Fascinating. A mother that is more than 20 years old can rarely be found in the field of cannabis seed strains. But the female parent of Afghanica, an old school indica/sativa hybrid from The Flying Dutchmen, saw the light of the day already in 1984 and today still is one of the traditional breeding plants of this Dutch seed bank.
Haley’s CometThe aforesaid mother is Afghani #1, an indica variety that was brought from the USA to the Netherlands by the legendary Sam The Skunkman in 1984, together with a range of other classic seed strains like e.g. Skunk #1. In those days, Eddie Reedeker, who founded the Flying Dutchmen Seed Bank more than 10 years later, became Sam`s cultivation partner in Holland. Eddie and Sam grew the imported seeds thousandfold in large greenhouses, up to the American motto think big, grow big, in search of good mother plants. According to Eddie, they cultivated 3,500-4,000 Afghani #1 plants, and fortunately they could make a lucky punch already in the first round: An absolutely outstanding female specimen of Afghani #1 was found and chosen to become the mother of a new variety. But which variety should play the father role? This search proved to be much more of a problem. They tried a couple of different varieties, but discarded everything, until they hit upon Skunk #1 as perfect breeding partner. So Afghani #1 x Skunk #1 was the magic formula for giving birth to the Afghanica (note that it received this name as late as in this millennium). From a geographical point of view, this was a case of partial back breeding, as Skunk #1 also contains 25% Afghan genes (however, the Afghan component in Skunk #1 is not specifically Afghani #1).
The pedigree of Afghanica resembles another classic amongst worldwide cannabis varieties, Super Skunk from Sensi Seeds. However, this one came about vice versa (Skunk #1 x Afghan). And in the 80ies, the genetics of another seed strain were even more closer to Afghanica: Skunk #1 x Afghani #1, bred by the Super Sativa Seed Club and offered for example in their catalogue of 1987.
AfghanicaEddie and Sam developed Afghanica in the years 1984-1985. Hence this cross is also over 20 years of age and one of the definite dinosaurs in the world of cannabis varieties. But this powerful hybrid was destined for being a sleeping beauty for more than a decade, because Eddie and Sam had not established a seed bank back then and separated from one another after some years. So the Afghanica variety was not released to the seed market and had to slumber in the genetic archives for many years. Until today, the Skunkman has not entered the seed bank business, while Eddie finally decided in 1998 to establish his own seed company: The Flying Dutchmen. Sometimes good things take a little longer. With the opening of The Flying Dutchmen, Afghanica was finally kissed awake and made available on the seed market. At this time, she carried the name Kabul Baba, but some years ago, The Flying Dutchmen changed this name into Afghanica.
Classic varieties that have such a long history like Afghanica are always an exciting cultivation adventure: Will potency and aroma still be superb after all these years? Can one sense the breeze of history somehow, the fact that the genetics are ancient, originating from the early days of Dutch cannabis breeding? Do the plants represent something essential?
The grower Rocky Resin is fond of such experiences with elementary genetics and wanted to find out how whether The Flying Dutchmen were able to retain Afghanica`s power over the decades. For answering this question, he germinated a whole package of Afghanica seeds, eleven pieces, by placing them into jiffy pots positioned in a heated mini-greenhouse. After three to four days, all seeds came out of the ground, so the batch seemed to be fresh and vital. A couple of days after germination, the plants were transplanted to 4 litre pots filled with Plagron standard mix. Only one plant happened to enjoy the volume of a 10 litre pot. Together with some other plants, the eleven Afghanicas thrived well under a 600 W HPS Osram Planta-T (not all of them were within the sweet spot of the lamp), being fairly homogeneous with only slight differences in size and the majority of plants even having almost identical height. The leaf fingers were medium broad, and some plants even tended towards the narrow sativa side, although Afghanica actually is a variety with clearly dominating indica genes. With the majority of plants, also the leaf colour was more of a bright green, once again matching a sativa appearance. The same applied to the height growth of Rocky`s Afghanicas. When he induced flowering (by shortening the daily light period to 12 hours) 24 days after the seeds had sprouted, his plants already measured 55-70 cm. These observations came as a surprise to Rocky Resin, because he had expected the plants to exhibit typical indica rather than sativa traits. Five Afghanicas proved to be female after 7-9 days in the flowering stage. These plants kept on stretching during flowering, with the sole plant that had been put into a 10 litre pot clearly overgrowing all the others. Was it due to its genetics or the considerably larger pot volume, giving the roots much more space to grow, thus increasing the plant size? Maybe both. In any case, a pot volume of four litres is suboptimal, I think that Rocky Resin did not tap the full potential of the other four plants.
Haley’s CometAlso the flower structure reminded much more of sativa than indica, resembling Skunk #1, featuring a high calyx-to-leaf ratio and very decent, but not abundant resin amounts. The smallest Afghanica plant was the only one that complied with the genetic mostly indica status of the variety, it had the darkest and broadest fan leafs and the largest proportion of flower leafs. This plant had grown to a height of 79 cm in the end, taking 57 days of flowering for ripening. Its counterpart was the tallest plant, Rocky called it The Queen - she was the one in the 10 litre pot. She had arrived at 122 cm after 64 days of flowering, looking like a pure sativa: Almost no flower leafs, abundant hairs, longish buds. Her top cola had a length of respectable 53 cm, and also the side buds did well. Of the other three female Afghanicas, two reached a height of 101 cm (ripening time 59 resp. 61 days), one measured 94 cm and took 58 days for maturation.
With 31 grams, The Queen yielded the most, the other Afghanicas produced between 21 and 27 grams. In contrast to their outward appearance, the taste of the plants was quite Afghani-like, tangy and pungent, but also somewhat sweet, due to the influence of Skunk #1. But once again, The Queen sticked out here, having a predominantly sweet and flowery taste. And also the high she delivered was a different story: Pure speedy bon voyage sativa fuel with a quick onset, highly cerebral and energising. In contrast, the turn of the other four Afghanicas was clearly indica dominated, heavily stoned, physical and lethargic, and also very longlasting. The Flying Dutchmen recommend Afghanica as potent medicine against insomnia and chronic pain.
AfghanicaAccording to Eddie, removing the lower shoots before the begin of flowering has a yield increasing effect. For growing Afghanica on soil, he recommends an EC of 1.5 to 2.2 mS. He has no standard EC values on hand for hydroponics, because he only grows organically. Afghanica is also suitable for outdoor growing, because under natural light she reaches maturity between early and mid October. However, she should be sheltered from rain, otherwise she may face severe mold problems. Eddie furthermore underlines that Afghanica tends to gain pretty much extra weight during the last week of flowering, although she often appears to be ripe already before her official flowering time of 8 to 9 weeks, so be patient...
In November of 2005, Afghanica was the top-selling variety in the Flying Dutchmen shop in Amsterdam, probably also because this variety is sold at a very favourable price. Yes, obviously The Flying Dutchmen have been able to retain Afghanica`s power over the decades. It`s a rewarding classic strain with a suprisingly strong sativa influence.
Green Born Identity G.B.I.
