Jamaican Strain Identification?

haven't checked up in here in a while. and wow! looks like I came at the right time too.

@ wally and pescador

Anyway yeah what you guys are both saying is right. They just aren't exclusively right.

Wally is right if you brought them an indian sativa (which is the original ancestor) or a dalat or something they will reveg during flower and screw everything up. so a shorter flowering sativa would be best. the question is whats sativa enough? alot of it is pretty indica'd up and true rastas out there especially at churches for meditation would probably love to have highland oaxaca gold or shorter flowering african sativas. And that is who I really meant is looking for sativas. I'm sure there are commercial growers that are growing more indica'd up strains then they'd like to be for the longer seasons and getting smaller plants with lower yields.

A big problem for them growing sativas is they don't reveg good plants. they still cut and burn and put little dense planted plots. And they pack it full of just what wally said. plants that will veg for a few weeks and flower for 75 days. quick money, which is what they're after.

So they shouldn't completely give up the short season strains. those guys are poor as hell and they need money. Aside from the cashcroppers that just need a quick dollar the island has two long season and one short. The only things that will really finish for the short season are 60 day or less indicas and that is an entire crop for those guys if you don't get it quick enough. It's the smallest crop of the year but it still feeds their family.

But I'm interested in jamaican indicas anyway. We have a complete lack of outdoor hot humid adapted indicas and its something we could use in the gulf coast. You could sell a ton of seeds if you had a indica that would finish in august and not mold and still produce good results in the heat. I got one early california strain that does it but thats it. So they have their own unique role and should be used.

But there are definitely alot of people in jamaica looking for sativas again. For every commercial grower there are 20 personal growers with it next to their vegetables.

You know they have the same commercial problems we have here. You ask people what is your favorite weeds. They say Haze, hawaiian, colombian. You ask them what they are selling they say afgani, g13, skunk. You know. you're gonna sell what is good money fast.

From what I gathered just shooting the shit with jamaicans over the years is they have three seasons. The best one starts last week of august and harvests by december. the winter crop is the tough one where they use indicas and its jan-feb. by mid march they start revegin. and the hot season is apr-aug when they grow sativas. but sativas really can't have a flower time much longer than about 110 +/- days.

I was lucky enough to taste Elevator man's Jamaican and of all the great buds I tried while visiting, the Jamaican was my favourite, spicy and very potent. I think I described the taste as hot beef and onion sandwich, just beautfiul smoke and the buds looked superb too, apart from the fantastic resin coverage, the calyxes were very large and swollen and the buds had a lovely range of pale colours, lots of tan and pale brown tones. I think the sample I tried was well cured, it was certainly smooth, tasty and potent, a keeper for sure.

i hear ya guys ,,,, just that i have found after much practise and outdoor growing at the same lat as jamaica u can use shorter flowering plants in that sort of location , and not be disappointed ,,,
im pretty sure the jamiacans would love c99 and or a cross of it ,,
and if they were to properly cultivate as we would their results would be great ...

if the jamaicans grew fast flowering plants in their dry season , and big big sallys in the wet season , they would definately be optimising their growing ....

ill show u ,, firstly an indica in the tropics ,, note the size ,,, and second pic is a fast flowering sativa ,, also note the size ,, these are grwn in the dry season , the shorter part of the year ...

I imagine there are some sativas that will yield very well and be perfectly suited to commercial growing, although those would have to be grown in the long season, so I would think it would be a case of growing three different strains with different flowering times in each of the three seasons. I'd go for a full-blooded sativa like a Malawi Gold or Zamal in the long season, a faster sativa hybrid like SSH or Kali Mist in the other longish season and a top indica like Sensi Star or maybe Santa Maria which is fast but sativa leaning in the short season.

Hell, given the Jamaican climate and a patch of land, I'm sure I'd manage to grow a few different things and have a whale of a time doing it, but I'm dreaming.

Thats one hell of a nice plant in that second shot wally, what strain is it? What kinda yield do you get off a plant that size?

I'll second that! Wally, one of the nicest and healthiest outdoor plants i have seen in a while. Congrats!

Motaco, thanks for the post..great honor to have you here. Very informative post.

I will throw one other possibility at you: that some of the JA sativas are not really photosensitive, especially compared to some of the colombians. I grew a zamal/nev haze cross last summer and it autoflowered on me. The autoflowering trait very likely did not come from the nev haze side, as that is a bred line. The zamal is reputed to be heavily influenced, if not exclusively, by old school indian sativas, much like the original jamaican.

Once again, the rasta farmer I met in Bath/St Thomas told me that his plant was a sativa as he understood it, that finished in Dec/Jan and would regrow tall for a second harvest by the summer after being cut at the base. It seems that this strain is not too photosensitive perhaps, and perhaps even less so when lightly seeded as most JA herb is. And he mentioned this growing trait without me asking, as it could be something he pointed out for reasons of it not being too common of a trait. I wish I asked him that. And as I said, the weed was by far the most sativasish I had seen on the island.

I have 4 of those beans that I will pop sometime in the next year, and hopefully pass around to others if they turn out to be special. (will be breeding F13Xbangi Haze, then Malawi GoldX caribe or john sinclair, and then zamal and zamal X nev haze with a genius A11) .



As for growing indicas for economic reasons, I agree. However, one must also consider the effect downer weed has on a struggling country where a majority of the people smoke. I can tell you first hand that most of what I smoked in JA was not your motivational, positive, philosophically uplifting herb that made this a sacred plant through the first 3/4th of last century. It was more your dumb, boring, demotivating/uninspiring lazy and depressing hybrid that is so common around the world these days. For these reasons, Ganja in my opinion went from arguably a positive for the country, to a negative - even economically speaking - with the widespread proliferation of indica since the late 80's. That is just my opinion though, but I feel strongly about that. But for the farmers themselves, I understand the point wally and you are making.

I did grow out a fast flowering hybrid from Port Antonio as posted earlier on in this thread. There too, the plant was not very photosensitive at all, as it flowering outside of my grow box when I had to temporarily get rid of it. It flowered during the summer and continued flowering despite room lights being on during the evening. It was not an auto flowering strain though, as eventually, with a strong light placed directly on it during the night, it did slowly begin to reveg. This was unlike the zamal cross that could not give a damn about light it seemed.


BTW, port antonio is very humid, so if you want the remaining beans, they are yours.


Cheers,

hey bh ,, yes its a nice plant ,, along what i aim for , i can usually yeild between 8 -16 oz off one like that ,, im pretty sure that one regrrew a few ounces also ,,, perfect for me ,,, honestly id love to see if i could do the same in jamaica ,, i certainly think its very do able ...

yes i can certainly see the need for buzzing and happy sativa ,, it seems to go well with their rum also , hehehhehe ... and im all for that kinda stoned that still keeps ya working ,,
we are much the same where i live also ,, i really dont like that weed that reddens my eyes too much i can barely see properly and cant motivate ,, but theres a nice between also that can bring some good relief from the daily routines .... a hybrid that leans on the sativa side can do very similar things , and yet yeild very well in the off time of year ....
the reason for the long season sativas typically in wet tropical areas from what i can gather , is the flowered long and past the wettest time of year before they matured ,, avoiding many problems , several inches of rain a day can really dampen the spirit of a plant not suited ...
i didnt think the jamaican herb we smoked was strong ,, but really nice buzz and made me feel very nice and happy ,,, kinda chilled into the scene better i think ...
should have seen the jamaican guys after a bubbler of hash , heheheh ,, really stoned them ...

from what I've seen with jamaica the handling looks like an equally big part in that downer high as the genes. they mishandle that poor stuff so bad. turns trichomes brown quickly= unhappy weed.

I get that alot around here. commercial weed is so bricked I break open all the buds and smoke the area immediately around the stem. it rarely gets crushed and is good weed. bright trichomes. if you smoke all the smushed part of the bud the stone is very boring. the trichomes have decayed.

@pescador. very interesting what you say about them being seeded and not light sensitive. That may play a very big part. at the old UST I used to talk to a guy that seeded his spare clones on purpose so they would flower during the summer without being forced and he'd get an extra harvest + beans to screw around with. He said it didn't work on every strain(some would reveg) and it had to be seeded enough but once it was the plant wouldn't revert out of budding. It refused to kill its own seeds.

@wally. lol. I believe it with the hashish. Me and my buddy were laughing at that video of the rastas hittin that triple bub of water hash. Not trying to sound racist but in new orleans its almost the same thing. I've only met a handful of black guys that owned pipes (if you can't toss it like a blunt they don't wanna hold it) and nobody has seen weed of ANY quality. seriously when I show people homegrown alot ask WHAT it is. they don't even recognize it as weed and they are life long smokers. best bud THEY"VE even seen is the worst canadian beaster YOU"VE ever seen.

So through the years me and my friends have had some fun times at their expense (if you wanna call getting someone totally stoned "at their expense" lol).

Corner boys always think they are the toughest thugs on earth. "I'll smoke that whole blunt to myself white boy. won't fade me." Since they never seen a glass bong except in the movies they always accidentally take these massive rips without carbing it. One bong rip of jack herer and all that shit talking stops. just sit there lookin stupid with their mouth hangin open. Thinkin we gave them pcp or something lol. You don't even wanna hear the mushroom tea stories. lol.

motaco that sounds like a blast.
My jamaicans are living up to my expectations, outdoors with moderate ferts and ammendments, all organic- they are weighing in at 58 to 80+ grams....
Like i said they were pulled a week or two early, so would have gotten heavier-and also would have put out a second crop in oct/nov..
As would be expected with a sativa, they take a good cure for the flavor to come out. The high is really upbeat, and just makes you delighted to see a bird land on the windowsill..It's a "tuned to nature-and happy to see sunshine" kinda high..
And yes, there was a nice reproduction on this one...
Be interesting to see this strain make it back to the island....

Hi Pescador

Interesting what you say about the Zamal x Neville's Haze, I also grew that one out and kept the most Zamal pleaning pheno. I have revegged this plant and flowered it again for a second 16 week run. I gave her a root trim and repot and revegged her a second time and she is sitting in my mother box quite happy. Both times I revegged her, she immediately sprouted single-bladed leaves and carried on growing, no waiting for weeks on end like an indica for the new growth to appear. There are quite a lot of pistils also growing, she isn;t flowering, she just likes to put out lots pf pistils in veg. This pistils in veg trait is showign up in the Blueberry x Zamal/Haze seedlings I have in veg. The Zamal side seems to dominate as they all have pretty thin leaves and looks very sativa leaning. I eliminated 4 males that showed sex after about 40 days of 24/0 under fluoros, and have identified two females, they are putting out pistils although still vegging, so that's obviously a trait of the Zamal. I think, rather than AF, the Zamal is very sensitive to photo period, when given 24/0 it will veg, when given 12/12, it will flower, and is happy to switch between flower and veg. I've read that in La Reunion, some types of Zamal can live for years like a tree, flowering every year, and it's that kind of behaviour I'm seeing in the Zamal pheno Zamal/Haze I have.

Motaco,

Thanks for the additional info about seeded flowers and their light sensitivity. LMAO at your stories too.

Most of what I got in JA was not cured, but fresh. It is a complaint nowadays amongst old timers that dealers/growers skip the cure for fast cash. I think what I was feeling with a lot of the weed there was CBD, and not CBN (oxidized THC from mistreated/cured buds). However, the Port Antonio smoke did have lots of ambers on it as well as whit trichs. I guessed that this strain was very similar to the one I had grown as it was purchased from the same source a year prior to my own trip. Like Elevator Man's first JA grow, this plant put out lots of resin very early into flowering, so that by the time the plant was finished, there may have been a higher percentage of amber-CBN resin. I had to harvest my own plant early, so I did not get this. I am a THC/THCV guy, and dislike the CBN/CBD effects. That is why I tend not to cure too much despite what it does for the taste of the smoke..though I understand many like the confusion/disoriented effect you get from CBN. Now that I think of it, for what I want high wise, I would prefer my plant pump out resin only towards the mid-end of flowering.

Tiedye420...sounds like you have the real deal. PRESERVES those seeds!!!! Great grow!

British Hempire,

Not to get too off topic, but I loved your grow report and can't wait to get that harvest hopefully next spring. Due to location difficulties and absences, I have not had the best of luck with the weed gods over the past year, so I could never properly finish that grow. My Nev Haze/Zamal may not have been totally AFing, but pretty damn close. Everyone who saw it thought it clearly was. It could have been a fluke. I don't mind that though, as I am looking for amazing sativa strains that, with a good early sat cross, could finish in northern latitudes. I just ordered some pure Zamal from gypsy that I will hopefully cross with a genius phenoed A11 male (very similar branchy growing structure to the zamal).

also, good read regarding the zamal here:

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=26228

"all the ones I grew were vigorous and seemed to want to grow in a vegetative state regardless of the photoperiod ..(I can grow all year round here) and took them 3 or 4 or more months to begin flowering....and when they consider themselves mature enough they will flower, even if the photoperiod is 13.5 hours in late Summer, the Thais I used to grow, on the other hand, would only start flowering in the late Fall when the photoperiod is 12 and decreasing..the Thais were very responsive to the photoperiod , wheras the Zamals are only partly photoperiod responsive."

I just got word that the original plant that started this has been cloned successfully, and I can get one next week - phew. Also my friend's outdoor plant is turning red, apparently!

I'll try and get some photos of that next week, and also his 'Hazel Skunk', which is from seeds he brought back from Jamaica this year - again, looked more like a pure Afghani to me than anything else last time I saw it...

Thanks to all for keeping this thread going with all the extra info too - it's great stuff, and very useful - look forward to hearing more.

The original and the new kid on the block...

The original and the new kid on the block...

Here's a few shots of the mystery Jamaican again, this time outdoors in the garden of the friend who originally brought it back. Again, it's insanely resiny, and even more purple, due to the cold we've had recently:



And finally - one of the 'Hazel Skunk' - or whatever it really is. Another budseed from Jamaica, this one is almost black, and looks much more sativa. Ironically this started off looking so indica it barely looked like cannabis - like a lettuce. It's very fruity/spicy - similar to Flo, but definitely something else going on as well. The other pheno stayed more green, but this one is spectacular:

Apparently both these plants were chopped down on Saturday, so hopefully can get some to test-smoke by the weekend.

loving it EM!
hot stuff!

Fantastic!

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but when in Jamaica I was told that the area around where Bob Marley was born...not too far really from where your friend go this weed, finger hash is commonly produced. Knowing you, you will make some hash out of this so let us know how that is!

Your best hope I guess is that this is a great indoor-appealing hybrid that has some uncommon sativa genes in it and with a high that is great and maybe a little different from common hybrids. So far, I think things look promising for you

Just started a Caribe, will make a grow thread soon....

Really looking forward to a smoke report!

All the best EM

Pescador - it's certainly fine indoors - 8-9 weeks in both soil and hydro, with almost identical results. More purpling in soil I noticed. I'm giving out the first cut of this on Saturday to another member, as I think it should be taken further, on all levels! It needs a name urgently, for ID as much as anything else - me and the guy who brought the seeds back are trying to think of one now...

I've also got my Ja X Flo seeds to test - or 'Ja-Lo', as I'm thinking of calling it...

Hey Elevator Man!!!!

I would call this Jamaican-Strain something like:Jamaican Silver or Jamaican Snow or maybe Caribean Silver/Snow

I hope its not to offtopic.....greetz Goldenseed

Finding the true identity of a strian you got out here is hopeless. If you like her keep it and give it a name to reflect its roots, so Jamican --something. You'll almost never find a strian thats pure, when they havent screwed up the name, the feilds are so close that you have a 3 or 4 way mix in no time. I gave a buddy of mine some Ak47 seeds a few years back, these where from serious seed striaght from the pack. 8 months later i went back, when i got there he had a feild of purple buds. When i asked what strian it was he said it was the same one i gave him he's just taken seeds from it. After i toke a few joints i found out it was a blueberry strian ... now he's probly passed that on to a bunch of people as Ak47 but its not even close. You wanna hear the funny part i check out a feild of one of his friends that he gave some of the seeds, when i got there some one was working in the feild so i asked him what strian was it ..... he said it was M16. So see its like a freaking spiders web. Two people with two different name and the strian isnt even pure Ak47 anymore ....actually its nothing close. THose girls look really nice just give them a name and pass it on.

damn thats nice

We're getting together at the weekend for a 'summit' on this one - me, the guy who brought the seeds back, another guy who grows it, and an IC Mag member for sanity's sake. We're going to smoke a bunch and so some 'analysis'...

We'll also come up with a name, definitely, but will put those suggestions in the pot for starters! And a clone will finally leave here...