The Real Seed Company
More actions
| The Real Seed Company | |
|---|---|
| |
| Type | Seed company |
| Website | therealseedcompany.com |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Founder | Angus |
| Base | England, United Kingdom |
| Registered as | ZHI Trading Ltd |
| Scope | Asia, Africa, the Mediterranean and the Near East |
| Focus | Collection and sale of landrace cannabis seed |
| Other sites | Kwik Seeds |
The Real Seed Company (RSC) is a cannabis seed vendor registered in the United Kingdom that collects and sells seed of landrace cannabis populations, chiefly from Asia. Its catalogue dates its trading to 2007.[1] RSC describes itself as a group of Asian and European plant hunters and seed collectors specialising in traditional cannabis domesticates and their wild-growing relatives.[1]
Its listings record a collection year, a place of origin and a sourcing account for each line sold. Those listings are the documentary basis for the accessions catalogued below, each of which names RSC as its seed storage location.
Corporate identity
The RSC website and domain are owned by ZHI Trading Ltd.[2] ZHI Trading Limited was incorporated in England on 18 March 2021. Its registered office is at an accountancy firm in Theale, near Reading, Berkshire.[3] RSC notes on its contact page that the registered office takes neither mail nor orders.[4]
The incorporation date of the trading company postdates the 2007 trading date given on the site by 14 years. The sources consulted do not state what corporate arrangement, if any, preceded ZHI Trading Ltd.
RSC states that it sells cannabis seed as a collectable genetic preservation item, dispatches on the condition that the seed will not be used in conflict with local law and declines sales where it believes the buyer intends to cultivate in a country where cultivation is a criminal offence.[2]
Origins and collecting
RSC attributes its founding to a collector named Angus.[1] In an interview published in July 2019 he described the venture as having begun as a hobby that covered the cost of travel, with the original aim of documenting traditional cannabis across Asia rather than selling seed. He gave the first sourcing trip as Pakistan in 2007, to Peshawar and Chitral, where he obtained Mazari seed from an Afghan merchant along with Hindu Kush material from the Pakistani mountains. He described himself as a collector rather than a grower or breeder.[5]
The About page names the Hindu Kush, India, Lebanon, Nepal, Thailand and Laos as historic centres of cultivation where the group collects in person.[1] Angus discussed landrace taxonomy and the position of farmers in Pakistan and Afghanistan on the Curious About Cannabis podcast in May 2020, in an episode on the classification of high-THC cannabis published that year by John McPartland and Ernest Small.[6]
Sourcing and disclosure practice
RSC states that it aims for the maximum possible transparency about the accessions it offers, that seed taken from ex situ maintenance grows of an original accession or obtained indirectly is identified as such in the listing and that it does not sell covertly hybridised material. Where it judges that an accession may have been affected by modern hybrids, it says the listing indicates the risk.[1]
Its FAQ names Parvati Valley, including Malana, together with much of Thailand and Cambodia, as regions where modern hybrids have become common and authenticity cannot be guaranteed. It states that seed is shipped direct from the country of origin unless the listing says otherwise and that maintenance grows outside the source country use open pollination with as many healthy parents as is practical.[7]
RSC sells no feminised seed under its own name and directs buyers who want it to Kwik Seeds, a second shop that RSC calls its other site.[7][8]
The FAQ is also critical of the wider landrace seed trade. It states that few online sellers of landrace seed are honest, advises against relying on grow forums and review sites, says that sellers commonly attach an orientalist backstory to their material and asserts that no such operation known to RSC has donated material to public-good preservation projects.[7]
Position on landrace terminology
RSC argues that landraces are the creations of farmers and are specific to a region, a culture and a product. It rejects the description of landrace cannabis as wild, natural or unhybridised. It states that such framing obscures the communities that created and maintain the populations, naming Uyghur, Tajik and Pahari growers among them.[1][9]
The FAQ draws a further distinction between drug-type landraces selected for resin and those selected for ganja and states that Indica landraces are not uniformly high in THC.[7]
Conservation aims
RSC describes the traditional varieties it sells as critically endangered and states that its aim is for the seed it collects to be preserved long term on a public-good basis, with any research findings arising from it freely available.[1] It says seed is supplied in packaging suited to long-term refrigerated storage with silica gel.[1]
The photograph used on the site is of Machapuchare in Nepal, taken in 2008. RSC explains the choice by reference to Vishnu as the preserver in the Hindu trimurti and states that local Pahari people hold Vishnu to live on the peak.[1]
Accessions
Accessions recording The Real Seed Company as their seed storage location.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 "About Us". The Real Seed Company. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Terms & Conditions". The Real Seed Company. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
- ↑ "Company search: ZHI Trading Limited". Companies House. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
- ↑ "Contact Us". The Real Seed Company. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
- ↑ "The Real Seed Company Interview". Landrace Blog. 14 July 2019. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
- ↑ "BTS #24 Angus of The Real Seed Co. on The New Taxonomy for Landrace Cultivars". Curious About Cannabis. 28 May 2020. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions". The Real Seed Company. 22 July 2019. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
- ↑ "Hemp & Multipurpose". The Real Seed Company. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
- ↑ "The Real Seed Company". The Real Seed Company. Retrieved 17 September 2026.