeds for this plant. hemp types. I have searched quite a bit for this but they just don't seem to exist.

 

This leads me down a line of thought making me think that these plants are alien to this world to some extent, now that really sounds crazy but, where are the heirlooms are they just really difficult to find/get? Are they no longer in existence?

 

The term 'heirloom' is more popular in the tomato rather than cannabis seed industry. Such strains are usually referred to as 'unhybridised', or 'true breeding'. *Sensiseeds have a few varieties that fit the bill...

 

On the indica side, Hindu Kush and Maple Leaf Indica and on the sativa side, Durban, Mexican Sativa, Jamaican Pearl.

 

I've not heard of anyone selling unhybridised ruderalis, possibly because outside of making day neutral hybrids, ruderalis has no value as a cultivar.

 

* Not looking to advertise, l.ol the company doesn't need it, but this is the only catalogue that I am familiar with enough to comment on.

 

lou

Edited February 11, 2010 by lou lou

[Luke Skywalker]

Hi there, I haven't looked into the subject for a while, but AFAIK there are no "genetically modified" hemp strains available, only those which have been bred the good ol' fashioned way. Many varieties have been line bred and produced over the years which have many different properties, I suggest looking at the local library for hemp varietal information, you may have to go through your State library service to get some of the info.

 

Heirloom varieties are NOT the first domesticated version of a particular species and type of plant. They are merely "old" open pollinated and maintained varieties which are held onto by dedicated growers/farmers. If you really wanted to look for the "first domesticated version" of hemp you'd be looking back somewhere around 3k BCE at least. ::

 

But you can certainly get your hands on some of the older varieties if you contacted some of the growers, I'd suggest Poland/Hungary/Russia as a starting point, as these countries have (or at least had the last time I looked) a decent sized hemp industry. Worth contacting Hemp Resources in Perth as well, they may be able to point you in the right direction in Australia.

 

Good luck in your hunt for old school hemp varieties, these are the genetic treasures that so often get forgotten. All you have to do is look at Bananas if you want an example of a plant that has lost its genetic diversity and the problems this can cause. Thankfully hemp/cannabis has a relatively broad selection of varieties still under cultivation thanks to dedicated farmers and home growers the world over, prohibition or no prohibition.

[MongyMan]

Hi there, I haven't looked into the subject for a while, but AFAIK there are no "genetically modified" hemp strains available, only those which have been bred the good ol' fashioned way.

 

There is a number of companies working on thc free hemp through genetic engineering. They started off by trying to remove the genes that make the thc but this caused other problems apparently that made them pretty much useless as a crop. I believe Monsanto and a couple of other companies that have plants in the testing stage atm that they have somehow "turned off" the genes ability to make thc whilst leaving them intact that are looking like they will still be a useful crop. It will be a while before they are available to the public but in time its inevitable we will see genetically modified hemp just as there is cotton, wheat, canola and many other modern crop seeds available to farmers now.

 

Peace MongyMan

[Paladin]

Well, in terms of 'heirloom' varieties, it depends what you mean. For at least the last 40 years the strains we are all familiar with in the west have been part of selective breeding. The legendary mother plants of the 70s are ancestors of many modern strains. But the thing is - individual plants only live so long, and seeds expire. So while the exact plants of that legendary 70's afghan you heard about are no longer with us, their genes are. A few commonly available seeds (like Sam the Skunkman's O Haze) have pretty long lineage dating back to the early 80s and perhaps beyond - this haze being the mother of a lot of contemporary hazes like Nevile's and Arjan's etc.

 

(Cloning can of course, in theory, keep a mother 'alive' indefinitely - but I don't know of any mothers from the 70s that are with us today. In reality, cloning gens often break down over time due to environmental factors, possible genetic drift, and so on. I could be wrong, and am absolutely happy to be corrected on that point. Lu lu, Luke and others, would you say the 'unhybridised' strains are pretty pure genetics? From how far back do you reckon?

 

EDIT: it would be neat if we could clone extinct things from old DNA (when an animal / plant is preserved in ice and so on). But finding a perfectly preserved, dna-viable cannabis plant from the distant past is a long shot, even if the technology did exist to revive it, which it doesn't, despite what Michael Crichton would have you believe. Still a 'Jurassic cannabis park' would be high on my picks for an island holiday.)

Edited February 11, 2010 by Paladin

[louise]

Heirloom varieties are NOT the first domesticated version of a particular species and type of plant. They are merely "old" open pollinated and maintained varieties which are held onto by dedicated growers/farmers.

Well... at least 'heirloom' is better description than 'landrace'. The terminology can be difficult because there are often different uses of words, especially in advertising speak eg. the use of the term landrace by some seed breeders.

 

The way I learned it the different stages of domestication ran from landrace to traditional cultivar and then, modern cultivar to basic hybrid and complex hybrid... GMO wasn't an issue back then, more of a pipe dream than a reality.

 

Definitions with example in terms of commercially available cannabis cultivars -

 

Ruderalis is a landrace, a naturally occurring strain that is unimproved by selective breeding, sometimes called a 'wild strain'. AFAIK, the only true landrace used by professional breeders.

 

Hindu Kush is a traditional cultivar, ie. a strain that has been selectively bred within it's own gene pool to maintain the dominance of the original features.

 

Afghani #1 is a modern cultivar, ie a strain that has been selectively bred by introducing genetic material from closely related gene pools to improve the desired characteristics.

 

Ruderalis indica is a basic hybrid, ie produced when genetic material is mixed from 2 dissimilar gene pools in a single cross to produce a uniform F1 strain with characteristics of both gene pools.

 

Jack Herrer is a complex hybrid, in this last case several different gene pools are mixed in a multi stage cross to produce a strain with several distinct phenotypes.

 

But you can certainly get your hands on some of the older varieties if you contacted some of the growers, I'd suggest Poland/Hungary/Russia as a starting point, as these countries have (or at least had the last time I looked) a decent sized hemp industry.

Wild ruderalis can be found right across northern and eastern Europe, the pollen is quite a problem for outdoor growers in these regions.

 

Thankfully hemp/cannabis has a relatively broad selection of varieties still under cultivation thanks to dedicated farmers and home growers the world over, prohibition or no prohibition.

Cannabis preservation is one of the underlying aims of the older Dutch seed companies and why there are still traditional cultivars for sale. Mind you, these strains are often over looked by growers because they aren't as strong and/or produce smaller harvests than the modern cultivars bred from these strains.

 

Well, in terms of 'heirloom' varieties, it depends what you mean. For at least the last 40 years the strains we are all familiar with in the west have been part of selective breeding.

All domestication is a selective process, it didn't begin in the 20th century. The thing that really changed after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was the location of the breeding eg Europe and North America rather than being confined to Asia and the Middle East.

 

The legendary mother plants of the 70s are ancestors of many modern strains. But the thing is - individual plants only live so long, and seeds expire. So while the exact plants of that legendary 70's afghan you heard about are no longer with us, their genes are.

 

(Cloning can of course, in theory, keep a mother 'alive' indefinitely - but I don't know of any mothers from the 70s that are with us today. In reality, cloning gens often break down over time due to environmental factors, possible genetic drift, and so on.

Maintaining seed lines and outstanding genetics as clones (eg NL#5) are a big operations, probably outside the scope of the backyard hobbyist but it's not impossible. In theory transcription errors might damage the genetic code after many generations of clones, to control for that multiple mothers of each outstanding plant are kept separately from the mothers used for commercial production.

 

Genetic drift cannot occur in clones, it's more an issue of uncontrolled, open pollination and/or breeding within too small a gene pool. For example, if I was to purchase 10 seeds of a traditional cultivar, with a view to producing my own seed, I would probably be okay for a few generations but fairly soon genetic drift would begin to impact on the gene expression, especially if I was using a single male and female plant to produce the next generation of seed.

 

If you all get the chance to travel and are interested in the preservation and development of distinctive cannabis, Amsterdam is a definite 'must see' destination.