Sativa, Indica Possibly Useless Terms?

so while watching pot TV today one of the hosts, Al, was discussing a theory hes been thinking about lately which is basically that the terms indica and sativa don't describe the plant but how it was been grown.
he points out the terms sativa in latin means cultivated. and the term indica means from india. now, marijuana grown for hemp or cultivated marijuana will be taller, lankier, less bushy plants becuase of farming techniques put in place to achieve the desired plant. marijuana found in india, which was given thee name indica was a short squat shatter plant. but not because of the plant type but because it had free range to grow how it pleased.
examples of indicas looking like sativas and vice versa as well as indicas and sativas growing in regions which were thought to only grow one type, are all around the world. look at Afghanistan, the plants range from 2-5 feet but there leaves are sativa dominant.

i dont know about any of you or what you think, but i though it was kinda neat and think hes on to something.
sorry if its confusing took me 5 minutes to write this , i was high when i watched it and am high now so im trying to remeber as much as possible .

It doesn't matter of there are inaccuracies or irrelevancy in the direct Latin translation, their characteristics are still characteristics..

yes but characteristics that were created through breeding progams and therefore could possibly be reversed meaning you could grow 3 foot sativas that are finsihed in less than 2 months or 25 foot indicas .. see what im getting at it releases all pre conseived boundaries of so called indicas and sativas and makes them all cannabis with diferent phenos and terpenes creting diferent looks and highs to the plants

Very interesting i might look more into this, any video links?

I think indica & sativa is the best way we can describe the two.. in regards of looks.

PrivateEye6 said:

Very interesting i might look more into this, any video links?

Click to expand...

no they didnt post the video online, ill look around though

RawBudzski said:

I think indica & sativa is the best way we can describe the two.. in regards of looks.

Click to expand...

for now we have so little info on marijuana as a plant, we can only learn more

MJstudent said:

so while watching pot TV today one of the hosts, Al, was discussing a theory hes been thinking about lately which is basically that the terms indica and sativa don't describe the plant but how it was been grown.
he points out the terms sativa in latin means cultivated. and the term indica means from india. now, marijuana grown for hemp or cultivated marijuana will be taller, lankier, less bushy plants becuase of farming techniques put in place to achieve the desired plant. marijuana found in india, which was given thee name indica was a short squat shatter plant. but not because of the plant type but because it had free range to grow how it pleased.
examples of indicas looking like sativas and vice versa as well as indicas and sativas growing in regions which were thought to only grow one type, are all around the world. look at Afghanistan, the plants range from 2-5 feet but there leaves are sativa dominant.

i dont know about any of you or what you think, but i though it was kinda neat and think hes on to something.
sorry if its confusing took me 5 minutes to write this , i was high when i watched it and am high now so im trying to remeber as much as possible .

Click to expand...

Regardless of how they got to be how they are, they are distinctly different now not just in plant look but in terms of cannabinoid profile. Sativas have smaller trichomes, packed closer together in large quantities. Indicas have large trichomes, that are spread further apart, in lower quantities.

I'm not sure how farming techniques would accomplish that. But the differences are far from cosmetic. They offer totally different types of high.

I'm doing a blue dream (sativa dom) and purps (indica dom) grow right now, and you can tell from looking at the trichomes that they are very very different.




See how much bigger and more spread apart the indica trichomes are? They are producing different cannabinoids than the blue dream is.

And I think it matters very much. Those terms describe buds with totally different effects.

look at Afghanistan, the plants range from 2-5 feet but there leaves are sativa dominant.

Click to expand...

Cannabis Afghanica is now considered it's own subspecies.

yes but when it comes to marijuana amount of trichomes varies seed to seed and every other factor you can think of .and farming techniques very much change amount of thc on a given plant. if its been grown for anything other than resin and bud production they wouldnt care for thick heavy resin coated plants that would fall over, eventually leaving a plant good for fibre but not bud as to diferent effects that can be attributed to the terpens in the trichome. take a gander at aroma therapy, citris and pine are used to create energy. now when i think of a typical sativa i think of citris and pine and sativas give an energenic high.

look at a country that has been cultivating cannabis for many many generations, even in your own garden you can take indica or sativa seeds grow them you can get many diferent phenos. some that woould be defined as indica and others sativa, if you cahnge enough growing conditions youll see even more changes that would change the bud from sativa to indica without having cross breeding. so which one was it a satica or an indica. its all on how its grown

i dont think anyone who has said that, has ever tried a pure sativa.

nor seen it.

distinctly different high and look.

bred together once a bunch of bagseeds, sure i got out of it one plant that was weirdly sativa like, the buds just stretched, one budlet, stem, one budlet and just kept on doing that.

but next to my vietnamese sativa,it still looks indica like (the leaves) (and that bagseed line had many sativa crosses in it)

the vietnamese sativa,in looks kinda reminds of bamboo, like some strange mix of bamboo and marijuana. the leaves are decidedly different and the high reminding more of amphetamine and mushrooms though with that mj "tang" to it.

but yes, probably , if i grew that sativa out for several generations, possibly, probably,it would adapt to the local environment and look more like a indica eventually.

but i doubt id see much change in my lifetime.



and these sorta changes take a long time.

The terms probably were true a long time ago...

India may have been where they first crossbred Indicas...Or where the traders came from that brought it to wherever...

And even if the terms don't actually make sense in that sense,
They are necessary to describe the difference in plant...
Like the difference between a wolf, and a Labrador...

Should we stop calling German Shepherds that, since there are so many born in America now??

And just because there are a bunch of Hybrid muts all over the world, doesn't make the pure breeds non-existent...

MJstudent said:

yes but when it comes to marijuana amount of trichomes varies seed to seed and every other factor you can think of

Click to expand...

No matter how many variations of the purps I could possibly produce, not one will ever be similar to that blue dream, which is still only a sativa dom hybrid. So just because you can get many phenotypes from seeds, it'll never insert genetics that weren't there in the first place.

and farming techniques very much change amount of thc on a given plant.

Click to expand...

Sure, but there are major limitations to that. I've seen big bud that was 5% thc and I've seen big bud that's 16% thc. But I don't care how good of a grower you are, it's never going to be 25% thc like strawberry cough can get. That strain simply doesn't contain those genetics.

look at a country that has been cultivating cannabis for many many generations, even in your own garden you can take indica or sativa seeds grow them you can get many diferent phenos. some that woould be defined as indica and others sativa, if you cahnge enough growing conditions youll see even more changes that would change the bud from sativa to indica without having cross breeding. so which one was it a satica or an indica. its all on how its grown

Click to expand...

If you're talking about hybrid breeding, sure. Like that blue dream for example. Given a large enough sample size you should eventually produce an indica dom hybrid. But you can't do that with a pure strain such as Mazar-i-Sharif. You can grow 10000 phenos of that and none of them will come out like a pure sativa. It's a pure Afghanica and does not contain sativa genetics.

Think about what you're saying in human terms. If 2 purely German people with blonde hair and blue eyes have enough kids are one of those kids eventually going to be black with brown eyes and a fro? No. Because they don't possess those genes to pass on. Sure, you can get many variations, but there is a limit to that. That limit is producing offspring with genes neither parent possess.

hmm, though, possibly and probably, if those germans moved to africa, their descendants would eventually turn black with brown eyes.

some say it would take 10 000 generations.

sso said:

hmm, though, possibly and probably, if those germans moved to africa, their descendants would eventually turn black with brown eyes.

some say it would take 10 000 generations.

Click to expand...

That's true.

Cali bud 10,000 years from now if going to be fucking epic!

Dan Kone said:

That's true.

Cali bud 10,000 years from now if going to be fucking epic!

Click to expand...

well, humans 10 000 years from now are probably going to be fucking epic (from our point of view anyway)

it only makes sense that the bud would follow suit.

sso said:

well, humans 10 000 years from now are probably going to be fucking epic (from our point of view anyway)

it only makes sense that the bud would follow suit.

Click to expand...

In 10,000 years we will have already destroyed our planet and ourselves, with the press of a button...
Or many buttons all over the world...

Finshaggy said:

In 10,000 years we will have already destroyed our planet and ourselves, with the press of a button...
Or many buttons all over the world...

Click to expand...

well, that would be preferable, over many things, but i dont think so, i think the evolution of mind and spirit is unstoppable.

sso said:

well, that would be preferable, over many things, but i dont think so, i think the evolution of mind and spirit is unstoppable.

Click to expand...

Ok.

Just because we evolve in mind, and spirit. Doesn't mean some unevolved Iranian, or American couldn't still blow us all to hell

I think for humans to survive, we will have to leave this planet.

And if any other Earthly species wants a chance a knowledge, or power, it will have to leave as well.

Everyone on this rock is doomed.

MJstudent said:

so while watching pot TV today one of the hosts, Al, was discussing a theory hes been thinking about lately which is basically that the terms indica and sativa don't describe the plant but how it was been grown.
he points out the terms sativa in latin means cultivated. and the term indica means from india. now, marijuana grown for hemp or cultivated marijuana will be taller, lankier, less bushy plants becuase of farming techniques put in place to achieve the desired plant. marijuana found in india, which was given thee name indica was a short squat shatter plant. but not because of the plant type but because it had free range to grow how it pleased.
examples of indicas looking like sativas and vice versa as well as indicas and sativas growing in regions which were thought to only grow one type, are all around the world. look at Afghanistan, the plants range from 2-5 feet but there leaves are sativa dominant.

i dont know about any of you or what you think, but i though it was kinda neat and think hes on to something.
sorry if its confusing took me 5 minutes to write this , i was high when i watched it and am high now so im trying to remeber as much as possible .

Click to expand...

it climatizes to its region , in Afghanistan the plants range from short bushes to 15' tall trees , all are afghani but grown in deff regions. Also weed grown in Northern Afghanistan is more resinous than Southern Regions....the Northerners use about half as much weed to produce the same amount of hashish due to resin content. Same goes with India and Pakistani kushes. Hope that hepled a lil bit