Lao Gold

Description

Genetics: Lao – Thai Traditional Cannabis Landrace
Sourcing: The Real Seed Company, Laos, Southeast Asia, February 2023
Purpose: Ganja (seedless or lightly seeded buds)
Latitude: 16.5° N
Regional Harvest: late December to early January
Height: c. 2 metres
Characteristics: Rich, musky spice; intense high; semidwarf Sativa-type architecture
Classification: Cannabis sativa subsp. indica var. indica
Grow Type: Greenhouse or outdoors

A classic Lao cannabis landrace from southern Laos. This region is the source of some of the finest of each season’s ‘Thai’, namely the golden seedless ganja known to long-term expats in Thailand.

From seed to harvest, this a 6-month strain. The best of each year’s crop is typically sown around August to September and harvested from February to March. This ensures that flowers receive only minimal rain and ripen during the dry sunny weather at the beginning of the hot season.

Cannabis cultivation in Laos and neighbouring Isan is not exclusive to any particular ethnic group. But among the communities best known for producing first-class ganja in areas such as Sakon Nakhon (Northeast Thailand) and Savannakhet (Laos) are the Phu Thai. Unlike in northern Isan, prohibition has had only minimal effect on traditional ganja culture in Laos. Until very recently, plants were a conspicuous feature of most gardens in Phu Thai villages.

‘Strong musk and spice, but instead of the more usual pungent fruitiness they exibit a mixture of smells ranging from floral, and almost vanilla to buckskin, hardwood, and suncured Turkish tobacco’ writes a grower working with this accession indoors – ‘very different from the tobacco smell of the other Lao lines.

‘Other smells that can be present in a quite subtle way are very ripe banana, carrot tops, white chocolate, fresh cream, and calumus leaves. The smell is somehow smoother as well I think and definitely more complex than the other types. The muskiness is different as well. It’s sharper and more animal-like.’

Regarding the architecture, he comments as follows:

‘The plants are what some people call the ‘Lowland type’. They’re more compact and have bigger buds.

‘The leaflets at the top of the plant are also some of the narrowest I’ve ever seen, narrower than those of the famously narrow-leafleted RSC Kerala. However, they gradually thicken up as they grow, attaining a moderate width towards the central and lower portions of the plant. There is no hint of SE Asian hemp influence whatsoever.’

He cautions, ‘I’d urge anybody reading this not to listen to any of the stuff on the internet about how the Lao Gold has been crossed with an Indica. I don’t know if this stuff is caused by ignorance or malice.’

Another nose offers ‘musky vanilla, cacao butter, spices.’

Highly recommended for those seeking to recreate the legendary ‘Thai Stick’ of old.