Like sun grown or light dep?
I get what you are saying “grow shwaggy weed, get shwaggy seeds”, your logic just doesn’t exactly follow with examples.
I don’t want to speak for anyone, but grow Schwag weed get Schwag seed is 100% not how biology works and I don’t think anyone would try to use that argument.
The reality is the perceived advancements are just that, perception. The medical value of cannabis has mostly likely been , if anything, degraded due to modern breeding practices.
There were some breeders back in the 80s (Neville comes to mind) that were using plant science and found plants from wild genetics that are most of the building blocks of the genetics today. There’s no reason for people to stop looking to the wild genetics. That’s where new genetic revolutions will happen. Not crossing the same poly hybrids with a bottle necked gene pool from 30 years ago, imo.
1 Like
I’m not trying to be derogatory but the people looked to as previous legends in breeding , like Neville, would have considered themselves amateurs using basic scientific principles borrowed from the well established field of botany. something to reflect on.
I’m friends with Steve A, the breeder of Indiana Bubblegum, who used David Watson’s genetics crossing a pure sativa with a pure indica in the 80’s. It was the advent of hybrid vigor, but far from teasing out all the amazing genetic traits in modern varieties available today.
1 Like
I think both of you are missing my point. I am extremely familiar with growing outdoor landrace lines of the sativa and indica species. Anyone with experience in this field will surely tell you that the degree of cannabinoid content produced in such cultivars is but a shadow of what it is in the newly cultivated hybrids. There’s an inherent limit to the cannabinoid content produced within any given landrace species, grown in it’s native environment (or at least close to it’s native environment). It’s been this way for thousands of years and you can look to any native landrace farmers of say Afghanistan or Africa to see examples of this today. Successive generations of progeny cultivated in a natural environment in and of itself does not result in the profoundly enhanced enzymatic biosynthesis of cannabinoids that we see in hybrids of recent years. Such results are primarily attributed to the inclusion of vastly enhanced indoor lighting and spectrum manipulation, as well as extremely advanced nutrient supplements and biostimulant formulations.
Unequivocally false. This isn’t a matter of perception. It’s enhanced biosynthetic pathways of cannabinoids, as a result of said advancements. Some of which have been scientifically validated in peer-reviewed research. Just look at today’s hybrids as an example of the stark differences. Do you honestly think any given landrace cultivar that is grown in it’s native environment could produce cannabinoid concentrations that surpass that of any given recent hybrid grown in an indoor environment with optimal lighting/spectrum manipulation/nutrient and biostimulant supplementation? Not happening.
I think you could select high thc plants from wild stock like they did 30 to 50(?) years ago to create the current stock again, yes. And it didn’t take 30 to 50 years of very diligent breeding either, its mostly been clandestine.
I’ve looked into the lineages of a lot of strains and it’s not that far back to the land races. Just my opinion.
Not in the absence of the aforementioned advanced cultivation methodologies. I see from your response that you don’t have much experience with growing landrace cultivars in an outdoor environment and that’s not a knock at you, it’s just blatantly obvious. When compared to today’s indoor cultivated hybrids … there simply are no high THC landraces. There’s a reason why you don’t see landrace cultivars grown in their native country/environment that reach 30-35% THC. You don’t end up with such extremely high cannabinoid concentrations, just by breeding and making optimal selections. This is why such high cannabinoid concentrations are reflective of advanced cultivation methodologies. It’s how you optimize cannabinoid biosynthesis to such a notable degree.
What do You think Neville did in the 80s? He had pure afghan Iand races. They went and got the seeds themselves. Then hunted them and found the building blocks of todays high thc plants. Those hash plants that are high thc most definitely exist in the wild.
I understand what you’re implying, but high thc strains did come from landraces, and not that long ago. There is no where else for them to have come from! 
I’ve read that the landrace pure indicas have some of the most narcotic and pain relieving effects, I.e. medical properties.
I actually agree with the gist Of your argument , that high thc In modern cannabis is largely due to environment and process.
Nevil hunted and bred landraces with POTENTIAL. There are very few land races dumping mid to high 20’s if any. Maybe mountain kush. Without human intervention or breeding. I’ve seen a SHITLOAD of feral cannabis… And 99% of the time it is not worthy.
3 Likes
Where’d it all come from? It’s obvious that it came from land races , right? I get it 99.999% of wild type plants won’t be the one. That’s just how it is, it’s to be expected.
Also I think a succinct way to describe environment is just talk about phenotype vs genotype. You can’t express genes you don’t have. You also can’t express genes unsuitable for or restricted by environment.
We’re not discussing where today’s lines come from. Nobody is debating that. We’re discussing what is responsible for the stark contrasts of cannabinoid concentrations between pure landrace cultivars and today’s hybrids (especially THC).
Here’s a couple of very typical lab results for pure landrace Hindu Kush from Panjshir Afghanistan;
These lines have been cultivated for thousands of years and yet have tetrahydrocannabinol concentrations that aren’t even [remotely] comparable to today’s hybrids.
As I mentioned previously, merely breeding and selecting only takes the plant so far and in the absence of advanced cultivation methodologies … you’ll never see cannabinoid concentrations in landraces that would compare to today’s hybrids.
2 Likes
I don’t think my cultivation practices would be considered advanced by any farmer but I get your point. And yes I’m growing mids relatively so point taken before you make it haha 