Malawi

In Malawi, cannabis is called Chamba. Farmers there traditionally bound the flowers tightly in banana or maize leaves and traded them in this form as cobs; under the name Malawi Gold, the product earned a reputation far beyond the country. The variety sold today as seed, Malawi, goes back to ACE Seeds. The breeder selected the landrace over several generations and lists it as a pure sativa.

Genetics and Origin:

One focus of cultivation in the country lies in the Nkhotakota District, above all along the banks of the Lupache; cultivation also takes place in the Likwawa Hills in the Mzimba District and on a smaller scale in Ntchisi, Kasungu, Ntcheu and Dedza. Strain descriptions place the Malawi strain in the Salima region. The first filmed Strain Hunters expedition, in which a team from Green House Seed Company led by Franco Loja searched for the genetics of Malawi Gold, also led to the country.

ACE Seeds calls its own line P4 and names as its basis the plant Old Malawi Killer, crossed with 3rd-generation Malawi plants. According to the breeder, a male brother of New Malawi Killer from this generation also went into Golden Tiger, a cross with the Thai lines Koh Chang Thai and Hmong Thai. For Malawi x Panama, ACE Seeds combined Old Malawi Killer with Panama Goddess, and Archive Seed Bank crossed Malawi with Dosidos to make Island Girl. According to ACE Seeds, a genetic analysis by Phylos assigned the line a very rare genotype with moderate genetic variability.

Versions from Different Breeders:

ACE Seeds offers Malawi in regular and feminized form. For indoor cultivation the breeder gives 10 to 13 weeks of flowering, for outdoors a harvest from late October to early November, and rates the yield as high.

Huba Seed Bank lists its own Malawi, which came out of 2 Malawi lines from ACE Seeds, likewise regular and feminized. Huba gives around 77 days of flowering and describes medium-height, strongly branching plants whose heavy, dense flowers need support. According to this breeder, the scent is dominated by sandalwood, accompanied by mandarin, carrot and flowers.

THC and CBD Content:

ACE Seeds gives 24 to 27 % THC, 0.08 % CBD and 0.4 to 1 % CBG for Malawi, so according to the breeder a clearly THC-dominant strain. Another strain description gives 22 % THC and 1 % CBG.

Aroma and Flavor:

According to ACE Seeds, Malawi smells strongly of oil, wood and lemon; individual plants stand out with a finer scent of sweet carrot and ripe mandarin. For flavor, grow reports name sandalwood and pine. Other strain descriptions add earthy, woody and floral notes, and one speaks of a musky spiciness with cinnamon and a sweet, tea-like taste. User reports also mention sage, fruity notes and a hash-like tone. Strain descriptions name myrcene as the dominant terpene, along with pinene and caryophyllene.

Effects:

ACE Seeds describes the effect as psychedelic and very intense, lasting more than 4 hours. User reports fall into 2 camps. Some consumers describe a clear, energizing state in which they feel creative and talkative; euphoria and good concentration are also mentioned, and in one report the effect lasts over 4 hours. Others find the strain meditative and sleepy, and one strain description speaks of physical heaviness up to couch-lock. On tolerance too, 2 growers contradict each other: one found that it builds up very quickly, the other observed the opposite.

Dry mouth and dry eyes are named as side effects, along with anxious restlessness and paranoid thoughts. One report links the latter to higher doses, another suspects errors in the cultivation or processing of the flowers consumed.

Cultivation:

ACE Seeds describes Malawi as a sativa with medium internodes and strong branching that shows its full potential in tropical and subtropical climates but can be grown up to the 43rd degree of latitude. The breeder rates resistance as high against heat, medium to high against botrytis, whitefly and cold, medium against spider mites and medium to low against powdery mildew. One strain description rates cultivation as difficult.

2 documented grows show how differently the strain can turn out. Outdoors the plant grew fir-shaped, got by with little care and fertilizer, proved resistant to fungal infestation and delivered hard, compact flowers with little leaf mass; it tolerated high temperatures poorly there. Indoors, a plant of about 35 cm at the start of flowering stretched to around 200 cm, had to be supported and formed loose flowers. This grower considers Malawi a strain that requires prior skill in cultivation.