I been searching and trying to source some seeds from Kalamata or Crete for quite some time..
Chuffed to bits today when a envelope arrived from a friend in Patras and inside was 30 seeds from a traditional greek ganja cultivar from Pyrgos which isnt that far from Kalamata.

Still not quite what im looking for but will give me some idea of how the strains from that part of the world grow indoors and hopefully when the holy grail of kalamata or cretan red seeds find their way to me ill be ready.

Does anyone know how similar Pyrgos ganja is to Kalamata or Cretan?.

Have been excited twice before for nothing , ive had greek seeds and they aint popped. Hoping this lot will break the trend..

If anyone has grown any Greek cultivars before and have any useful bits of info please share it.

I like days like this when i add to my seed collection..makes me smile

You lucky, lucky, luck barsteward!
I am green and full of envy!
Kalamata! Oh, My, God

arnt i just .. but I'll feel a whole lot luckier when my bowl is full of it and them 30 seeds have become hundreds...

and when that happens i see no reason why a few of them beans shouldn't find there way to u. I know u like your mediterranean sats and genes like that need spreading around..

Hi G_D, just found this,
Best of Luck, and I hope you'll be doing a report or summat, I'll be watching.
I've got some seeds on an alleged Kalamata female ATM, though unfortunately it's a runt.
The male was good looking, though.

Ho hum, the search goes on to the next F generation....

so how is it going g-d .. ?? did you have any luck with your seeds dude .............


riptd

Still waiting for right time to pop em. Imminently moving house so didn't wanna start anything that was gonna get big and take ages until id moved.

any news???? i would love to try to grow some been goin to greece for years waitin o find the illusive kalamata. had the tricala which was lovely!!!

I started off 6.. two have popped and looking lovely very early days

Interesting,

I used to have reason to drive regulary over the mountains between the North and South Cretan Coasts and remember being able to smell ganja from the roadside in the Autumn but never being able to spot it. Wouldn't ever consider ripping a crop, those Mountain Cretans would have yer bollocks off and hung on a tree before you can say Parakalo......

the cretan red is becomming v. difficult to find on the island. Many of the main growers are growing dutch and african strains now. 'tis a shame really but best of luck with the kalamata dude!!!

i dont think a pure Kalamata exists, nor a Cretan for the same reason.

"Kalamata" became a legend over the years, since most of the weed that came from over there, was alot more dank than weed from other places around Greece (or from the schawg thats been imported from the Balkans).

I m strongly convinced, that most of the strains growing in southern peloponissos (Kalamata, Pyrgos, etc), Crete, Evia or anywhere else, are dutch strains that have been (accidentally) crossed with other (imported) hybrids or maybe an old (local) landrace sativa of the area.

Lets say one grower had been cultivating Jack Herrer, another one (a few miles down the road) was growing NL and so forth. Over the years various fems got pollinated from various males that were growing on the mountains, with non-traceable genes and now the locals have somekind of variety that they call "Kalamata". Same applies for the crazy Cretans and so forth.

I remember vacationing in Evia island in late September and smelling skunk all over those mountains. We stopped with my wife on a small river and started walking in it to cool our feet. Then we got spoted by some growers who looked rather dodgy so we left. They were prolly pumping water from the river for the guerilla farming.

But, if u feel like you have a real Kalamata, i would love to have some beans myself (in exchage for a BC or west coast strain that you are looking for).

The beans arent for me, but for a breeder friend in Canada.

Hm, not really, Kalamata weed was a legend long before Dutch seed banks even existed. It was part of a tradition there, you see. It was not uncommon that your grandfather grew and smoked, as did his. It is from this tradition that the Kalamata legend arose, though its earlier provenance is quite debatable.
Also - apart from a fairly distinct appearance - there seems to be fairly universal agreement on the nature of its high.

So, while you might with some reason claim that it "doesn't exist" any more because of genetic pollution (a pretty brave claim if you are unfamiliar with the the Southern Balkan landrace scene) I don't think there is really a basis for claiming it never existed, as you seem to be implying.

I m not saying it never existed.

Both Peloponisos island, Crete, but also the northern parts of the country, must have some local landraces (sativas) worth breeding or (at least) experimenting with.

Personally though, i wouldnt dedicate an area -of my already small grow room- to try any of them, when i could be growing a strain that has been bred by top cannaseur and i know its traits and the high before hand.

Just because a few grandpas have been growing weed on Taygetos or Messinia, that doesnt mean that their genetics are better than the ones from 30 yo dutch seedbanks.

I ve had weed from Crete and i didnt bother to smoke it (little bit better than Balkan schwagg). As for Kalamata, sorry but imho its just a legend.

Any weed in Greece that is dank, they call it Kalamata....

Umm, OK. You're just saying it existed but the quality was a myth.

Sure, and loads of other people wouldn't, either, or any landrace for that matter. It's not a 'sport' for everyone.

That's one way of looking at it, I suppose... I'm happy for you that found all you wanted in Dutch genetics, just spare a thought for those of us less fortunate than you who haven't found all they wanted.

I am fairly sure it does still exist.
I smoked a variety on Cyprus back in the seventies which I am fairly sure may have been a Kalamata descendant.
It was being grown by a Turkish farmer, whose family had been growing it for generations.
It was head and shoulders above the rest in terms of potency and taste and appearance. As the Turks would say "Chok Guzel"

I'd grow it over modern Dutch stuff any day. No comparison in my book.

hey Gert,

You have your beliefs and i have mine. No need to argue about this.

i wish you luck trying to find the "ghost".

imho if such a strain existed, i m sure seedbanks or breeders would have found her by now and market it. The same way they have found strains in Pakistan, asia, india, the hymaleyas (sp?) etc.


Theres certain promising sativas in greece and i ve seen them grow wild for miles and miles next to rivers and get up to 7-8 feet in height, with buds up to 3-4ft in length (3 or 4 per plant). I m sure thers keepers between them.

are they Kalamata?

certainly i dont know

Not arguing mate, it's called 'discussion'. I think (hope) that's still alloewd under the TOU.

Every good wish gratefully received, thanks.

I think you may be giving them a bit too much credit.
There's still stacks of quality strains out there undiscovered by the "market". In fact the "market" has been quite stagnant over the last 30 years (probably contributing to loss rather than gain of genetics), and it's only now, with new, small seed-banks and the establishment of good internet communications that some really "new" and exciting genetics are re-appearing.

If you think the Dutch market had it all sown up, then prepare for some pleasant surprises.

dont get me wrong, i m not a supporter of Dutch genetics Yeah i give them credit for many great strains, but now the ball is been played on many different fields around the world. Its not just the Dutch who make strains.

Especially in the west and canada. Myself, i do like canadian strains lately. Some great breeding takes place up there, by dedicated people.

Do you know why i think Kalamata is more of a myth, than a super variety with specific origins? Anything you grow outdoors in Greece in the summer, will turn out supper yummy. 4 month vegging periods, along with 3-4 month flowering periods. Add in the mix, total sunshine and dry RH and u got a killer combo to grow pretty much anything. Even 6 month flowering Asian sativas.

So, even a plain strain without "much" into her, will turn super nice if u grow it for so long on a sunny hillside.

In that area (kalamata) many were (and are) growing outdoor marijuana. They happened to have a local up-sativa with alot of laugh into her and still a nice stony buzz and marketed their crops accordingly as having the "super marijuana".

I m sure their genetics come from seed banks, not some some well hidden secret local variety. I might be wrong.

idk, if i make sense. Just stoned...

peace

EDIT: i do hope though that a Kalamata strain really exists and get marketed by smaller seedbnaks. I would definatly try it in my grow room, as long as i knew that it was the real thing.

Its the same with jamaican strains i guess. You gotta know that its the real thing not just another "label" on the package.

I have been to Greece's Islands many of times I have been up north In Zante near Corfu and you could smell hash in the mountains everywhere but I just could not find it?.Someone told me that it was the Albainian Gypses that grew it round there whether its true I dunno.In the South Just past Crete is Rhodo's /Rhode's Island I smoke there every time I go, it all comes from the far south, Rhode's way past Lindo's ,and there are farms in the mountains near their.I have also seen the guy's who go out looking for crops growing in the summer/Autumn they are like police men dressed in orange/boiler suite's and they simply go raid crops I know this cos I happen to know one of them and he is a gud friend who live's on the island and guess what yes he always helps himself typical

All i can say to kind of validate the origin of my beans is this.
We have many friends in Greece and my wife has asked all of them , when something good like the Greek strains of the past come along to save some beans and send us.
Years had passed since we asked this particular friend who is from the Pellopenese and living in Patras, he is a guy who has been smoking for many many years and knows his Greek weed especially from his home area. He didn't consider anything he had had since we asked him worth sending, until he got this Pyrgos weed, which he said was similar to the Greek strains of 15 - 20 years ago and most certainly not the Albanian crap that floods the Greek market these days.