African photo thread

[Londinium]

Hi Peeps just been catching up on this thread,theirs some amazing work going on here...Lovin it! All these proper African strains being looked after and kept going is a wonderful thing for those that appreciate African Cannabis in its many forms....
AH and Txopín-Iruña I noticed you spoke of the Transkei starting stocky but having that thinning and stretching growth habit and it pleased me bcos that sounds very like the TranskeiLimes that I had in the '90's and was one of my all time favourite breeding Sativa's....I wasn't too hopeful of finding any similar genetics when I return to SA but that has instilled new hope in me..so ta 4 that fella's.
I collected 3 diff nice types of Transkei back then and 2 batches were similar and both great high's....Its smell and flavour varied between 'sickly sweetshop' and an almost 'toilet cleaner/air freshener' Limey,sharp,anise kinda fragrance.Best crystal production of all the SA weed I got at time... Had a DP of type high but less racy more clear high then mellow stoney if u smoke loads...Sound in any way similar?
Luck and Lumens JBo ;]

 

[wotamess]

I collected 3 diff nice types of Transkei back then and 2 batches were similar and both great high's....Its smell and flavour varied between 'sickly sweetshop' and an almost 'toilet cleaner/air freshener' Limey,sharp,anise kinda fragrance.Best crystal production of all the SA weed I got at time... Had a DP of type high but less racy more clear high then mellow stoney if u smoke loads...Sound in any way similar?

LOLZ go to kofi bay or lusikisiki much?? that's the shit you speak of, right there... i was a student in the eastern cape '94-'97 so pretty much lived on 'kei.

we made a few forays into the transkei to the above mentioned, and then into the hills in between hunting 'number ones' from the little growers. they'd offer you a hessian sack full of seeded standard 'pondo' as it's called in SA, but you'd have to call for the 'number ones' and know what you're after... get a carrier bag full here and there... always a bargain, though, and so worth it!

amazing weed... so clear and powerful, yet not heart thumping and racy like londinium described... and when it was well handled it was truly beautiful... lime green on the one hill, then DARK green 'rooibard' on the next... sold it to the troops for about £10 an ounce!! and that was expensive!!!

then my bastard mate arrives back in town early after vac with a boot load of the biggest stinkiest malawi cobs you've ever seen!!! went and got 'em himself

what fucking good times...

can't wait to go hunt strains again... there's all sorts of fishy news about the local strains dying out and stuff, but i reckon with enough digging those strains are alive and well, maybe just not as heavily cultivated as before...

hopefully, anyway!!

laters

-wam-

 

[Londinium]

Hi Wotamess...It's F--kin cool to hear your tales about the 'kei mate,can't wait to go back..Time spent at Kofi Bay is some of my best memories....Worst memories of SA are of being lost in the mountains for 48 hrs with a fever....Scary shit for a Londoner! What th F--k are those Big Rat/gerbil looking animals you get on the rocks,One kept stalking me like a Predator...Had to chuck stuff at the little shit to get rid of it...lol.
Its nice to hear someone being hopeful about 'Still' finding the good shit there and elsewhere in SA.People told me that all the good 'strains' were gone when I was there in the early '90's and that turned out to be Bullshit..lol. This Dagga has to be preserved in as decent a form as poss,its far too special IMO.
It was the LimeGreen stuff I really liked(although the 'Ciskei' was nice as well),gorgeous plants they were...Grew f--kin well under Lights as well once I was back in London.Damn fine Sativa.....Luck'n'Lumens JBo ;]

 

[oldbootz]

dussies LOL @!!! that story is hilarious !

 

[African herbman]

Haha Londinium they're Dussies mate, or 'rock rabbit'. perfectly harmless! Closest relation to the Elephant or someshit...

 

[spliphy]

best wishes on your quest

best wishes on your quest

Its nice to hear someone being hopeful about 'Still' finding the good shit there and elsewhere in SA.People told me that all the good 'strains' were gone when I was there in the early '90's and that turned out to be Bullshit..lol. This Dagga has to be preserved in as decent a form as poss,its far too special IMO.
It was the LimeGreen stuff I really liked(although the 'Ciskei' was nice as well),gorgeous plants they were...Grew f--kin well under Lights as well once I was back in London.Damn fine Sativa.....Luck'n'Lumens JBo ;]

Hey JBo, all the best

since seeds are not a problem in England, you could post them back to your home...maybe, when you go...carry and prepare small plastic bags and labels with plastic tape to ensure the correct label stays on the correct baggie.

in preserving this dagga, I think you could do it many ways, hopefully a variety of ways with each batch: grow some to stablize the strain, leave some "pure", cross others with IBLs, cross with selected hybrids, etc.

I'm not sure if any genetics in the region would be "landraces" and stable already?....also, intersex plants would have to be managed successfully before seeking to run a production of herb.

great ambition for this worthy project

 

[Masterlow]

Awesome thread, I'm currently vegging quite a large number of swazi, so i'll be getting the pics up here when they start to show their true colours.

Viva African sativas Viva!!!!

Peace

 

[Masterlow]

Fantastic thread, i'll be putting up pics of all my Swazi, about 9 of them, as they progress.

Viva African sativa's viva!!!

 

[Londinium]

So they are called Dussies eh! ta peeps.I think that one I met was a nutter or Rabid or something...just wouldn't f--k off,the little shit,followed me like a bad smell...lol.
Spliphy,Yeah good advice,gotta keep them seperate and ordered and mark all batches individually.I plan to send some back to UK and some to Spain as I have no real outdoor space in UK(bar a little Geurilla action) and just limited access to greenhouse space. So I will bless my Spanish buddies with half of them as they have the facilities(and the skill and exp)to test them in the Open.
Will deffo be making a priority of Open-inbreeding(bar the Hermies) them first to preserve all the genes I can.......as far as Mid term plans go,I have an 'UrbanPoison" project that is an on-going Pet project for me and 2 old friends and we would like a bit more genetic input for that as we won't complete that til we know we have the Best 'Poison' genetics available in the mix.
The other on-going plan for them is an African 'Super-Sat' that we are working on that is slowly turning into 2 seperate projects...one an Africa-wide Sat(likely to have some Congo,Ghanaian and an Island Sat along with S.A. genetics the way its progressing) and the other a Southern African Sat Hybrid with our best Malawi,Transkei, Swazi,Pondo and DP involved(not the most original Idea I know,but we intend this to be a real tool for people for the future).
+ I will of course be mixing them with some of my fave Hybrid girls and boys along the way,as you do! Luck'n'Lumens JBo ;]
p.s. This is an excellent thread,Thanks to all who keep it going!

 

[spliphy]

interesting projects and ideas

interesting projects and ideas

So they are called Dussies eh! ta peeps.I think that one I met was a nutter or Rabid or something...just wouldn't f--k off,the little shit,followed me like a bad smell...lol.
Spliphy,Yeah good advice,gotta keep them seperate and ordered and mark all batches individually.I plan to send some back to UK and some to Spain as I have no real outdoor space in UK(bar a little Geurilla action) and just limited access to greenhouse space. So I will bless my Spanish buddies with half of them as they have the facilities(and the skill and exp)to test them in the Open.
Will deffo be making a priority of Open-inbreeding(bar the Hermies) them first to preserve all the genes I can.......as far as Mid term plans go,I have an 'UrbanDurban" project that is an on-going Pet project for 2 old friends and we would like a bit more genetic input for that as we won't complete that til we know we have the Best 'Poison' genetics available in the mix.
The other on-going plan for them is an African 'Super-Sat' that we are working on that is slowly turning into 2 seperate projects...one an Africa-wide Sat(likely to have some Congo,Ghanaian and an Island Sat along with S.A. genetics the way its progressing) and the other a Southern African Sat Hybrid with our best Malawi,Transkei, Swazi,Pondo and DP involved(not the most original Idea I know,but we intend this to be a real tool for people for the future).
+ I will of course be mixing them with some of my fave Hybrid girls and boys along the way,as you do! Luck'n'Lumens JBo ;]
p.s. This is an excellent thread,Thanks to all who keep it going!

wow!...sounds ambitious...but better to be ambitious and try something any day, also... being safe at the same time

all the best with your projects

what is with the Pondo?...seeking over-looked genetics?

 

[Londinium]

Pondo's been overlooked by many but not amongst my crew!lol! U just have to plant a lot to find the spesh one's(like all the other over-looked,under-rated sativa's).
A friend(web-shy I'm afraid) has a superb 'Pondoland' line since a trip he made in '97 that he has taken to I think F6 or so by now with something like a 10/5 parent ratio each gen. Its lovely,usually squat in veg but skinny-leafed sat with a liquorice and herbs(a bit similar to DP) flavour and a small yield. He had to grow out a lot of pips to find the candidates but was worth the hassle IMO.It seems to have a high female ratio though 65/35 once the hermies are removed from the family. Its his favourite smoke for playing guitar at his bands shows,and writing music apparently. If he lets me take some pics when I visit I will post 'em up.I used a male f4 he gave me from it as a stud a few times,I may have a pic of him or his progeny somewhere on another PC... JBo ;]

 

[spliphy]

Pondo obvious?

Pondo obvious?

Pondo's been overlooked by many but not amongst my crew!lol!
A friend(web-shy I'm afraid) has a superb 'Pondo' line since a trip he made in '97 that he has taken to I think F6 or so by now with something like a 10/5 parent ratio each gen. Its lovely,usually squat in veg but skinny-leafed sat with a liquorice and herbs(a bit similar to DP) flavour. He had to grow out a lot of pips to find the candidates but was worth the hassle IMO.It seems to have a high female ratio though 65/35 once the hermies are removed from the family. Its his favourite smoke for playing guitar at his bands shows,and writing music apparently. If he lets me take some pics when I visit I will post 'em up.I used a male f4 he gave me from it as a stud a few times,I may have a pic of him or his progeny somewhere... JBo ;]

what would be the difference between a "bad" example of some good smoke (like runts) and Pondo?....so a good Pondo could be better than a "poor" Durban Poison?....other poor selections exist in various genepools I'm sure...but Pondo is easily recognizable as "Pondo"?...just trying to figure out the distinction of this variety ...sorry for all the questions :^)

 

[wotamess]

to chime in, pondo is the basic, seeded transkei weed, grown en masse which one finds available throughout SA. cheap, half beaten to death through rough handling, and fully seeded. there will be 'better' batches, that lean closer to the higher quality stuff, but wether it's a different strain, per sé, from the lime greens or rooibart that the 'kei is so renown for, i wouldn't know... it could be the exact same strain, just a selected pheno that's been treated better that gives us the 'number one'.

i think the wider genus of weed that tranverses the southern african coast (swaziland through kwazulu-natal, and into the transkei/ciskei) is related. it probably arrived in the country with the bantu-stans as they travelled down from central africa (nearer ethiopia/somalia and it's connections to the east), although there is speculation that the san people were cultivating hemp in the southern african region before the arrival of the bantu-stan. the other factor to take into consideration was the huge influx of indian people brought by the english for labour in the 1800's. they were taken directly to the natal region, and i'm 100% certain would have brought indian genetics with them. whether these were shared with the locals, i'm not sure, but it may be the result of these indian genetics that gave durban poison it's standout squat nature and racy high...

it's a great bit of debate, this...

later

-wam-

 

[spliphy]

Thanks for the clarification

Thanks for the clarification

to chime in, pondo is the basic, seeded transkei weed, grown en masse which one finds available throughout SA. cheap, half beaten to death through rough handling, and fully seeded. there will be 'better' batches, that lean closer to the higher quality stuff, but wether it's a different strain, per sé, from the lime greens or rooibart that the 'kei is so renown for, i wouldn't know... it could be the exact same strain, just a selected pheno that's been treated better that gives us the 'number one'.

i think the wider genus of weed that tranverses the southern african coast (swaziland through kwazulu-natal, and into the transkei/ciskei) is related. it probably arrived in the country with the bantu-stans as they travelled down from central africa (nearer ethiopia/somalia and it's connections to the east), although there is speculation that the san people were cultivating hemp in the southern african region before the arrival of the bantu-stan. the other factor to take into consideration was the huge influx of indian people brought by the english for labour in the 1800's. they were taken directly to the natal region, and i'm 100% certain would have brought indian genetics with them. whether these were shared with the locals, i'm not sure, but it may be the result of these indian genetics that gave durban poison it's standout squat nature and racy high...

it's a great bit of debate, this...

later

-wam-

hey wam, hope you are feeling better after the surgery....all the best

so its like "swag" in the U.S. or "soapbar": just poor product not a distinctive variety....growing seeds from these batches seems like one could find something decent it sounds like

tracing the origins and spread of the herb is interesting for sure...it has been a while since I read about Bantu and their migrations...off the top of my head: were the Bantu "farmers" though?...to do all the migration...more "hunter-gatherer" lifestyle than agrarian since farmers would be reluctant to leave once they found fertile lands and invested time in its clearing...just a thought

If the Indians brought it, sure it would spread...can't keep a good seed downthe nature of cannabis seeds how they 'squirt' and bounce along with their 'camo' markings makes it inevitable even if the people didn't mix socially (I don't know if they did or not)

thanks again

 

[Londinium]

Yeah I agree Pondo is usually low-grade and probly just diff selection of plants from same original gene-pool as much other Sa weed..I found the TLG and Swazi to be the most consistent and easiest to find good examples,but thats just my exp.....Was just making the point that you shouldn't overlook a strain on reputation alone and if you plant a few hundred of Pondo or other under-rated weed you ARE likely to find keepers amongst them. To be honest I have had to grow quite a lot of DP to find a few good plants also in the past! I really have smoked some excellent buds from Pondo seed,usually from unimpressive looking product but the examples I liked were quite close to DP anyhoo so I reckon the 'Indian genes' are in there somewhere!
I had a Kerala plant that was very liquorice/menthol and some similar growth characteristcs to Durban....that helped me believe the Indian influence made the Durb stand out a long time ago and it does seem likeliest explanation to me.....JBo ;]

 

[spliphy]

thanks Londinium

thanks Londinium

Yeah I agree Pondo is usually low-grade and probly just diff selection of plants from same original gene-pool as much other Sa weed..I found the TLG and Swazi to be the most consistent and easiest to find good examples,but thats just my exp.....Was just making the point that you shouldn't overlook a strain on reputation alone and if you plant a few hundred of Pondo or other under-rated weed you ARE likely to find keepers amongst them. To be honest I have had to grow quite a lot of DP to find a few good plants also in the past! I really have smoked some excellent buds from Pondo seed,usually from unimpressive looking product but the examples I liked were quite close to DP anyhoo so I reckon the 'Indian genes' are in there somewhere!
I had a Kerala plant that was very liquorice/menthol and some similar growth characteristcs to Durban....that helped me believe the Indian influence made the Durb stand out a long time ago and it does seem likeliest explanation to me.....JBo ;]

totally agree on the 'not judging a strain by its looks' assertion


when I can figure out how to resize my pic for this site and upload it I can contribute to it picture-wise....maybe a few days...all the best

 

[Londinium]

I should add really that the great Pondo line my friend keep's(and other nice ones I've smoked)was from a batch of seeds bought from a small farmer in Pondoland and weren't extracted from bought weed. That often makes a big diff as small,proud farmers usually have the special ganja IME. If I can get a more detailed story of his trip from him I will share it....

 

[spliphy]

yeah, let's keep up the farmers' tradition

yeah, let's keep up the farmers' tradition

I should add really that the great Pondo line my friend keep's(and other nice ones I've smoked)was from a batch of seeds bought from a small farmer in Pondoland and weren't extracted from bought weed. That often makes a big diff as small,proud farmers usually have the special ganja IME. If I can get a more detailed story of his trip from him I will share it....

inspiring about the farmers...following in their footsteps...let's keep their strains going

 

[Thule]

Here's an african lady my friend is growing. Any suggestions what it might be? All that is known about it is that it comes from Africa, and they called it African bushweed. I'm thinking South African. Ever seen anything like this?

 

[wotamess]

^^ looks like a swazi to me! fattish leaves thinning out as the plant stretches and flowers...

I had a Kerala plant that was very liquorice/menthol and some similar growth characteristcs to Durban....that helped me believe the Indian influence made the Durb stand out a long time ago and it does seem likeliest explanation to me.....JBo ;]

interesting... the only problem with this is that the vast majority of the indians that went to SA during this time were from rajasthan and gujarat, which are MILES away from kerala... who knows!! maybe a rajasthani took his keralan family along, and they brought a sack of seeds...

-wam-

edit: flying to cape town on monday!