Trove of 1970's 'bag seed' ...this could be fun.

LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member
Was back and forth texting with a cousin of mine...he's an old head from the height of the 70's...and he's been interested in what I've been growing. It's been fun sharing and discussing, and LOVE to get him on some stories of his exploits during that era; he is an inveterate music lover/concert goer & experienced much of the 70's counter-culture I was too young to see or be a part of. He's got me by about 15 years, so this would probably be stuff from probably 1975 onward.

...anyway, when I mentioned that I was interested in messing more with seeds that are truer to the landrace/sativas of yore, he dropped that he's been collecting and saving all his bag-seed from back in the 70's onward. And send me this picture of one of his bags:

BS.jpg

...for reference, that's an 8.5x11" piece of paper. Says he's got a bunch more bags piled up too.

He's going to send me 'a few spoonfuls' to see if I can get anything to germinate...we'll go from there.

So yeah, deep end of the pool, but could be interesting if I can get things to green up.
 

victoryou

Well-Known Member
Was back and forth texting with a cousin of mine...he's an old head from the height of the 70's...and he's been interested in what I've been growing. It's been fun sharing and discussing, and LOVE to get him on some stories of his exploits during that era; he is an inveterate music lover/concert goer & experienced much of the 70's counter-culture I was too young to see or be a part of. He's got me by about 15 years, so this would probably be stuff from probably 1975 onward.

...anyway, when I mentioned that I was interested in messing more with seeds that are truer to the landrace/sativas of yore, he dropped that he's been collecting and saving all his bag-seed from back in the 70's onward. And send me this picture of one of his bags:

View attachment 5162786

...for reference, that's an 8.5x11" piece of paper. Says he's got a bunch more bags piled up too.

He's going to send me 'a few spoonfuls' to see if I can get anything to germinate...we'll go from there.

So yeah, deep end of the pool, but could be interesting if I can get things to green up.
do u have any information on the specie/race of those seeds?
 

LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member
do u have any information on the specie/race of those seeds?
Absolutely not. As far as I can tell anytime he got seeds in his weed, he saved them in this bag. While he would have been college aged at the time, he was also a...er...'well funded' young gentleman, so most likely it most of it would have been decent stuff. In our conversation he did say "Bring back the Santa Marta Gold!" in one of his comments.
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
70s bagseed is a blast to grow! A friend of mine and I found a jar of them stashed in the rafters of his dad's garage in the mid 80s, later we found out they were from '74. So 1 decade + inside a HOT garage, and we managed to get plenty of them to sprout. The plants we grew were wonderful towering thin leafed pure Mexican landrace plants. I just wish I still had some of the seeds we made from those. I would to a germination test run with a dozen or so, and see if any of them sprout before you go for more-you might be surprised. I would definitely soak those in an h2o2 solution to jumpstart the enzymes and chemically scarify the seed coat. Good luck, and show us what you get!
 

LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member
Hopefully they were stored “ok”. Try some gibberellic acid maybe.
I don't believe he probably used much care in how he stored them...but I'm hoping that due to the quantity of what he has, the numbers game could work out... By trying to germinate in much larger quantities than what I'd normally do with the expectation of a high failure rate.
 

LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member
70s bagseed is a blast to grow! A friend of mine and I found a jar of them stashed in the rafters of his dad's garage in the mid 80s, later we found out they were from '74. So 1 decade + inside a HOT garage, and we managed to get plenty of them to sprout. The plants we grew were wonderful towering thin leafed pure Mexican landrace plants. I just wish I still had some of the seeds we made from those. I would to a germination test run with a dozen or so, and see if any of them sprout before you go for more-you might be surprised. I would definitely soak those in an h2o2 solution to jumpstart the enzymes and chemically scarify the seed coat. Good luck, and show us what you get!
Yes, I certainly will. My supposed 'few spoonfuls' should be in the mail later this week...I didn't just say 'send me a bagful' because I figured we'd do a test and see what's up and I think he's also a bit emotionally attached to them! (no he doesn't grow).

What's your best advice for the peroxide solution?
 

LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member
Be good to toss outside for guerrilla grows, I personally wouldn’t waste power, nutes or time on them.
I've got the time on these...I don't use it nearly as fast as it grows and I don't sell. While there obviously is expense in the lights/power, for me that's price of just having fun doing it...cheaper than some sidelines I've had. And if it doesn't work out, I'll move on to other stuff.
 

Synchronicity

Well-Known Member
I have some bag seeds that I bet are at least 30 years old from the time that land forgot. They have added up over the years but I just never made the effort to try them out. I was growing under flourescent then..............

Many good things happened in the 70s. Many not so good also. But the rock and roll thing flourished.........

:leaf: Glory Days!
 

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LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member
I have some bag seeds that I bet are at least 30 years old from the time that land forgot. They have added up over the years but I just never made the effort to try them out. I was growing under flourescent then..............

Many good things happened in the 70s. Many not so good also. But the rock and roll thing flourished.........

:leaf: Glory Days!
We'll see...this quite obviously would be a 'mixed bag' ;)

I was going to take a break until the end of August or beginning of September, but may just start up again, given the germination may take more work than normal and/or that the grow will probably be fairly long.

Just got word that he jumped the gun and has already shipped to me, so yeah, that's efficient.
 
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