RASTA Farmers Growing SATIVA on an ACTIVE Volcano | St Vincent Pheno Hunt

Ajouté : 2026-05-12

[00:00:02]Welcome to St. Vincent, guys. We've taken the feno hunt deep into the Caribbean this time.

[00:00:10]>> Whatever you've given them, man. I'm a ganja boy. You know what?

[00:00:15]>> I love ganja.

[00:00:16]>> We're here to check in on some equatorial sativas growing out underneath the sun. And we're going to be looking at some local farmers who have been growing some of our genetics over the past 3 years. Jelly. It smells like hella jelly. Ooh, they're starting to smell like squirt. Tropical squirt.

[00:00:32]Banana mango down here in St. Vincent.

[00:00:35]>> 20 years ago, the only thing we were seeing is bananas. We can't do without it. When that industry really started to crash, Ganja saved the local economy.

[00:00:44]>> I love seeing purple in the tropics.

[00:00:49]Traditional farms, Sacramento farms, licensed facilities.

[00:00:54]In the north of the country, we have a very rare soil that occupies just 0.74% of the earth's crust. It's the perfect ideal situation for cannabis.

[00:01:05]>> In 2018, cannabis was legalized here and brought the traditional farmers and gave them an amnesty.

[00:01:12]>> Well, we started in the mountain. We used to go and occupy and everything. It was acres upon acres, you know.

[00:01:18]>> When I looked at the water, it was like a traffic jam. The boats just coming in and going out. that really struck me. So many of our brothers dads took a boat to do a drop off and never had the chance to return.

[00:01:34]>> And in 2020, the volcano here went off.

[00:01:37]>> The ash plume caused severe damage to like cultivation sites.

[00:01:42]>> Most of it was lost, especially the local strain to say, >> but we know that there is still land race genetics out there.

[00:01:52]There's still Rostm folks up in the mountains cultivating herb and with them hopefully we're going to be able to find what's left.

[00:02:43]As we all know, the volcano went off four years ago. To the government's estimate, about 90% of the cannabis genetics were lost in that eruption. It completely wiped out the traditional cannabis growing area was the red zone where most of the ash fell happened.

[00:02:58]>> Genetics wise, most of it was lost, especially the on island genetics that we had, the local strain to say, >> but there is still land race genetics out there even though it's been disrupted and a lot of it's been hybridized.

[00:03:13]>> This is local. This is traditional.

[00:03:14]Yeah, >> Vincson being one of the original producer countries, they definitely have some really unique land race cultivorinated from like Jamaica, from Colombia, like Santa Mata Gold, Puna Roa, Lamb's Bread, Goat [ __ ] Goang all those notorious strains were probably came here being a sort of epicenter and then the land race to naturalize natural I just can remember that that fined having a very pronounced flavor.

[00:03:51]>> I see like green mango skin and it looked like it had like a pronounced red pistols, you know, and like I need to get my hands on that red pistol strain, you know?

[00:04:02]>> Heard it called Vincy Gold. So now we're on the hunt for Vincy Gold. In reality, we have no idea where we're going.

[00:04:09]We have a good idea about how we're probably going to get there. Luckily, we have great connections thanks to the good doctor here.

[00:04:16]>> We going up to the hills to link the raster men. We are very hopeful that we're going to get our hands on something unique, you know.

[00:04:29]>> I can't wait to smoke a little piece of St. Vincent gold.

[00:04:32]>> Vincy gold.

[00:04:35]Yeah.

[00:04:53]that the volcano.

[00:04:54]>> Yes. So, we are on the boat and we are approaching like volcano is right behind us here and you can start to see the guys of farmers with their huts in the hills. People here fast for Spanish trimming. Yeah.

[00:05:09]>> Yeah.

[00:05:09]>> How many pounds a day?

[00:05:10]>> Well, we might know calculate by pounds, but we might do by tree.

[00:05:13]>> How many trees per day?

[00:05:14]>> Clean more than 20 per day.

[00:05:16]>> 20 trees per day.

[00:05:18]>> Yeah, man. With the scissors. Yeah, man.

[00:05:20]>> That's fast.

[00:05:21]>> Real fast.

[00:05:24]>> Over the years, some of the traditional strains that we had became very susceptible to the volcanic eruptions.

[00:05:31]But Dr. Emanuel has done an excellent job in ensuring that we are guided strategically. We actually donated 10,000 feminine seeds or five different cultivores and these seeds were handed over to other government of St. Vincent.

[00:05:47]>> The traditional cultivators were seriously affected.

[00:05:51]>> Still have inches of ash 4 years after >> the distribution of seedlings really helped them to get back onto their >> and it put a smile on a lot of people's faces.

[00:06:04]respect.

[00:06:05]>> What are you growing?

[00:06:06]>> Sel top quality.

[00:06:10]>> That one came kind of popular here to the sour diesel and all gas.

[00:06:13]>> Makes sense.

[00:06:14]>> Yeah.

[00:06:15]>> Because when I actually bred it, I wasn't really sure how it was. So I came here and I gave couple farmers some like beans and they smell it smell real loud.

[00:06:26]They smell real loud.

[00:06:27]>> Yeah, man.

[00:06:41]We just landed on the beach here and taking a little smoke break. It's got some local herb. And when you're in the tropics, sometimes the herb is so moist, it takes forever to break up. So, you need a little pair of scissors to help you out. You can see how chewy it is.

[00:06:59]kind of more like squishes than than actually breaks up. Sticky weed.

[00:07:09]>> What do you call this?

[00:07:12]>> West Indian almond. You know, >> it tastes like I mean just fresh light almond flavor. Like a little bit like like almond milk but in a nut form.

[00:07:24]West Indian almond is the best almond.

[00:07:54]So, I have no idea where we're going.

[00:07:56]We're walking deep in the jungle now in St. Vincent. Came from a boat and now we're trekking through up the hill to the next spot. This is crazy.

[00:08:12]>> Yeah.

[00:08:18]>> All right. I see it. We're about to walk in. I haven't seen any of the plants yet, but I can see the opening and I see everybody gathering down there. So, let's go check out these bodacious buds.

[00:08:48]Man, this is a dream come true.

[00:08:52]Damn.

[00:09:03]But these are the hybrid.

[00:09:05]This is pure old school weed. Yeah. A little bit of seed cuz how long have you been saving seeds for?

[00:09:14]>> About 3 to 4 years, man.

[00:09:16]>> Okay. From the same group.

[00:09:19]>> No, it doesn't mean this spring.

[00:09:22]>> Okay. change.

[00:09:28]>> Cool. So, you're you're out here breeding just like we are in California.

[00:09:32]>> Yeah. Or something like that.

[00:09:33]>> Just using the local genetics mixed in with whatever flavor of the day comes through. Whatever hype is out there.

[00:09:41]Respect. That's cool, man. So, one little baby seed could be the original lamb's bread tonight.

[00:09:52]They like green green pine nuts. So, walking through the field, we just found a really good um example of a phenotypic difference in septoriia resistance, which is a major concern down in the Caribbean. Like the sativa, almost no septoriia at all higher up on the plant.

[00:10:11]And then this more indicica dominant pheno with the wider leaves is it's it's suffering from septori hard. It actually might not make it the whole way through flower. When you start to see the septoriia kind of like reach into the inside of the plant, that's when you know things are bad.

[00:10:25]>> When you look at equatorial plants, they tend to have a lighter green hue and they tend to have much skinnier leaves.

[00:10:35]So the leaf area index compared to a more indica plant that has been selected for temperate cultivation with broader leaves, darker green. these plants would have a much larger surface area for you know pest and fungi to actually colonize just like we are seeing here in terms of the leaf spot septorial which is a fungal pathogen >> but so it's why it's so important to grow the right strains in the right climate this is what came out of lassuare this is the ash is like this deep here compacted and then the ganja is crushing it and the ganja is planted in pure volcanic ash these are just pure ash Just pure ash. But there was 8 in of ash that rained down on the entire island.

[00:11:21]>> Once you have weed was budsing in the field, that's a wrap. The we whole we just turn white cuz the ash just covered. No matter how you beat or try to get it out, it wouldn't come out.

[00:11:32]What save me? It was the trees was like this.

[00:11:34]>> Okay.

[00:11:34]>> It never starts. Yeah. There wasn't buds.

[00:11:38]>> But we know previous years when the volcano erupted and ash landed in Barbados or St. Asia they would have a bumper crop for agriculture. So a lot of effort has been done to get the ash which is highly fertile foul back into the soil and everything. So we expect and that was been happening very you know good quality yields and so >> ash actually helped you.

[00:12:05]>> Exactly. That's what it is.

[00:12:06]>> Yeah. Well, the volcanic soil is what also is a part to the the nutrition for the for the plant. Soil definitely have a a role to play in the quality of the cannabis that we produce.

[00:12:26]Nature really knows how to take care of itself, huh? It's the cycle of life.

[00:12:31]He's going to kill the male.

[00:12:34]Call my fase.

[00:12:37]Some hermaphrodism. You can see actually some pollen coming out. So I mean old school land race weed was naturally like cannabis like in its more wild state will will kind of generally revert back to being intersects because that's what makes sense. It's a more per it's a more perfect flower as far as being able to the plant can pollinate itself, make its seed for the next year. So in this case, this this weed's been kept for kept for a long time.

[00:13:06]>> But to the farmers, that's a guarantee for seed for the next harvest.

[00:13:10]>> The level of hermaphroditic traits tends to also increase a after successful generations of breeding with you know hermaphroditic plants. So in some instances when farmers grow these seeds more than 50% of the population can tend to be hermaphroditic plants.

[00:13:31]>> So just naturally kind of starting to push that way because that's the seeds that'll mostly most likely come out especially when you're eradicating the males. The ones that get missed that actually do the majority of the pollination then become the ones that are hidden. that 1% male pollen is going to kick off that hermaphroditic tendency in the next generations.

[00:13:52]>> That's why feminiz seed production has evolved where half of the farmer's work is already completed from the breeding process. So he has less work to do, less area, less watering, less fertilizer to get better flower.

[00:14:28]So this is local. This is traditional.

[00:14:30]>> So this could be some like old school Santa Marta Santa Marta gold. Could be some punter roa. Some old school Colombian.

[00:14:40]>> Yeah. So the seeds come from the crop before?

[00:14:43]>> Yeah. Most fellas plant seeds come and plant back the seeds.

[00:14:50]Keep planting back the seed.

[00:14:52]>> Do you have a name for this strain?

[00:14:54]Local weed.

[00:14:54]>> It's old school sativa. It's like espresso weed is what I call it.

[00:14:58]Straight up smoking.

[00:15:03]>> So we're actually finding it. We're finding some some local Vincy old school weed. Like this could be related to punter roa. This could be related to Santa Marta gold. You see sativa dominant bud characteristics.

[00:15:15]Looks like it's actually pretty finished. I'm seeing a lot of milky trich chromes, a lot of some amber stuff, which is always surprising. You never, you know, with sativas, you never see a finished sativa in the United States. So like this being a finished sativa.

[00:15:32]And then this more like traditional looking feno. Still frosty. It's like every kaix is coated. So the first time I ever met Michelle, he showed me this thing that he had created cuz this is an invent an invention onto you, man.

[00:15:47]>> Right. Right. Right.

[00:15:48]>> So do you have a name for it?

[00:15:50]>> Try Mike.

[00:15:54]>> You can see this sativa gains in it based on number of sisteric tricoms compared to the stock bulber. That's like a equatorial trait for like sativas. Good.

[00:16:08]But looks good.

[00:16:09]>> All right. So, let's test some of this.

[00:16:11]Got to test one of these nice chunky ones. Want a little bit more than that.

[00:16:24]>> What are some of the old school names that you remember from >> you know? Yeah. The skunks been coming after >> Yeah. Yes.

[00:16:34]>> Let me run the market at that time.

[00:16:37]>> So, >> doc, how do you think it's going to test?

[00:16:39]>> Just got the results of the full sample tested and like it's 17.61% THC, you know. So, that's the moisture.

[00:16:49]The moisture content is 14 14.03.

[00:16:52]>> So, you could subtract four from the moisture and add that to the THC.

[00:16:56]>> That would definitely >> to get a moisture calibration. So, you'd technically be if you got it drier, you could have it up to 21% THC.

[00:17:03]Surprisingly the turppins is like 1.1% you know for total turppins and that's quite impressive for this type of post-h harvest based on hot drying and the integrity of the actual tricoms are still being maintained.

[00:17:31]So, I have no idea where we're going now. We're trekking through up up the hill to the next spot. Apparently, the next partner is going to give us an interview. This is crazy.

[00:17:57]Yeah. See that?

[00:18:02]Talk about a garden with a view. Look at this oceanfront ganja field. This is any cannabis grower dream that I've ever met. Like give me a little hut here in a hammock and I'm [ __ ] set. Maybe some Starlink. But but everybody argues over the term OG. I mean it can be an original original gangster uh organic back in the day in the old cataloges but OG right here is ocean grown weed at its finest.

[00:18:37]spicy notes, you know, like green mango skin, you know, and the bud structure don't look bad at all.

[00:18:49]>> Bigger, the plant bigger, you know, and the septori is not taking over.

[00:18:54]And look, >> you hear me?

[00:18:57]>> Red hairs, >> right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:18:59]>> Dark red hairs.

[00:19:01]Definitely a hybrid, but it's got that dark red hair old school look that we're going for. closer to the source.

[00:19:09]>> Come on, finish.

[00:19:14]>> Kenick pointed this one out. There's a handful of seeds in here. The plant's doing really, really good compared to its peers. So, definitely take her back and study her at the university.

[00:19:29]>> Oh, yeah man. Thanks. Got our fancy sample collection bags here provided by the Life Sciences Cannabis Research Group sponsoring part of our trip. These bags are nice, man. Do you print these in Jamaica or in the States?

[00:19:42]>> Uh, like China.

[00:19:45]So you know collecting taking notes based on the type of phenotypes looking at the size of tricom density of tricom trying to get appreciation for the tarpin profile particularly that that like finsy tur that has a distinct sort of like a black pepper sort of spicy kind of mixed with a little like fruity turpps like mango.

[00:20:09]>> Yeah this one interesting for sure.

[00:20:12]There are some fertilizer seeds in here that we'll be bringing back to the lab.

[00:20:17]Looking forward to taking them a step further.

[00:20:20]>> Yeah. Is there babies in there now?

[00:20:24]>> Can we look right or no?

[00:20:25]>> This is a traditional St. Vincent style nursery. So, they put the white cloth down to keep the >> Oh, yeah. They just signed >> to keep the birds out so they don't eat them. And you can see everything's just germinating right here on the ground.

[00:20:37]So, they'll go from this and then they'll be transplanted out into the field. shows how simple it really can be. Like, you don't need lights. You don't need a ton of infrastructure. You don't even need pots. All you need is healthy soil and a little bit of local knowledge as far as just putting the white over, keep them cool, keep the birds off of them.

[00:20:57]Growing weed can be easy. Anybody can do it. It's great.

[00:21:01]The rusty vincy turpps.

[00:21:03]>> This one have like trapinoline.

[00:21:06]>> Mhm.

[00:21:06]>> Dominant in this. This one smell nice bird.

[00:21:09]>> Yeah. But the structure of it, it's pretty tight for a sativa. And it's choke loaded with seeds.

[00:21:14]>> Yeah.

[00:21:15]>> Sativa that has like all the inner nodal spacing is click click click click click like tight. It looks almost like a like a train wreck. And the and it's frosty as [ __ ] Caribbean sativas.

[00:21:27]We found it. This is massive cuz I can reach 8 ft. Everybody was talking about how the old school genetics were lost, how 90% of them had been wiped out by the volcano. But is this the original lamb's bread right here? This is some old school lra sativa right here. Could be the bloodline of the the punter roa, the Santa Marta gold. And it was definitely referred to as lamb's bread earlier. So, and the turpps on her.

[00:21:53]She's early in flower, but the turfs are coming out like kind of like an old like a train wreck haze um tpinolene, a little bit of pining. Like it's definitely 100% old school. One of the only places in the world where you can grow weed like this. It's nice to meet you, Lamb's Bread.

[00:22:31]>> Piece of cake.

[00:22:32]>> How long have you been a farmer then?

[00:22:35]Oh, I could say about 12 to 20 years in the business since the government say come for the big bush we come and set up here. And how have you seen things progress?

[00:22:46]>> Well, I could say things have a good free time on it once you go eat good.

[00:22:54]Yeah, lot a lot of blessing.

[00:22:57]>> We had a fee structure to obtain a license here in St. Grandes for any type of investor. Well, we didn't process got any license actually yet.

[00:23:08]>> So, this is like the path to getting legal.

[00:23:11]>> Yeah. We don't really stand pay money come to Gaza.

[00:23:16]>> Okay.

[00:23:17]>> So, this is like the transition period.

[00:23:20]>> Yeah.

[00:23:22]>> We learned very early that the traditional cultivator must be the predominant part of this industry. And we realized that some of the traditional cultivators may not have had a lot of the financial resources and so did you.

[00:23:40]There wasn't the provision to provide them with money. So within our legislation, all the major companies must buy at least 10% of their product from traditional cultivators.

[00:24:00]If we could form ourselves into associations into cooperatives traditional cultivator it wouldn't be the same in all countries but in St. in refer to the those who would have been involved in the production in the trafficking even the boat men who took it from country to country.

[00:24:23]>> He is regarded as a traditional cultivator in that area in that I was when I was a child and I say like it was like a a a busy highway on the water. We have identified close to 100 acres of land and we are going to place at the disposal of the traditional cultivators a sum of money so that they can establish a system production platform for alternative sustainable livelihoods despite the risk that was involved as still is involved in like lossing loved ones. Let's see more action.

[00:25:00]>> When come to if you are unemployed, if you're in poverty, rest don't stop you.

[00:25:07]You have to feed your children. You have to clothe them. You have to sh them. A policy that actually brings cannabis from an illicit regime and places it in a legal regime. It showed compassion. It showed respect and an understanding that we were not going to leave the traditional cultivator behind.

[00:25:33]>> This is the dream. This is literally the dream. Maybe next time I bring a tent, you can just let me stay over there.

[00:25:41]>> This is paradise, man.

[00:25:53]Never thought we'd be up here doing this, talking about this on camera.

[00:25:57]Going from hiding from the helicopters in the hills of NorCal to now walking through fields of Ganja and St. Vincent.

[00:26:04]This is awesome.

[00:26:10]This is actually a traditional cultivator with his license in his hand, you know. Yeah. And it shows you that the government is sort of looking forward to the interest of you know traditional farmers transitioning from a traditional market to the legal market, the medicinal market. It must be sustainable based on fair trade and it must be based on social justice but it has to be done in a way where traditional cultivators see significant benefit.

[00:26:40]>> I never even thought we come to get a license or anything to you know legally plant the marijuana and it's a blessing.

[00:26:47]>> We made it. We got to see some amazing ganja plants. Lamb's bread we think is the St. Vincent gold. Maybe related to the Panama gold or the Colombian gold. I think this is every ganja farmer's dream. We spy the ocean completely self-sufficient. A billion dollar view and plenty of ganja around you. So in conclusion for the trip, as the dust settles from the eruption, we continue our journey to rebuild, collaborate, and preserve. What began as a response to a tragedy has evolved into a movement dedicated to the survival and growth of Saint Vincent's cannabis industry.

[00:27:24]>> Very much in terms of policy development.

[00:27:28]So you guys did it. We found medical grade cannabis being grown in a legal market. All natural, completely sustainable.

[00:27:37]Fire. I'm >> banana mango down here in St. Vincent.

[00:27:42]From the fields of South St. Vincent to the halls of policy makers. We're planting the seeds for a brighter future rooted in tradition and innovation.

[00:27:52]Together we are cultivating hope, resilience, and the promise of a thriving industry for generations to come. This is [ __ ] amazing, bro. This is a dream, right? With one day, man.

[00:28:04]>> The way the world works.

[00:28:07]>> [ __ ] Holy [ __ ] All right. We doesn't want to be male and female. Wants to be both.

[00:28:18]And wouldn't you want to be both? Save and test a little sample of this bird.

[00:28:22]Do you know what this is?

[00:28:23]>> No. Like bird [ __ ] It look like >> true organic folared by this guy.

[00:28:29]It's called the lamb's bread.

[00:28:32]I swallowed a ganja seed. I was chewing on. Good weed grown right in the ground.

[00:28:36]>> Street. This is old door for real.

[00:28:38]finally set free.

[00:28:41]>> Yeah, man. Respect.

[00:29:10]That was such a sick adventure. And now the boat boat's not here yet. So hopefully the boat's coming back for us or we're walking to town. I'm not sure.