To look into the origin of most of the autoflowering genetics we have to take in consideration a lot of cold zones from Eastern Europe (Hungary, Southern Siberia, Russia...) and Central Asia, where the first and wild Cannabis Ruderalis genetics originated. In these regions the climate conditions (especially the cold temperatures and long winter) only allow for three or four months per year of adequate conditions for their development and reproduction. One possibility was that these types of strains could have developed this especial autoflowering characteristic because it represented an adaptive improvement that allowed them to flower and produce seeds in the short period of adequate climate, thus perpetuating its own species in these inhospitable places.
Cannabis Ruderalis is a subspecies of Cannabis Sativa. The subspecies Cannabis Ruderalis was first described and scientifically catalogued by the Soviet botanics Dmitri Janischewsky in 1924 and was considered by then as bad weed, not much appreciated for medicinal and recreational uses for its low content of THC and low quality of its organoleptic characteristics (taste and aroma), while it was disregarded as raw material for industrial use (fiber and paper) due to the small size of the plants.
It is also possible to find wild autoflowering plants similar to Ruderalis in some zones where cannabis growing was common in the past. The most important of these zones is the central zone of North America and Canada, although it is possible to occasionally find disperse populations all over the country. These populations have been growing wild for years and without man selection they lost many of the selected traits, adapting to the environment.
Maybe the autoflowering genes can be found in the gene pool of most cannabis strains. And Ruderalis strains, along with other wild autoflowering strains, might have arose from a process of natural selection of short flowering in populations of Cannabis Indica. Nowadays, the general consensus is that all “domesticated” cannabis strains and all the wild strains proceed from the same source of genes, making it very plausible that many cannabis strains preserve autoflowering genes in their gene pool.
After observing the type of inheritance that expresses the autoflowering trait, at Sweet Seeds® we tend to believe that perhaps the autoflowering genes are “damaged” genes which can not carry out their mission of flowering according to the photoperiod, when the hours of light decrease.
After the 70’s some pioneers at cannabis breeding observed the potential concealed by these autoflowering strains and started to cross them with high-THC marihuana strains, with the final goal of taking advantage of these autoflowering genetics which provided fast flowering, short stature, acclimation to cold zones and resistance to local insects and diseases. This is how the first improvement programmes to introduce these characteristics in strains with high THC content and pleasant aroma started.
The first documented experiments with crosses between several Ruderalis strains and high-THC strains were performed by Ernest Small from Agriculture Canada in Ontario in the course of the 70’s.
During the 80’s the famous cannabis breeder Neville, owner of the legendary and pioneer Seed Bank experimented with crosses between Ruderalis and some strains as for example Mexican strains, Skunk #1 and several Indicas. Although some of these Neville’s crosses matured much earlier than the classic Mexican strains, they featured lower THC content and were very unstable regarding flowering time and calyx-to-leaf ratio in the buds.
Also during these years, in British Columbia’s gulf islands (Canada), an anonymous outdoor cannabis grower observed that in the photoperiod-dependent cannabis strain that he was growing for some years, harvested in October, every year a few specimens matured much earlier, by late July or beginning of August. After several years of selection he obtained a seed line that kept the autoflowering trait and preserved the effects and aromas of his beloved strain of seeds. This is how Mighty Mite was born.
Mighty Mite was quickly converted into a very popular plant, providing the Canadian growers with harvests before the end of the summer and before the arrival of mold. Also in Northern zones it substituted many fast Indicas acclimatized to cold areas. Lately this strain was also cultivated by indoor growers and was hybridized with more potent strains.
One of the first autoflowering strains presented by Sweet Seeds® in the beginning of 2009, Speed Devil Auto®, was developed from a selection of specimens from a Canadian autoflowering seed line received in a seed interchange and was submitted to several generations of selection. We believe that it is very likely linked to the famous and primitive Mighty Mite.