Read Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible for Free Online Page A

stupefying. Some indicas have a distinctive odor similar to that of a skunk or cat urine, while others smell sweet and exotic. Heavily resin-laden plants tend to be the most fungus- and pest-resistant. Few indicas with heavy, dense, compact buds are resistant to gray (bud) mold.

    Cannabis indica plant.

    Cannabis indica leaf has broader blades than C. sativa leaves, but not as broad as C. afghanica.
Cannabis Ruderalis
    Cannabis ruderalis (= C. sativa var. spondanea) was first brought to Amsterdam from Central Europe in the early 1980s by the Seed Bank to enhance their breeding program. Very similar, if not the same “ruderalis” plants grow from Minnesota north through Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada. C. ruderalis is a short, weedy, scrubby plant containing very, very little THC, but it starts the flowering cycle after a few weeks growth. Photoperiod does not induce flowering in C. ruderalis. Sometimes confused with more potent indicas, pure C. ruderalis is true ditch weed. It yields a headache rather than a high! Today a few breeders have incorporated the early flowering C. ruderalis genes with other early blooming C. sativa, C. indica, and C. afghanica.

‘Lowryder’ is one of the few C. ruderalis crosses that is auto-flowering and THC-potent.
Cannabis Afghanica
    Cannabis afghanica (= C. sativa var. afghanica) originated near present day Afghanistan. It is quite short, seldom reaching six feet, with distinctive, broad, dark-green leaflets and leaves. Dense branching and short internodes, most often with long leaf stems (petioles), dominate the profile of C. afghanica. The most common examples of pure C. afghanica include the many different hash plants and Afghani strains. C. afghanica is cultivated exclusively for drugs with much of the resin being made into hashish. It is known for the high cannabinoid content. Many growers and breeders do not distinguish C. afghanica from C. indica, lumping them both into the C. indica category.

One of the first Seed Bank catalogs from 1987 shows a C. ruderalis plant alongside the highway in Hungary. Many breeders mistakenly hailed this plant as the “Holy Grail” of cannabis.

‘Hash Plant’, of which there are many, is one of the classic C. afghanica strains.

    C. afghanica has very wide and distinctive leaflets and leaves.

Close-up of ‘Power Plant’ seeds.

Close-up of ‘Eclipse’ seeds.

‘Kali Mist’ seeds are spotted and mottled.

Seeds
    Explosive growth of seed breeders and legal seed sales in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Switzerland, Spain, etc., has given way to more strains of cannabis than ever before. Most popular strains of cannabis are a combination of two or more of the following: C. sativa, C. indica, C. ruderalis, and C. afghanica. But there are also many seeds with the genes from just one of the above. These strains of cannabis are bred to grow best indoors. Others grow best in greenhouses, and still others outdoors in specific climates. See Chapter Sixteen, “Breeding,” for information about hybrid seeds including F1, F2, F3, etc., hybrids.
    A seed contains all the genetic characteristics of a plant. Seeds are the result of sexual propagation and contain genes from each parent, male and female. Some plants, known as hermaphrodites, bear both male and female flowers on the same plant. The genes within a seed dictate a plant’s size; disease and pest resistance; root, stem, leaf, and flower production; cannabinoid levels; and many other traits. The genetic makeup of a seed is the single most important factor dictating how well a plant will grow under artificial light or natural sunlight and the levels of cannabinoids it will produce.
    Strong, healthy parents and proper care yield strong seeds that germinate well. Strong seeds produce healthy plants and heavy harvests. Seeds stored too long will germinate slowly and have a high rate of failure. Vigorous seeds initiate growth within seven days or sooner. Seeds that take longer