As you may know, at ACE Seeds we are celebrating our 15th anniversary in this 2020!
It has been a long way to get to this point. We have worked hard to maintain the working philosophy that we started with this company, and to provide year after year high quality and innovative genetics to growers around the world.
ACE Seeds was born with the aim to improve the lack of genetic diversity that commercial cannabis strains are suffering for decades, by offering landrace strains from different places on the planet, stabilized/inbred lines and new hybrids developed from this work of preservation and research. In this sense, our foundational mission remains more relevant than ever, and we are happy to have contributed our bit in the panorama of the modern psychoactive strain breeding over the years, especially regarding sativas.
I look back to our start and when i think about it i feel very touched and amazed with what we have achieved after 15 years. Our current catalogue is wider and with a higher level of quality than ever, both in regular and feminized seed lines. It has not been easy to keep so many strains in stock and to keep the consistency and quality in the released lines during all these years.
I'm especially proud with what we have been offering in the second half of ACE Seeds' life since 2012. We have continued to improve classic strains like Bangi Haze, Congo, ErdPurt, Golden Tiger, Kali China, Malawi, Nepal Jam, Oldtimer's Haze, Orient Express, Pakistan Chitral, Panama, Tikal or Zamaldelica every few years with new selections and reproductions, bringing these building blocks to very advanced stages of breeding and refinement, and and at the same time widening our knowledge and understanding of the cannabis plant through intense first hand breeding experience and through a vast research and investment in cannabinoid, terpene and genetic analyses.
The next natural step was to produce F1 hybrids like Bangi Congo x Panama, Bangi Haze x Ethiopian, Ethiopian x Malawi, Guawi, Honduras x Panama, Malawi x Panama, Malawi x PCK, Panama x Bangi Haze, Panama x Malawi, Thai Chi, Violeta …. (just to name a few) that blend the most desirable traits of our best parental plants from our genetic building blocks into more vigorous, higher yielding, tastier strains with better effects, overall producing new and better strains that have brought our catalogue one step further, also with polyhybrids such as Red Sapphire or Zamaldelica x Kali China.
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/new-strains.html
Also, the vast work done during all these years with the pure Haze (Oldtimer's) and Oldtimer's Haze hybrids like Haze x Kali China, Panama Haze, Purple Haze x Malawi, Haze x Thais, Haze x Honduras, …. or the more recent Haze hybrids like Killer A5 Haze or Super Malawi Haze bred with the elite Haze hybrids from Neville, fruit of our collabortion with Yo Sammy, which i think it will produce more interesting results in the upcoming years.
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/strains/haze-hybrids.html
In recent years, the autoflowering scene and CBD wave have also made a big impact in modern cannabis breeding. It has been very interesting and challenging to develop true breeding strains for those traits, like with Auto Malawi x NL or the most recent Auto Zamaldelica, where we try to contribute to the autoflowering genepool with landrace genetics and by developing big sized autoflowering strains of strong sativa personality:
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/strains/autoflowering.html
Regarding CBD breeding, it has been very interesting and rewarding to produce a true breeding strain with a specific chemotype (high CBD and very low THC)) like it's the case of our new CBD #1 release, based on Cannatonic S1 high CBD chemotypes, but it was also very important for us to 'put on the table' new CBD rich families not related to Cannatonic like Lebanese, the Afghani Erdpurt or the more recent Moroccan release:
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/strains/rich-cbd-strains.html
Of course, we continue our research and preservation work with pure landraces like the ones recently released: Ethiopian, Hokkaido Japan, Honduras, Lebanese, Moroccan, Nepalese Annapurna. In upcoming years, i would like to continue next with the preservation of SE Asian landraces and with landrace sativas from remote places of the Pacific, although nothing is fully decided yet, as we usually give priority to the oldest landraces we have in seed form that have not been explored and preserved yet. You can find all the landraces and inbred lines we have currently available on our website (from ACE and others) here:
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/strains/pure-stabilized.html
As you may be aware, we have recently started to distribute the work from other landrace seedbanks and heirloom breeders through our website. Landrace strains are extremely endangered at this point due to globalization and with seed shops shipping modern hybrids worldwide. Unfortunately we can expect that most landraces will disappear in their original state in the upcoming 10-20 years due to genetic contamination as already happened in Mexico, Jamaica or Morocco. It's the time to unite forces with other preservationists, like with irrazinig from Indian Landrace Exchange, who is doing an amazing job on documenting and gathering many local Indian landraces, from the long flowering southern Indian ganja tropical sativas (Kerala Gold, Sheelawathi) to the North Indian charas landraces and other farmed and feral pure strains from North India (Kalimpong, North Indian Red Stem, Parvati Tosh, Urgam and Wailing) and even from Kashmir (Baramulla, Neelum, Lolab) or from other countries from Asia like Myanmar:
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/brands/indian-landrace-exchange.html
Or the expceptional job done by baaba from Afghan Selection documenting the ancient hash culture of Afghanistan, and collecting seeds (directly from the source) of several Afghani landrace indica hash plants like Balkh, Chimtal, Hindu Kush, Kholm and Mazar:
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/brands/afghan-selection.html
Khalifa Genetics is another interesting new seedbank available on our website offering and preserving landraces (Indians like Kullu, Kerala Chellakutti or Rasol, but also the afghani Sheberghan or the very rare Siberian rudelaris of very desirable rich terpenes and high CBD content) which their working philosophy reminds me a lot how we started at ACE:
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/brands/khalifa-genetics.html
The outstanding breeding job that vermontman is doing with landraces and heirlooms at Green Mountain Seeds in strains like Purple Satellite and PineApple Banana Bud which were a complete success last season, or the new Zacateca's Tribute and the upcoming Green Mountain Grape and Mountain Gold:
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/brands/green-mountain-seeds.html
Or the extremely powerful Romulan heirloom from Jake of Romulan Genetics:
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/brands/romulan-genetics.html
It's astonishing the potential, adaptability and plasticity of our beloved plant, the incredible genetic diversity found in the original landraces and in modern strains, with all the amazing different effects, terpenes, plant structures, medical uses, and industrial and ecologic benefits this amazing plant offers. I think we are in the most important and interesting time of modern cannabis history with the ongoing legalization in many countries around the world, which is bringing a more scientific and professional approach to cannabis breeding and cultivation, arising new important discoveries, like the understanding of the synergy between the different cannabinoids, the synergy between cannabinoids and terpenes, the vast field of the terpenes, which is a world on its own, the understanding of the rarer cannabinoids and the breeding for higher content of them, and of course because with the legalization finally the plant and users won't be criminalized. I know this is not yet a reality for many countries (including mine) but i'm positive that the legalization process is unstoppable and eventually will be a reality for most parts and citizens of the world. As cannabis lovers, we must feel very blessed to have the chance to live in such an exciting time for cannabis plant.
It's difficult to predict what the future might hold for ACE Seeds in the upcoming 15 years, whether we will end up fagocitated by the big licensed producers and big pharma, or if we will manage to thrive in this everchanging and highly competitive industry. Time will tell. But i'm sure we at ACE will do our best to continue working hard with the same philosophy and direction, keep improving and offering new interesting genetics in the upcoming years. You can find all the current ACE Seeds releases here:
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/brands/ace-seeds.html?limit=36
and in the updated 'ACE Seeds stock status' thread:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=345289
I would like to thank all the people who have contributed to make this project a reality: our employees, former and current collaborators, our wholesalers and retailers, and to the old pioneers who created this scene from the underground and inspired me and many others with their creations and sacrifices to be the persons we are today. And special thanks to all the growers who have supported our work over all these years, and to all the growers in this room who with their feedback, pics, contributions and caring for others have made of this room a very special place to enjoy together and to share our passion for cannabis. I'm not going to list names of all the people here on ICMag that i would like to deeply thank, because the list will be endless and i'm afraid i will forgot some, but you know who you are ACE Seeds won’t be where we are now without you all. I have not enough words to express my gratitude to all of you.
Much love! And best wishes for 2020 and for this decade
It has been a long way to get to this point. We have worked hard to maintain the working philosophy that we started with this company, and to provide year after year high quality and innovative genetics to growers around the world.
ACE Seeds was born with the aim to improve the lack of genetic diversity that commercial cannabis strains are suffering for decades, by offering landrace strains from different places on the planet, stabilized/inbred lines and new hybrids developed from this work of preservation and research. In this sense, our foundational mission remains more relevant than ever, and we are happy to have contributed our bit in the panorama of the modern psychoactive strain breeding over the years, especially regarding sativas.
I look back to our start and when i think about it i feel very touched and amazed with what we have achieved after 15 years. Our current catalogue is wider and with a higher level of quality than ever, both in regular and feminized seed lines. It has not been easy to keep so many strains in stock and to keep the consistency and quality in the released lines during all these years.
I'm especially proud with what we have been offering in the second half of ACE Seeds' life since 2012. We have continued to improve classic strains like Bangi Haze, Congo, ErdPurt, Golden Tiger, Kali China, Malawi, Nepal Jam, Oldtimer's Haze, Orient Express, Pakistan Chitral, Panama, Tikal or Zamaldelica every few years with new selections and reproductions, bringing these building blocks to very advanced stages of breeding and refinement, and and at the same time widening our knowledge and understanding of the cannabis plant through intense first hand breeding experience and through a vast research and investment in cannabinoid, terpene and genetic analyses.
The next natural step was to produce F1 hybrids like Bangi Congo x Panama, Bangi Haze x Ethiopian, Ethiopian x Malawi, Guawi, Honduras x Panama, Malawi x Panama, Malawi x PCK, Panama x Bangi Haze, Panama x Malawi, Thai Chi, Violeta …. (just to name a few) that blend the most desirable traits of our best parental plants from our genetic building blocks into more vigorous, higher yielding, tastier strains with better effects, overall producing new and better strains that have brought our catalogue one step further, also with polyhybrids such as Red Sapphire or Zamaldelica x Kali China.
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/new-strains.html
Also, the vast work done during all these years with the pure Haze (Oldtimer's) and Oldtimer's Haze hybrids like Haze x Kali China, Panama Haze, Purple Haze x Malawi, Haze x Thais, Haze x Honduras, …. or the more recent Haze hybrids like Killer A5 Haze or Super Malawi Haze bred with the elite Haze hybrids from Neville, fruit of our collabortion with Yo Sammy, which i think it will produce more interesting results in the upcoming years.
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/strains/haze-hybrids.html
In recent years, the autoflowering scene and CBD wave have also made a big impact in modern cannabis breeding. It has been very interesting and challenging to develop true breeding strains for those traits, like with Auto Malawi x NL or the most recent Auto Zamaldelica, where we try to contribute to the autoflowering genepool with landrace genetics and by developing big sized autoflowering strains of strong sativa personality:
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/strains/autoflowering.html
Regarding CBD breeding, it has been very interesting and rewarding to produce a true breeding strain with a specific chemotype (high CBD and very low THC)) like it's the case of our new CBD #1 release, based on Cannatonic S1 high CBD chemotypes, but it was also very important for us to 'put on the table' new CBD rich families not related to Cannatonic like Lebanese, the Afghani Erdpurt or the more recent Moroccan release:
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/strains/rich-cbd-strains.html
Of course, we continue our research and preservation work with pure landraces like the ones recently released: Ethiopian, Hokkaido Japan, Honduras, Lebanese, Moroccan, Nepalese Annapurna. In upcoming years, i would like to continue next with the preservation of SE Asian landraces and with landrace sativas from remote places of the Pacific, although nothing is fully decided yet, as we usually give priority to the oldest landraces we have in seed form that have not been explored and preserved yet. You can find all the landraces and inbred lines we have currently available on our website (from ACE and others) here:
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/strains/pure-stabilized.html
As you may be aware, we have recently started to distribute the work from other landrace seedbanks and heirloom breeders through our website. Landrace strains are extremely endangered at this point due to globalization and with seed shops shipping modern hybrids worldwide. Unfortunately we can expect that most landraces will disappear in their original state in the upcoming 10-20 years due to genetic contamination as already happened in Mexico, Jamaica or Morocco. It's the time to unite forces with other preservationists, like with irrazinig from Indian Landrace Exchange, who is doing an amazing job on documenting and gathering many local Indian landraces, from the long flowering southern Indian ganja tropical sativas (Kerala Gold, Sheelawathi) to the North Indian charas landraces and other farmed and feral pure strains from North India (Kalimpong, North Indian Red Stem, Parvati Tosh, Urgam and Wailing) and even from Kashmir (Baramulla, Neelum, Lolab) or from other countries from Asia like Myanmar:
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/brands/indian-landrace-exchange.html
Or the expceptional job done by baaba from Afghan Selection documenting the ancient hash culture of Afghanistan, and collecting seeds (directly from the source) of several Afghani landrace indica hash plants like Balkh, Chimtal, Hindu Kush, Kholm and Mazar:
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/brands/afghan-selection.html
Khalifa Genetics is another interesting new seedbank available on our website offering and preserving landraces (Indians like Kullu, Kerala Chellakutti or Rasol, but also the afghani Sheberghan or the very rare Siberian rudelaris of very desirable rich terpenes and high CBD content) which their working philosophy reminds me a lot how we started at ACE:
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/brands/khalifa-genetics.html
The outstanding breeding job that vermontman is doing with landraces and heirlooms at Green Mountain Seeds in strains like Purple Satellite and PineApple Banana Bud which were a complete success last season, or the new Zacateca's Tribute and the upcoming Green Mountain Grape and Mountain Gold:
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/brands/green-mountain-seeds.html
Or the extremely powerful Romulan heirloom from Jake of Romulan Genetics:
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/brands/romulan-genetics.html
It's astonishing the potential, adaptability and plasticity of our beloved plant, the incredible genetic diversity found in the original landraces and in modern strains, with all the amazing different effects, terpenes, plant structures, medical uses, and industrial and ecologic benefits this amazing plant offers. I think we are in the most important and interesting time of modern cannabis history with the ongoing legalization in many countries around the world, which is bringing a more scientific and professional approach to cannabis breeding and cultivation, arising new important discoveries, like the understanding of the synergy between the different cannabinoids, the synergy between cannabinoids and terpenes, the vast field of the terpenes, which is a world on its own, the understanding of the rarer cannabinoids and the breeding for higher content of them, and of course because with the legalization finally the plant and users won't be criminalized. I know this is not yet a reality for many countries (including mine) but i'm positive that the legalization process is unstoppable and eventually will be a reality for most parts and citizens of the world. As cannabis lovers, we must feel very blessed to have the chance to live in such an exciting time for cannabis plant.
It's difficult to predict what the future might hold for ACE Seeds in the upcoming 15 years, whether we will end up fagocitated by the big licensed producers and big pharma, or if we will manage to thrive in this everchanging and highly competitive industry. Time will tell. But i'm sure we at ACE will do our best to continue working hard with the same philosophy and direction, keep improving and offering new interesting genetics in the upcoming years. You can find all the current ACE Seeds releases here:
https://www.aceseeds.org/en/brands/ace-seeds.html?limit=36
and in the updated 'ACE Seeds stock status' thread:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=345289
I would like to thank all the people who have contributed to make this project a reality: our employees, former and current collaborators, our wholesalers and retailers, and to the old pioneers who created this scene from the underground and inspired me and many others with their creations and sacrifices to be the persons we are today. And special thanks to all the growers who have supported our work over all these years, and to all the growers in this room who with their feedback, pics, contributions and caring for others have made of this room a very special place to enjoy together and to share our passion for cannabis. I'm not going to list names of all the people here on ICMag that i would like to deeply thank, because the list will be endless and i'm afraid i will forgot some, but you know who you are ACE Seeds won’t be where we are now without you all. I have not enough words to express my gratitude to all of you.
Much love! And best wishes for 2020 and for this decade
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