by Ed Rosenthal
Color Dark green to purple Pale to medium green
Flowers Wide, dense, bulky Long sausage-shaped flowers
Odor Pungent, sticky, or fruity Sweet to spicy
High Inertia, desensitizing Psychedelic
Flowering 6 to 9 weeks 8 to 15 weeks
SATIVA
INDICA
SATIVA/INDICA: Trainwreck
SATIVA/INDICA: Trainwreck
SATIVA/INDICA
SATIVA
Sativa plants are found throughout the world. Potent varieties such as Colombian, Panamanian, Mexican, Nigerian, Congolese, Indian and Thai are found in equatorial and sub/equatorial zones. These plants require a long time to mature because they originated in areas that have a long season. They are usually very potent, containing large quantities of THC. The highs they produce are described in such terms as psychedelic, dreamy, spacey, and creative. The buds usually smell sweet or tangy and the smoke is smooth, sometimes deceptively so.
Jamaican Sativa
Sativa plants grow in a conical, Christmas-tree form. The leaves have long, narrow serrated blades, wide spacing between branches, and vigorous growth. They often grow very tall outdoors and are difficult to control indoors.
Sativas have long, medium-thick buds when grown in full equatorial sun; under artificial light with inadequate intensity, or even under the temperate sun, the buds run, or are thinner, longer and don’t fill out completely. In areas with short growing seasons, the buds often don’t mature before frost.
Sativa (top) and Indica (bottom)
At this point, marijuana is the most intensively bred plant using classical techniques. There are several reasons for this:
One is that pollen, because it is produced on male plants, can easily be either removed from or introduced to the females, facilitating controlled breeding.
The more important reason is non-botanical: prohibition has limited commerce in seed. Most people cannot go to the store to pick up a pack of White Widow seeds; thus necessity led to growers producing their own seed.
RUDERALIS
Ruderalis is a wild or feral variety of auto-flowering marijuana. A few weeks after germination, the plants begin to produce flowers while continuing to grow. They tend to be short, between 1’-3’ (0.3-0.9 m), and varieties differ in flowering growth. The seed bank tried using a Romanian variety that grew flowers along its new growth. In the early summer, the flowers were apparent, but they didn’t form any heads or colas. In the fall, the plants continued to grow and formed small, but the flowers didn’t produce heavy glandular development as they matured. Some varieties that are available commercially are more determinate. They produce flowers as the plants grow larger and when a critical time period occurs, they quickly stop growing vegetatively and form a bud. These varieties include the LowRyder series.
If indica and sativa varieties are considered opposite ends of a spectrum, most marijuana plants today fall between the two ends. Because of marijuana’s long symbiotic relationship with humans, whether for potent flowers or strong fibers, seeds have constantly been procured or traded across borders so that virtually all existing plant populations have been mixed with foreign varieties at one time or another. Since the 1980s, seeds from the Dutch and other seed companies have been introduced in traditional marijuana growing areas all over the world including Mexico, Jamaica, and Thailand.
After 40 years of breeding, the marijuana plant has been substantially changed. Breeders began with landraces then widened the selection. Now thousands of varieties are available from countries all over the world. Hybrids, hybrids of hybrids, stabilized crosses, and remarkable “cuttings-only” varieties propagated only by cloning are all widely available.
Even in traditional cannabis-growing countries, the marijuana found there is often the result of several crossed lines. For example, Jamaican ganja is probably the result of crosses between hemp, which the English cultivated for rope, and Indian ganja, which arrived with the Indian immigrants who came to the country.
The term for marijuana in Jamaica is ganja—the same as in India. The traditional Jamaican term for the best weed is Kali, which is the name of the Hindu goddess of destruction. However, tourists in Jamaica today are likely to be solicited with terms such as Kush or Purple; it is very difficult to find the original landraces there.
LOWRYDER
RUDERALIS x SKUNK.
Since the heyday of hemp in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was the preferred material for rope, paper, and cloth, marijuana has been re-domesticated for western cultivation. Gardeners today have thousands of seed choices—among these, you are sure to find seeds or clones that fit your needs.
ASK ED: Marijuana Questions
LONG FLOWERING SATIVA
I am planning to grow a long flowering (landrace) sativa. Should I try to mimic its original environment or will it adapt well to normal methods of indoor gardening?
Equatorial indicas need lots of light, space and time. For these reasons they are not popular with indoor growers or with high latitude outdoor growers.
The intensity of sunlight declines from the equator to higher latitudes because the sun hits the equator at a direct perpendicular angle. As the latitude increases the sun’s angle becomes more oblique. Landraces from equatorial areas have adapted genetically to the intense sun. To grow well, they need more intense light than most indoor plants receive. Typically, gardeners use a 1000w HPS lamp over a 4’ x 4’ (1.2 m x 1.2 m) space, 16 sq ft (1.44 sq m), with an input of about 60 watts per square foot. With the sativas, increase the light to a 1000w lamp over a 3’ x 3’ (0.9 m x 0.9 m) space, 9 sq ft (0.81 sq m).
Equatorial plants are fast growing and have large stem spaces (internodes) between the leaves. They are not the tight hybrids that gardeners are accustomed to, but their wilder cousins must gain height and canopy space quickly to survive. Indicas, on the other hand, adapted to a far less habitable environment. They didn’t need height; they just had to tough out uncertain weather and drought, short summers and poor soil. A compact thick-leaved plant is better equipped for the windy Himalayan foothills than a tall lanky one.
Provide sativas twice to four times the space that you give indicas. You can control height somewhat using early flowering, pruning, bending and super-budding. Still, these are going to be tall plants. Treating them at the end of the day with a strong blue light of at least 20 watts per square foot (220 watts per square meter) of 6,500-7,000 Kelvin or higher, aquarium light actinic blue) may control the height a bit. The lights should go on shortly before the other lights are turned off and stay on for about an hour. The light should be moveable so the light is “sprayed” all over the plants and reaches most tissue. Cooling the plants by lowering the temperature 10 degrees for an hour before the lights go on also controls stem growth.
Place fans in the room to create a strong draft shakes the plants to the point where the stems bend results in shorter, stouter stems.
Time waits for no one, but you must wait for sativas. They often ripen in November, December or January outdoors. Indoors they have a 10 to 16 week ripening time. Unfortunately, sativas don’t do well in freezing weather or under snow. Indoors, they should never receive more than 12 hours of light. Ripening is hastened a bit by lowering the light duration to 10 hours as soon as the plants germinate. Even when flowering, young sativas also continue to grow vegetatively.
Outdoors, the plants are well suited for the southern tier of the U.S. One of the best strategies for growing these plants is to start them outdoors in September in an area where plants can be grown in winter. The short days induce flowering and keep the plants relatively short.
HINDU-KUSH. The branches are short and stay close to the main stem. The center bud is very prominent. The plant uses relatively little space and has a heavy yield. This is a typical Indica plant. From Marijuana Botany© 1981 by R.C. Clarke, published by And/Or Pres, Inc.
MEXICAN SATIVA. The plants have long spreading branches with thin, long buds. The plant use
s a large space for a moderate yield. This is typical of a Sativa plant. From Marijuana Botany© 1981 by R.C. Clarke, published by And/Or Pres, Inc.
L to R: White Rhino (Green House Seed Co.) 90% Indica; Wappa (Paradise Seeds) 100% Indica, Soma A+ (Soma Seeds) mostly Indica.
Fruit of the Gods (Delta 9 Labs) mostly Sativa; BC Sweet Tooth (BC Buds) 90% Indica; Arjan’s Ultra Haze #2 (Green House Seed Co.) 90% Sativa.
Malawi Gold (African Seeds) mostly Sativa, Cinderella (Wally Duck) mostly Sativa, Haze Mist (Flying Dutchmen) mostly Sativa.
Most modern varieties are many hybridizations away from the original landraces. They have been domesticated to produce more higher quality buds in less time.
The sun’s rays reach the earth at varying intensities. The equator, where large tree-like sativas originated, consistently gets the brightest, most intense light. Indicas developed in the regions north or south of the equator. The latitude of the region you plan to grow should be taken into account when choosing what variety to grow outdoors.
VARIETIES
Photo: BC BUD DEPOT
There are a bewildering number of commercially available varieties offered by seed banks in Europe and North America. Some varieties are clone only, reproduced by rooting cuttings of one particular unique plant. (See Getting Started.) Friends who are growing a variety can often provide you with clones, and in medical states patients often have access to them through dispensaries. Whether you use seeds or clones, choosing the right variety is extremely important because varieties differ not only in their effects but also in how they grow. Outdoor varieties need more light than indoor. Some varieties spread out and others grow more compactly. They differ in height, time to maturity, and yield. So choosing varieties can be a daunting, but thoroughly pleasurable task. Use your own taste and circumstance to choose what you grow. If you prefer certain varieties or types, select a variety that provides that and is adapted to grow in your garden.
CHOOSING VARIETIES
Your choice of marijuana variety is probably the most important decision you will make in your garden. First, you want a plant that will do well in the environment that you are going to provide. Second, you want to grow varieties whose qualities you like; the high, taste, aroma and personality of the bud all play a role in the decision making process. Each variety has its own genetic blueprint that determines how the plant reacts within its environment. A complex interplay between nature and nurture controls everything from maturation time to the size and shape of all the plant parts—not to mention the color, taste, potency, high, and yield of your crop. You can think of nature as the genetic potential of the plant under ideal conditions and nurture as providing the conditions to realize that potential.
New varieties are the result of intense competition among seed breeders, and the popularity of varieties tend to wax and wane with the seasonality of couture fashion. The upshot of this, as far as you are concerned, is that you can try new varieties each crop while sticking with the varieties that you like. Gardeners can grow a garden with only one or two varieties or a potpourri—each style of growing has its advantages. Seeds for different varieties are available in stores throughout many countries, including Canada, Great Britain, Holland, and Spain. In the U.S., seeds and clones are typically available in states with medical dispensaries, but anyone can obtain seeds via the Internet or mail-order.
Commercial growers prefer homogeneous gardens. To assure uniformity, they usually use clones (rooted cuttings) from one plant or one variety so that the garden is genetically identical, or at least closely related. Using clones from the same plant allows commercial growers to maximize their crop, because the plants grow identically, thrive under the same conditions, mature at the same time, and provide predictable potency. Commercial growers also typically choose fast-maturing plants for a quick turnaround.
Home growers are usually more concerned with quality than with fast maturity or maximum yield. They often grow mixed groups of plants so they harvest at different times and can choose from a selection of potencies, qualities of high, and tastes. The mix of varieties and maturation times in a heterogeneous garden typically results in lower yields, when compared to homogeneous gardens. Heterogeneous gardens also take more individualized care because the plants grow at different rates, have different shapes, and require varying amounts of space. If you are growing indoors, make sure that the varieties you choose are suitable for indoor cultivation and meet your garden’s criteria; they shouldn’t grow too tall, or do best in conditions you cannot provide.
VARIETIES BY SEED COMPANIES
Breeding is not easy. It requires a keen eye, an acute sense of taste, and most importantly, an ability to discern a plant with outstanding potency. Not many people have this ability—a sort of perfect pitch in the area of THC and cannabis. In addition to skill, an inspired breeder has an intuitive ability to choose the right one.
Seed breeding has socially redeeming values. It helps us change not what we think, but how we think it. From ruderalis type progenitors thousands of years ago, successions of breeders coaxed and twisted the plant’s genes to produce the wonderful sensations we experience today using marijuana.
The plant has developed a wonderful symbiotic relationship with humans. Its decision has had an enormous effect on our development, as we have had on its fortunes. From its start in the Himalayan foothills, the plant has traveled the world. Humans carried it to every climate and every continent and helped it fit into its new homes. In return, Cannabis has helped societies progress time and time again, over thousands of years. The experience of the two species in the last 50 years has been just another turn on the spiral of their coexistence. Two things are certain as this journey continues: the species will continue to travel together, and the journey will continue to cover new areas of the spiral.
The following pages show some of the breeding done by seed companies around the world.
MARIJUANA GROWER’S HANDBOOK CONNECTS YOU TO THE WORLD’S GREAT SEED BREEDERS
BARNEY’S FARM SEED CO. www.barneysfarm.com
CERES SEEDS www.ceresseeds.com
DJ SHORT varieties available at seedsman seed bank: www.seedsman.com/en/cannabis-seeds/dj-short
DNA GENETICS www.dnagenetics.com
DUTCH PASSION SEED CO. www.dutch-passion.nl
GREEN HOUSE SEED CO. www.greenhouseseeds.nl/shop
KC BRAINS www.kcbrains.com
MANDALA SEEDS www.mandalaseeds.com
MINISTRY OF CANNABIS www.ministryofcannabis.com
NIRVANA www.nirvana.nl
PARADISE SEEDS www.paradise-seeds.com
ROYAL QUEEN SEEDS www.royalqueenseeds.com
SAGAMARTHA www.highestseeds.com
SANNIE’S SEEDS www.sanniesshop.com
SEEDS OF LIFE www.seedsoflife.eu
SENSI SEED BANK www.sensiseeds.com
SERIOUS SEEDS www.seriousseeds.com
SOCAL SEED CO. www.socalseedco.com
SOMA SEEDS www.somaseeds.com
TGA SEEDS www.tgagenetics.com
BARNEY’S FARM SEED CO.
BARNEY’S FARM G-13 HAZE
G13 x Hawaiian, Indica/Sativa: mainly Sativa; Flowering: 70-80 days, mid- to end-Oct. outdoors; High: powerful, cerebral; Smell/Taste: fruit and spice.
BARNEY’S FARM SEED CO.
LSD
Skunk #1 x Mazar, Indica/Sativa: mainly Indica; Flowering: 60-65 days, mid-Sept. outdoors; High: euphoric, psychedelic, super trippy, powerful; Smell/Taste: earthy chestnut, sweet musk.
BARNEY’S FARM SEED CO.
DR. GRINSPOON
Heirloom Sativa; 100% Sativa; Flowering: 100-105 days; High: strong, energetic, cerebral; Smell/Taste: citrus, tropical fruit, whisper of pine.
BARNEY’S FARM SEED CO.
VANILLA KUSH
Kashmir x Afghan, Indica/Sativa: mainly Indica; Flowering: 60-65 days, late Sept. outdoors; High: strong, body High; Smell/Taste: wild vanilla, lavender, accents of lemon and orange peel.
CERES SEEDS
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PURPLE
Feminized, Indica/Sativa: 50/50; Flowering: 50-60 days, early Oct. outdoors; High: purple haze, all in my brain.
CERES SEEDS
SKUNK HAZE
Feminized, Indica/Sativa: mostly Sativa; Flowering: 65-75 days; High: uplifting, dreamy; Smell/Taste: spicy-sweet.
CERES SEEDS
FRUITY THAI
Thai Sativa x Dutch Indica, Indica/Sativa: 50/50, Flowering: 55-65 days; High: active, sensual, talkative; Smell/Taste: lemon, melon, sweet.
CERES SEEDS
WHITE PANTHER
Original White Dwarf, Indica/Sativa: 50/50; Flowering: 45-55 days, mid-Oct. outdoors; High: pleasant, dreamy, sensual.
DJ SHORT
VANILLUNA
Blueberry Sativa x Original Blueberry, Indica/Sativa: mostly Indica; Flowering: 55-60 days; High: smooth, dreamy, calming; Smell/Taste: creamy, vanilla/honey with hint of floral and melon musk.