African Strains

[funkyhorse]

Found a couple of unopened Afropips packs from the stash. Wonder if these are still good, they are at least 16 years old. Stored cool, dry and dark..

I sprouted 3 original Afropips packs last season I sourced a couple of years ago:
1)Mabombe no sprout at all, not even one root
2)Senegal Haze. I had also an F2 pack from USC. Half pack I tried on fresh EWC old seed germinating method and the other half with paper towel. The F2s all on paper towel. The ones on paper towel from the original pack I got one to show roots but never showed cotyledons. The ones on fresh EWC I got 4 seeds to show roots and cotyledons but only one succeded to show first leaves after a month and became a very interesting girl with the best organoleptics I tried so far in cannabis, a total surprise. The F2s all showed roots and cotyledons but all of them stalled and they never grew first leaves
3)Tribal Vision. To my total surprise I got 10 out of 10 in just 3 days. All of them unexpectedly very vigorous. This pack I sprouted after the other two so I expected similar difficult germination but this was not the case. This strain is a phenotype carnival with indica and sativa plants and it included 4 sexes: heterosexual male and female and intersex male and female. Too many intersex individuals in this pack

Germination might be strain dependant

 

[yesum]

So these are three Hartigear Malawi Gold females at 54 days of flower. I could take them down now. I have to think these are a hybrid and not pure Malawi but could have been selected for fast finishing and hybrid traits over a period of years. One of them is quite sativa in effect, the second seems hybrid and calm and the third is very sativa and trippy with some real intensity. So not sad how they turned out but feel landrace is not a good description and maybe heirloom at best.

They have to be around 20% thc I think. Frosty and no mistaking that you are high off these. I am trying to clone them and will keep at least one after smoking the buds for a while and picking which make the cut. Not much noids even with the trippy one and none with the others, euphoric all of them. No hay with this line like happens with some landrace phenos.

 

[Thule]

Hi, a few years ago I decided to start going through my oldest and sometimes poorly stored seed baggies. Often times nothing would germinate and sometimes just one seed does. This time that one plant grew from a seed derived from African seeds Ethiopian Highland. A male, but fast flowering and slender looking so I used him on an African seeds Swazi Rooibaard female.



I'm getting a few different phenotypes here. First picture: up left most slender leaves and quite Ethiopian dominant, up right heavily Ethiopian dominant, down below wider leaves Swazi dominant.

Second pic is the heavily Ethiopian dominant plant as a youngling. It has the exact same leaf shape as the Ethiopian Highland grandpa did. Amost eerily so considering they're less than half Ethiopian. I'm pretty sure there's a drop of ruderalis in my Ethiopian line from some breeding experiments but the little baggie didn't specify which one.. But flowering times might be positively affected.

Third pic is the fourth plant. A heavily Swazi dominant wider leaf plant. Very leggy and probably the most vigorous plant in the house. Himalayan style. I performed the good old FIM (Fuck I missed) on her and for once it worked resulting in 6 top branches. The picture is a week old but Swazi is not photogenic so let's remember her when she was still cute.

 

[skmatzwonk]

Sensi Seeds have a Black Friday offer, including on their African, Duban Poison. Sensi Seeds are offering 50% OFF with the code BLACKFRIDAY.
Here is Duban Poison, an easy to cultivate yet potent African sativa strain with moderate height gain: https://sensiseeds.com/en/feminized-seeds/sensi-seeds/durban-feminised


Durban-feminised

 

[Roms]

​Vade retro S.S. lol, that's how to ruin the South African pure NLD and the community understanding, so sad!

A heavily Swazi dominant wider leaf plant.

Here's how true Swazi Rooi or true Durban Poison should look like ya know! :​

Afropips Swazi Rooi, Atao F4, grown by numide

 

[Thule]

Swazi was always a mixed bunch. The African seeds Swazi is very variable but the wider leaf plants were present in the 2000's release already. In flower these are more slender looking than the Afropips line.

 

[skmatzwonk]

Once I grew some Durban out, but I had yellow leaf trouble and the HID stripped the leaves. In the end I gave up and just tried to flower them. Only this worked beautifully. The stunted plants were nice and squat, and grew quite fat colas. The best I have ever grown. Wish I could do that every time.

 

[Roms]

Swazi was always a mixed bunch. The African seeds Swazi is very variable but the wider leaf plants were present in the 2000's release already. In flower these are more slender looking than the Afropips line.

No it's time and ignorance that is always a mixed bunch, Afropips's source and work is simply more "original poison" legit imho!

 

[Thule]

No it's time and ignorance that is always a mixed bunch, Afropips's source and work is simply more "original poison" legit imho!

I don't really consider anything from Southern Africa as pure anything but I've never been there nor have I smoked what the locals have but out of the two Swazis I considered the Afropips one more hybridized and decided to explore this one instead for that very reason And with hybridized I'm thinking India/perhaps Pakistan where lots of immigrants came from. Not like a Malawi for example but still with an unmistakable African dominance. We must have had different plants or more likely different tastes.

Mustafunk who gifted the seeds seemed to prefer the Afropips one. Can't find the pictures now but would be nice to compare.
"Swazi Rooibart from African Seeds is faster maturing and more compact looking. While Swazi Red from Afropips has some more vigourous growth, slighly darker green shiny leaves and later maturing. Buds are very frosty and pungent as well in this strain sourced from Nkomati area.

Both are interesting strains and quite underrated and unknown although in this case, I think Afropips is finer. African seeds strain could be interesting for some fast flowering breeding. I noticed this with the Malawi strain too."

 

[Roms]

Well trust my wisdom and expertise i would say, time seems to approve my work and intuitions!

Btw Mustafunk had prefered African Seeds in facts so your opinion has come out from him i guess.

Anyway South Africans varies a lot in function of areas, Lesotho, Malawi and Swazi are the best because U.V. intensity in Drakensberg and Mulanje altitudes, the fast flowering variation also comes from that. In more fertile lowlands or sea level situations it's different with less resin, longer flowering and highest stature but all is mixed from time to time with the best from the mountains origin poison.

So apprehend generality with few seeds is confounding, need minimum the double 12 and anthropological and biologic background to round a circle of sure knowledge.


Here's Mustafunk comment about African Seeds Swazi and my F2 of Afropips :

Some Swazi Red here from the defunct African Seeds company, quite similar to the ones from Afropips but slighty less compact, with a beautiful pale green color and more mold resistant too:

So African Seeds isn't really Rooibard from high elevation, more like Swazi Gold from lowlands because less compact and mold proof! Swazi Rooibard from Afropips has both side Gold and Red that is not really the case for African Seeds imho.

Here's my F2 of Afropips true Rooibard, shot by Mustafunk, (green overfertilzed) :

More of true blue green Swaz (Original Afropips) one of the 8 moms of my 2011 repro...

F2 :

 

[Thule]

I found these old pictures of Swazis I've grown

First pic is a lanky stretcher from 2007/08 from African seeds originals. It made your head spin. The latter two I think are from Musta. The last one is the mother of those Ethiopian hybrids of mine. They all look very different to each other, all are African seeds Swazis. That's what I love about these, the variety. I don't know how many generations they were worked with in Spain but I remember the first plant being quite different to the latter ones. Nothing compact about it. Also completely green so something changed along the way.

 

[Roms]

Part of my Afropips Rooibard first repro with the stature variation :

 

[funkyhorse]

Senegal Haze was pollinated with pollen from a few Seedsman Hz x Golli Hz males hoping to bring vigour and enhancement back to Senegal Haze and why not maybe it comes up the Haze behind Senegal haze. I have one freak from this cross as well

This is the most vigorous girl of the terribly unvigorous pack of Senegal TSCo from JGL work(wasnt kept very well at the seedbank) crossed with pollen from Seedsman Hz x Golli Hz males and it seems vigour is back big time!! Crazy plant with long internodes growing in 3 liter pot. I want to see them outdoors this autumm

Have a nice weekend and thanks guys for your very interesting posts, some music for the weekend
Blues legend Pappo and BBKing in Madison Square Garden

 

[funkyhorse]

Senegal TSCo x (Seedsman Hz x Golli Hz) males in 1 liter pots, 1,8 meter tall and growing

Have a nice sunday everyone

 

[yesum]

I ordered a pack of Congo Black from TLT and wonder if here have grown and smoked it? It has a review comparing it to LSD and also in the strain description. I am a sucker for such stuff and ordered. I keep telling myself this is the last order. Been going on for years now.

Update on the Malawi is I chopped at 58 days. I have to feel there is a indica in the mix here. The effect is sativa but there some density or whatever to the high. It is not like the Manipur for instance, which is all in the head and no weight at all to the high. Maybe I just have smoked too much pot overall and am imagining things, hehe. One pheno is very sativa in effect and not much weight, electric if tolerance is down.

 

[Lolo94]

Swazi (Hawaiian IBL) x Red Congolese (Referman) Bud Shots:
75% African sativa, 12.5% Acapulco gold, 12.5% Kabul Kush
Just recently harvested these. Red hairs are plentiful, but unfortunately they fall off the bud easily.
Looking forward to a weekend sample.

 

[yesum]

^^ It looks Kush dominate.

 

[Lolo94]

^^ It looks Kush dominate.

It definitely carried the mom's looks which is alot beefier than the pure Swazi. Leaves were Nld similar to the Swazi. Got one more growing running 3 weeks behind the others. The Red Congo cut used was very euphoric and uplifting with little comedown.

 

[yesum]

I got the Congo Black seeds from TLT. 7 of 10 germinated and maybe 5 or 6 will live? Good enough for me. I planted the unopened seeds but do not expect them to pop ever, and 1 or two of the sprouts look iffy, but this should be enough to test the strain and make f2's.

 

[Lolo94]

yesum, good luck with your reproduction.
I' didn't have any luck finding Swazi males out of 21 seeds germinated when I tried to reproduce it. Interestingly enough all the Swazi/Congo redsfrom that same generationalso were all female also. I'd be interested in out breeding it to another pure African Male. Seeds are getting old