Hi guys I'm looking to develop a strain of cannabis that is best adapted to grow in my local environment. Where im at it is common for temps to soar up to 38degrees celcius, and humidity levels are commonly at around 50 percent. The problem around here is that the only available soil to grow in is very hight in clay content. Being that I want to develop a strain that is able to grow in endemic conditions, I wpuld like to start with a strain that us resistant to alkaline soils such as this. So finally, my question is; do you know of any strain wich are able to tolerate higher soil ph's. I want to use these strains to start a breedong programme.
what is your geographical latitude? I would recommend starting with a true landrace variety, and acclimating it to your climate and grow conditions over a course of several generations. Based on your description of the environment you will be growing in, it sounds like a himalayan landrace may be well suited to your climate. They do well with extreme temperatures and large shifts in temperature between night and day, and they naturally come from rocky mountain soil with a very high clay content. however, the clay in the himalayas is apparently somewhat acidic. I would recommend checking out the real seed company, they specialize in unaltered landrace genetics that are either gathered at the source although now some of their lines are f2's and f3's produced through open pollination. this maintains purity and genetic diversity. I successfully acclimatized their lebanese landrace to my northern climate with just one generation of selection in my outdoor grow. the offspring have been very impressive, hardy, vigorous, and low maintenance, with very resinous flowers. they started flowering just after summer equinox rather than early fall, and whereas my hybrids are just beginning to preflower, the lebanese is almost ready for harvest. here's a link to the real seed co website:The Real Seed Company if they don't deliver to your country, their official retailer is seedsman. If you decide to grow a true landrace, amend your clay soil with some good worm castings (vermicompost) or other fully broken down compost, and don't use any artificial or bottled nutrients. Landraces are often very sensitive to fertilization, they will probably just need mild compost and fresh green mulch amendments. once established with a good soil microbiology, your plants should be able to manage soil ph and other aspects of their soil biome by themselves without any intervention.
Thank you sir, your answer was very informative. You pretty much hit the nail on the head when describing the type of environment I plan to grow my plants in. Where I am from there are quite extreme shifts in temperatures ranging from 38degrees Celsius in the morning to 21 or even 18 degrees Celsius in the night time. The only difference is that where I am from, the soil tends to be alkaline, it has a high calcium content and also tends to have a bit higher levels of salt in it, since most good grow spots are found not far away from coastal shores. Also, I think Himalayan strains are adapted to higher altitudes whilst where I am at it is quite flat (250m is the highest elevation point). With that said, you've pointed out that you have managed to acclimatise a Lebanese strain to a northern climate. Hence, I think these minor differences in terrain and soil content will be accounted for in 2-3 generations, no problem. I'd like to ask you another question since you seem to know what you're doing. How would a Morrocan landrace fair in the type of environment I am talking about? Maybe I can work on some kind of a mix between the Himalayan Sativa dominant strain and the Morrocan Indica dominant landrace?
Pretty sure a landrace is a natural cannabis plant like pure bred never been crossed with anything?? So that woukd be difficult to develop if this is the case Sent from my SM-G950F using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Well, of course, this plant would not technically be called a landrace. However, most landraces can originally be tracked down to some foreign origin. Through many generations and years of artificial selection by farmers, these strains become adapted to the habitat in which they grow. Also, these plants are usually modified to fit the farmer's preferences. For example, landraces in Morocco or Lebanon have little branching and grow a single large cola with high resin production. This is because the preferred way of using cannabis in those areas of the world is to produce hashish. Hence, plants have been selected for these attributes. Anyways, it is true that it would take hundreds of generations for a strain of cannabis to become a landrace naturally. However, by selecting only the best-growing plants and only breeding these plants with other plants that were successful in that environment, you will end up with a strain of cannabis that is specialised to grow optimally in a particular habitat. Essentially, you are accelerating the process of natural selection by selecting only the best plants artificially. How long it would take to end up with a fully acclimatised strain, I don't know. This has just been a lifelong ambition, as I come from is a beautiful island country and it's a pity that no strains of cannabis grow endemically.
It's hard to predict the specifics, but I don't think you would have any major problems. I grow in native soil which is primarily volcanic clay. I chose to get lebanese and himalayan genetics because they are also grown in soil which is close to 100% clay like mine. So far I have only grown and worked with the lebanese, which are grown in the bekaa valley which has bright red clay. I don't know any details about the soil composition in lebanon, but my clay soil is volcanic and slightly acidic, and I didn't have any problems getting enough plants for a solid first generation. There were a few dwarf phenos that were culled, but everything else performed well. based on this, I think you will probably be able to grow strains that come from places with clay rich soil, regardless of the specific composition. Your plants may be weak early on, but once they develop a decent root system, they should be able to effectively manage their nutrient uptake and soil ph by themselves. there may be some phenotypes that won't make it past seedling stage because they are not suited for your soil or environment, so plan ahead and get enough seeds to have decent diversity in your stock. Hybridizing two landrace varieties could be very interesting and rewarding, but potentially unpredictable. I would recommend growing each strain seperately for one generation to get decent stock of the pure strains to work with. then you will have plenty of seeds to work the lines any way you want.
I did this. Took two really solid landraces, skunk and mango, crossed the two to give me a pretty decent smoke. I then crossed this with a hybrid and bang, hermies for ages. Most of the seeds reseed themselves.
Skunk isnt a landrace it made from 3 land race strains...... Sent from my SM-G950F using Grasscity Forum mobile app