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SWABI (KPK/MARDAN)

Swabi, is a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan.
Although the district is situated at 34° N of Equator but its a continues flat land between Indus and Kabul River that converge towards the extreme south of Swabi District the rivers are used to draw irrigation canals for the villages.

Due to being Flatland the cannabis is farmed either in Patches in Mild to dense Jungle like area, Mango Orchids Or Inside High wall parameter, like 10-14 ft. Which still remains easily accessible though but just hidden from Plain sight.

The Government interference has impacted the cannabis farming a lot already and to in a rapidly developing district, living a socially acceptable status means farmers weaning away from this cannabis as a livelihood.

CLIMATE :

Swabi has a humid-subtropical climate, while the summers are not extremely hot like north India but they are quite similar in being humid and muggy, with constant rains. (en.climate-data.org/swabi-961106)

the annual precipitation averages 639 mm. November is the driest month with an average rainfall of 12 mm, while the wettest month is August, with an average 137 mm of precipitation.

June is the hottest month of the year with an average temperature of 32.9 °C. The coldest month January has an average temperature of 10.2 °C.

Swabi is an agricultural centre with many villages included in it, namely – Turlandi, asota, permuli and many more around the razzar tehsil which is their main agricultural belt.
These villages usually grow wheat, rice and Corn alongside limited cannabis crops mostly in remote villages, for producing Garda (Hashish) from domesticated Landrace varieties out of peshawar valley part of which now makes up Mardan district.

Swabi has a temperate climate, that is a proper hot summers followed by a small transition period of 30 days and cold winters. The wild/Unaffected varieties can be seen growing around everywhere and do cross pollinate with the domesticated shorter plants most probably imported from peshawar Valley, (which will also be a mix of domesticated afghani /Paki genetics),

Plant characteristics from the tested population Only :

Seed Collected by Md. chaand from swabi –
We imported seeds from a remote location in swabi, which comes from one of the well known, farmers, who has been actively cultivating cannabis since more than 4 decades.

Test :
These Plants carry a pleasant sweet mango smell, and a few plants have a mix of both sweet mango/menthol or vapour rub like smell. It’s oddly similar to central and North Indian terpene profiles however with a much compact structure and a managable height. The wide internodal spacing and hollow stems resemble some of the Highland varieties from Himalayas.

Setup : Testing 11 random seeds imported from swabi district of khyber, pakistan. Potted directly in soil for 15 days 24/0 light schedule indoor (85-65F & 55-70% RH) Day and night. Remaining term completed under sun outdoors at 29 degrees north of equator, North India. No stress testing parameters engaged// except the Male selections.

Seedling stage : These plants almost put on a show during early infancy with all sorts of variegation markings and crinkled leaflets, almost every plant grew out of the distorted pattern, with 2 plants with stunted growth, due to abnormal phyllotaxy, from onset.

Only 2 plants had stunted growth which remained in that state for almost 25-30 days, while one of them was easily infected by pests the 2nd stunted plant grew very fast after the dormant period and turned out to be a male plant with 3X stretch in flowering with minimal side branching.

Out of 9 normal growing plants there were 7 females and 2 male plants. Only 1 female and 1 male plant had intersex issues while remaining all the 6 females and 1 male (+1 runt male) were sexually stable, with exceptional qualities like carpal like whorls on the staminate bracts with clear trichome production.Runt male progress

Out of the 6 females only 2 plants showed exceptional potential in resin production, faster flowering term, and a clearly pronounced terpene profile. Based around sweet mango and pepper/spices.

The male used to pollinate the females also showed exceptional qualities such as capitate trichomes around the fan leaf and staminate bracts, with a similar terpene profile and also completely sexually stable, however with a shorter stature but more importantly with faster flowering.

Swabi heirloom makes oblong shaped pale yellowish seeds with very clear stripes on the shell, seeds can require upto 4-6 weeks for maturity.
The selected females for this preservation effort flowered out much quicker compared to the other females which were discarded due to 12 and 12+ week flowering.

Summary

The fast flowering expression comes with below average bract yields however copious amounts of very sticky resin, that closely resembles the Highland Hash plant like resin quality in texture, smaller trichomes but abundant and very sticky. The smell is quite intense like short flowering Broadleaf plants and gives off a clear smell of Raw-Mango/ Spices like pepper. The smoke induces a very balanced and generally associated with long flowering narrow leaf variety kind of uplifting High, which stays over for an amazingly long duration. The Onset of High is almost immediate and then it gradually shapes up. This plant from morphology to effects reminds a lot about Himalayan Hash plant varieties from a hollow stalk to raw mango and pepper like flavour. From what’s commonly learnt about the regions near punjab, That Wilder types cross pollinate the imported farmed varieties often in places like Swabi (KPK), but unlike many other parts in India, the farmers here understand the importance of maintaining the desirable heirloom expression to save it from degradation overtime. The remaining females were excluded because of considerably longer flowering term.