WIld Weed

Cannabis has been used by humans for thousands of years and during this time many cannabis plants have been taken from their original environment, planted, grown, and cultivated in more controlled environments. With all the cross breeding to make new strains like Purple Dog Shitand Alien OG nowadays, is there such a thing as “wild weed?” The constant crossing of strains to create new strains and increase potency has made it hard to find a pure landrace strain at your local dispensary or anywhere on the market. Fortunately, despite the extreme amount of crossbreeding between strains, cannabis landraces can still be found growing around the world.

Wild marijuana or ditch weed in the US.

Industrial hemp was widely cultivated in the US’s Midwest during the 20th century. This was mostly to support the America’s war efforts in World War II.

Despite industrial hemp factories shutting down the plants previously cultivated for fiber, the hemp plants have naturally re-seeded and now grow wild in states like Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska, Indiana, and Minnesota. There is still wild weed growing all throughout Nebraska.

Foraging for wild weed

The author of “How to Grow Cannabis At Home: A Guide To Indoor Medical Marijuana Growing,” Glenn Panik, has created a guide for finding wild marijuana. He claims it’s not unusual to find cannabis plants thriving from roadsides to mountains.

If you’re gonna go marijuana hunting, you should prepare to look for a variety of leaf shapes and plant sizes. Cannabis can survive with little water and in poor soil.

Urban footpaths abandoned construction sites, and other manmade things that are next to disturbed soil and lots of sun are good places to look for wild weed.

Opposingly, it’s hard to find wild marijuana in areas with fertile and moist soil. The plants found near man-made areas will not have many buds on them, but you can take them home and cross-breed them with your strains to get better yields that can grow in the local environment.

Be sure to respect the wild marijuana plants you come across. If you’re going to take some, be sure to spread some of the seeds around so that it continues to grow. Plus if you end up liking that strain the next time you go back to where you found it there’ll be plenty new ones blooming.

Also, beware of your local laws on possessing marijuana. If you’re not in a state with legal marijuana in 2016 you may want to hold off on your marijuana foraging adventures, several states may become legal in 2016.

Landrace strains across the globe.

There are still landrace strains, which are cannabis strains that have adapted to the local environment based on geographic location. A landrace strain is a local cannabis strain that adapted to the environment of its geographic location. One example of a landrace is Lamb’s Bread, which was found to grow naturally in Jamaican climate.

Most other landrace strains have the location they originate within the name. For example, the Hindu Kush and Durban Poison are two strains with names that contain hints to their geographical origin. Finding these strains at dispensaries is uncommon and when you do it’s likely been grown away from the geographic origin, making it a bit less natural. From “ditch weed” in America to landraces in various countries, wild marijuana that grows without being planted, fertilized, or tended to continue to bloom across the world.