Chu Valley Cannabis in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

[therevverend]

Apparently there are 140,000 hectares of supposedly feral cannabis growing in the Chu Valley of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. It is supposedly very potent. http://www.rferl.org/content/sweaty_bars_of_hash_soviet_era_marijuana_still_in_demand/24311848.html
I think their reports of potency are exaggerated. I think it's more like 3.5% THC. It sounds like most of it is made into hashish so that's potent enough.
I'm fascinated by this because everyone thinks that is where cannabis originated. Every plant the military of those countries destroys is a treasure. If the entire world supply of cannabis seed descended from those plants the traits that were bred into Thai, Afghan, Columbian, Indian, and every other strain are locked in the genetics of those plants.
The government of Kazakhstan is not blind to this potential.
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/01/15/kazakhstan_wants_to_attract_big_pharma_to_its_cannabis_klondike
So let's get off our asses. The skilled breeders who know what they're doing and have the resources need to get to the Chu Valley before these genetics are lost forever. Sounds like the government can be bought so all we need is $$.
Each valley in central Asia is seperated by huge mountain ranges. So the strains say 100 kilometers apart should have a huge amount of variation.
Apples also originated in Kazakhstan there's wild stands of apples in the mountains that are the holy grail of apple breeding. No reason it isn't the same way with cannabis.

 

[t99]

Heard stories years ago about naked women hash making. Thought it was BS then, still do. Funny reference though. Hopefully they stop eradication efforts there (and worldwide!).

 

[therevverend]

Yes the naked guy on the horse story cracked me up. Shows the growers there are just as big of bullshitters as the ones here. Especially to foreign gullible foreign journalists. I'll wager the wild ganja is a red herring the real growers have their own strains and fields hidden away from the feral ones. And use traditional Central Asian sieving methods.
Robert Connell Clarke in his book Hashish documented how the hashish makers have been driven south out of Kazakhstan and China into Afghanistan by the repressive political climate.
So the excellent traditional hashish making methods and cultivars may have originated in the Chu Valley. One more reason someone who knows what they're doing needs to explore instead of a half baked journalist trying to sell his story.

 

[bigbag]

do I smell a Borat 2... ?

 

[therevverend]

I would rather not see Borat naked on a horse. Or getting hashish ripped off his hairy body.

 

[therevverend]

The interesting thing about the naked guy on the horse legend, it tells us something important about how the locals make hashish. Every article I've found about the Chu Valley says the hashish is hand rubbed. If that is true it would be remarkable. Every where else in central Asia people use sieves.
In Hashish Robert Connell Clarke says hand rubbed is the more primitive older method. This means the Hashish culture in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan is probably older than Afghanistan. It is probably the original central Asian hashish culture.
It is also so far north the plants must finish early and have resistance to mold and frost. All the more reason that some academic types need to get samples and explore.

 

[therevverend]

It is possible this could be the place the Scythians got their cannabis from. Which would mean cannabis cultivation in this are could go back 2500 years at least. And if it's wild cannabis 10,000 years?

 

[therevverend]

Now that harvest and trimming are over the idleness of winter has set in, making me an instrument of the devil. And the greatest instrument of the devil is the internet. Which led me to reading Russian grower blogs and Russian seed banks. And I found a company called Axx seeds that sells a Kazakhstani landrace.
http://axxseeds.com/catalog/seeds/axx/?PAGEN_1=3
They also have pictures of a trip to the Kazakh/Kyrgyz border looking at the wild cannabis that grows there.
http://axxseeds.com/gallery/list/?order=shows&group_photo=Y#gallery
Interesting stuff. It amuses me to think of the police and military patting themselves on the back after destroying thousands of those plants. While the big smuggler drug lords who pay the bribes grow fields of Dutch strains and make the big bucks.
But look how hardy those plants are, they're growing in dry sand in a desert! I bet if they got bathed in worm casting tea every day it would be quite different. Very interested in their auto/early flowering outdoor potential.
Anyone order from Axx Seeds? I am way too paranoid to order seeds from Russia..

 

[therevverend]

Looking at it again, I'd say the Chuikov strain is true landrace seeds collected in Kazakhstan. Those are the most interesting seeds I have seen in a long time. Love to see some find their way to Sam the Skunkman's DNA test.

 

[bombadil.360]

awesome find man!

you'd need a lot of seeds and space to do proper reproduction and selections though.

surely there must be people that have been doing just that out there.

but the area is pretty problematic in many ways for a foreigner... I used to work with a lady from Uzbekistan, and I asked her about the herb there, but she could not tell me much since she had never smoked herb, all she knew is that some people do indeed smoke, specially in the villages.

peace

 

[t99]

I would rather not see Borat naked on a horse. Or getting hashish ripped off his hairy body.

Is Pam Anderson going to be in this one too? How old is she these days?

 

[somethingGooey]

Anyone order from Axx Seeds? I am way too paranoid to order seeds from Russia..

That guy is legit but don`t know about ordering seeds... You better ask him directly.

 

[therevverend]

You would have to look at growing a wild strain like that as an experiment to learn more about cannabis and breeding.
The best would be to travel there and find the stoners with the worked strains. But like you say it would be difficult. Having family or friends who live there would make it far easier. If you were fluent and Muslim you would stand a much better chance.

 

[M4N50N]

am way too paranoid to order seeds from Russia..why?

 

[therevverend]

Sending a couple hundred bucks all the way to Russia to God knows who, who may send me God knows what? Plus our postal service and government frowns upon transactions. Receiving dodgy packages from Russia could raise red flags. Plus I can find great seeds close to home with far less risk.
If I had Russian friends or understood the language it would be far different. Or if I lived in Europe. I don't have any way to gauge what is a con and what is real.