Tashkurgan grow and smoke report

Here's another interesting landrace, and correct me if I'm wrong, but a quick google search indicates this strain comes from Kholm, Afghanistan? From a 12 pack of pretty big and fat looking seeds, 9 sprouted, but 3 of them were polyembroyonic, meaning 2 plants emerged from a single seed!

I've read that of the two sprouts arising from a single seed, the runtier plant should be discarded, whereas the bigger one is a clone of the mother plant, can anyone confirm this is correct? If it is true, and polyembryony can be selectively bred for, then this would be another way to preserve clones long term!

Visually speaking, the plants all look similar, but there's clearly a lot of diversity: red pistils, purple bracts(enhanced by cool weather), smells ranging from standard, everyday fuel indica to very subtle fruit background, leafy versus high calyx to leaf ratio, and a wide range of finishing times.

Regarding the aromas, the buds develop very slowly, as do the resin glands. It's very difficult to detect smell at this stage, I'll have more info on that as the buds mature. Most plants aren't developed enough to give off smell.

Some pictures to enjoy! Here's the most vigorous individual from a polyembryonic seed, the runt looks identical but smaller and less vigorous.


Same plant, this is the most showy for now, and is the most advanced in terms of flowering. Bract density is very high, but the size of each bract is normal to slightly small. Check out the red stems, which were present during the vegetative stage:


Typical Tashkurgan leaf:




I'm really excited about this individual. To give you perspective, Kerala (a pure sativa notorious for taking a very long time to finish) is about half way done, whereas this plant pictured below is still just barely producing pistils in October! It seems breeders in the past have completely disgarded these genetics because it takes too long, or they bred with it and selected for faster finishing times:


If you have Tashkurgan growing, feel free to post your pics and experience in this thread! I'll try to keep this updated as the flowers develop.

meizzwang said:

To give you perspective, Kerala (a pure sativa notorious for taking a very long time to finish) is about half way done, whereas this plant pictured below is still just barely producing pistils in October! It seems breeders in the past have completely disgarded these genetics because it takes too long, or they bred with it and selected for faster finishing times:

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Bear in mind, the most recent RSC Kerala accession has shown some markedly early maturing variants, i.e. seed to harvest in less than 5 months. Typical tropical ganja landraces go 6 months.

About northern Afghanistan:

The strains that north Afghan hash farmers regard as the best are harvested during November to early December, by which time they're well into senescence. In other words, they're not early maturing.

That said, our accession called Balkhi is ready by early October in New England.

Enjoying your reports, though I'd make the usual caveat about making sweeping generalisations based on growing small numbers of plants in specific conditions in the Pacific Northwest.

Tashkurgan growing in MA in October

Tashkurgan growing in MA in October

Sorry last picture is one of my Mazaars

Sorry last picture is one of my Mazaars

mazaar

islandsungrown said:

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thanks for sharing islandsungrown! What sort of aromas are you getting from your plants, and any signs of increased mold resistance?

3 of my plants are still growing. One matured so much faster then the other 3. I had to chop it because it was so resinous that the buds were just rotting out. The two plants that have less leaves in the buds are experiencing very little rot while the one with more leaves is loosing buds every day. The hairs on one of my plants are still white while the other two are turning purple. The aromas are very little with a hint of floral smells. Im also growing 3 Mazars and 3 Malanas from the real seed company and I live on a small island where %70 humidy is considered low.

What sort of aromas are you getting from your plants, and any signs of increased mold resistance?

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How about you Meizzwang? It's been cold enough that the mold is spreading much slower then it was last month, my late plants are doing much better then my early. I'm guessing in MA it's in the boytritis sweet spot, 15-20 degrees C or 60-70 degrees F.

The strains that north Afghan hash farmers regard as the best are harvested during November to early December, by which time they're well into senescence. In other words, they're not early maturing.

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North Afghanistan gets cold by the end of November, plenty of hard frosts. I'd think the farmers are letting the plants freeze dry basically. It seems strange to me how there's so many late finishing Afghan strains in a region that gets so cold in November. It shows how cannabis handles cold much better then moisture. My first frost is about the same time but the moisture destroys hashplants by the end of October.

therevverend said:

How about you Meizzwang? It's been cold enough that the mold is spreading much slower then it was last month, my late plants are doing much better then my early. I'm guessing in MA it's in the boytritis sweet spot, 15-20 degrees C or 60-70 degrees F.



North Afghanistan gets cold by the end of November, plenty of hard frosts. I'd think the farmers are letting the plants freeze dry basically. It seems strange to me how there's so many late finishing Afghan strains in a region that gets so cold in November. It shows how cannabis handles cold much better then moisture. My first frost is about the same time but the moisture destroys hashplants by the end of October.

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Good question therevverend. The weather has been warm and dry, so no mold on anything around here. I had one Mazar I sharif in the past that was abnormally resistant to rot: it had near baseball bat thick colas that were disease free after a month of cold, wet weather. Most modern hybrids would have melted under the same conditions. Unfortunately, from Islandsungrown's report, Tashkurgan doesn't sound so promising disease resistant-wise, but we'll see, maybe there are a few that are more resistant than others. Will keep you posted.

i grew up in the middle east and mazar i sharif was a staple for us. I got some beans from afghan selection and this strain as well.. gonna try to grow them both indoors..


The description of this tashkurghan is very intr iguing..

hmm im curious if these will do ok indoors, any thoughts?

therealherbalis said:

hmm im curious if these will do ok indoors, any thoughts?

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Theoretically any plant will do well indoors, I think the biggest issue is how long it takes to actually flower, combined with how big they get. This thread is the 6th hit for taskhurgan strain on google, so I don't think there is a ton of information even out there.

yea figured as much, gonna give these a shot. will report

If you want to hunt for unique traits not seen in modern day cannabis, Tashkurgan is a great strain to try out! Keep in mind, landraces are diverse, so one should expect variable results.

Timing-wise, I think one Tashkurgan plant finished end of October. Most were harvested mid to late November, and one didn't finish until about the first week of December. Zero hermis in the batch that I grew!

Tashkurgan should do just fine indoors: if I had to guess, it'll probably take 90 days under lights to finish from the 12/12 switch.

I haven't smoked any of this stuff just yet, there's just too many different landraces to sample and life is too crazy to get stoned these days. Will comment on the quality of the effects later on if I can get to it.

With this strain, it seems you either find absolute gold or absolute garbage. What I can say is that 3 of the plants were composted because they produced very little resin and had almost no aroma. They could have still been psychoactive, but I'm after both flavor and quality effects.

This plant pictured below had the absolute best stem rub smell out of all the plants. It also yielded the most and was the individual that finished in December, but upon maturity, the bracts had almost no resin or smell. There was zero detectable resinous leaves, and the inflorescence eventually rotted due to 3 weeks of cold, rainy, and cloudy weather. It was one of the 3 that were composted, makes me sad because the plant is absolutely beautiful:


On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, as mentioned earlier, I got lucky and found one pheno that is absolute GOLD! When it first started flowering, the aroma was like bubblegum and smelled similar to the short, squat pheno I had of balkhi, but as it matured, it smelled incredibly pungent and fruity! I can see how this aroma is interpreted as berry-like, but I've never smelled this exact smell ever before! It smells really, really good! if you're looking to breed for new flavors, I think Tashkurgan is a good population to hunt through! Here's the fruity, best clone, which is also quite resinous:



The second best individual was this purple pheno. It turned purple even before the cold set in, so anthocyanin production is quite dominant. Aroma-wise, it's very spicy, zero fruityness! Growth-wise, the leaves, bud structure, and finishing time was almost identical to the best clone, but aroma-wise, it's completely different. The smell is spot on just like a mandala#1 F3 purple pheno:





Honorable mention to this individual pictured below. The fan leaves were green until about 2 weeks before harvest, but the bracts had some slight purpling in them even before the cold set in. It came from a polyembryonic seed, meaning 2 plants emerged from a single seed! There was a runt, which turned out to be male, and then this plant. With polyembryony, one of the plants (usually the more vigorous one) is an exact clone of the mother, and given that the runt was a male, I think this one pictured below was the clone. Polyembryony might be a useful mutation to use for creating feminized seeds, so Tashkurgan definitely shows a lot of promising, unique traits not commonly seen in modern day cannabis hybrids:

awesome update bro thank you.. yea for me currently deciding between tashkurghan or mazar i sharif for indoors .. might as well do both fuck it lol.. i grew up in kuwait and mazar was literally the only hash we had almost.. i need to revisit memory lane!!

Great report Meizzwang. Seems to be quite a bit of pheno variation in the Tashkurgan. The Tashkurgan pheno with the fruity, berry, pungent aroma seems to be a good selection, did you seed or clone it? I'm curious the cannabinoid and terpenoid content. I have some seeds and may test the Tashkurgan after this year's outdoor grow.

I recently picked up a 5 pack of Tashkurgan seeds and would like to know if they were worth the effort? Did you get good smoke out of them? Not much has been said about the taste and high?
Thanks for any reply

Cannosumer, agreed, it would be nice to know more about taste and effect; did you get your seeds from Real Seed Company? Meizzwang gave a good report, is that a mold/PM on the purple pheno? Looks like it could even be botrytis, though I often see the botrytis/bud rot in the inside of the bud. I've heard a little PM is ok, but I'm not sure, be careful.

I got 12 Tashkurgan from RSC, just popped them. One of the 12 was a small seed, I'm expecting 10-11 to sprout up. I'm putting them in NorCal sun during the day and also giving them some supplemental light at night (I understand a landrace would be more authentic with just outdoor natural light, but I want them a few feet tall when put in the ground in May). Most breeding I do for cultivars that will be grown outdoors centers around pheno hunts of plants that live outdoors and are acclimated, but most growers around here start seeds before spring so they can get 5+pound monsters; so the supplemental light is necessary to prevent premature flowering and to size them up. The old regulations enforcing plant counts has made growing monsters a tradition.
My plan is to top each plant in a month or so, take the cutting and immediately flower it. Analyze the flower (potency, aroma, flavor) from the cut and then analyze the original seedlings for structure etc, then select the best Tashkurgan female to be pollinated. I will probably use the best Tashkurgan male too, but I also have a few other males of my outdoor genetics being grown this spring on other farms I may use. I understand 12 plants is a small pheno hunt, but the Tashkurgan is more for fun at this point and the bigger pheno hunts are for plants that hit market. I'm expecting lower than average cannabinoid numbers, with quite a bit of CBD. Besides resin, I'll probably select primarily for uniqueness and aroma. I also have other Afghan cultivars that I may cross into the Tashkurgan. I like that the Tashkurgan is from Northern Afghanistan, which is close to the same latitude here in NorCal.

I'm in CA but near Santa Cruz so maybe not as Norcal as where you are. I got 12 of these from RSC too but since results are highly variable and I don't have space to grow them all, I'll be curious how your grow goes. Growing just a few may not be a worthwhile thing to do. Your plan sounds like a good way to select something promising fairly quickly.

musigny23, yeah I'm a few hours north of you. I'm thinking if these Tashkurgan landraces are grown in a place similar to their natural environment, they will not need as much attention as the Western cultivars. The elevation of where this landrace is sourced is probably around (500 meters) 1600ft, close to my elevation. I hear the Santa Cruz area can vary from sea level to high up in the mountains.
So far, I have four of 12 that have popped from the soil, they have an interesting red tint to them.