Ace rig: Mauritius x Ethiopian (4x)

[Podenco]

Dear all,

I moved house again, from a Mediterranean 43 north to a north sea 52 north, and now have an extra room for "biology projects" like aquaria and plants. So I am going to play with Ace and other genetics indoors, keeping it small.

I made a light rig that has 2 x 20 w led battens combined with 2 x 70 w Philips CDM-t, with diy reflectors (aquarium reflectors cut to size). This rig fits a small Ikea cabinet that I adapted with ports and extra white paint.

I also built a carbon filter box, with a 150M3 centrifugal fan (Torin) pushing air through a 250m3 CanLite filter. The fan is regulated with a variac. A nice silent combination that is also mobile, it will move with the plants/clones to a bigger cabinet (85 x 40 x 150) when I find time to construct that. For that cabinet I will combine 3 x 70 w CDM-t with 6 to 8 10w SILs and/or UVA/B reptile lamps. I need to run tests to see how hot these combinations get.

And for the plants. I have 4 Ace Mauritius x Ethiopian, 4 Cannabiogen Durban, 1 Dutch Passion feminized power plant, 1 DP feminized Desfran and a DP feminized Durban that I normally grow outside. I will sex the M x E and Durban and flower cuttings of them, keeping small moms in the small cabinet. Males are very welcome for seeds.

Pictures of plants are coming up. Expect some narrow leafs

P

 

[hard rain]

Great set up and choice of plants.

 

[Ur Humbl Nr8tor]

Looks very interesting!

 

[Breadwizard]

Nice and clean setup. You'll be running the Mauritius x Ethiopian? That one really peaked my interest, but looks like a beast to tame indoors. Taking a seat for the show

 

[aeroponique2]

I realy want to see this one again here on ICMag.
The reports about it have been very positive.

I love to see light green sativa plants, they are so beautiful...

Thank you for growing this cross.

 

[nepalnt21]

damn, i guess that will take some skill in such a small area huh

good luck

i'll be watching and learning :0)

 

[Podenco]

Thanks guys.

My inspiration for this set up comes from Blynx, Terpene, Ikinokori and Waldgeist. Their set ups worked so in theory mine should too. The whole issue will be keeping plants small and to keep the temperature low enough. And to prevent/deal with spider mites, these are on tomatoes and herbs outside.

The M x E are a gamble. I chose these as I like the island sativas, I want to go as narrow leaf drug type as possible. Old Timers Haze would have been an option. I ordered Zamal from FTS but it was never delivered. I have Kerala from RSC in the fridge for a next run, Kerala looks a lot like the tropical island types. I liked the look of Cannabiogen Durban too and I might want to cross it with the Dutch Passion Durban. The last and the powerplant are a back up, I am sure they will give a yield.

Thing is, I like smoking tropical weed like a good thai or columbian. I like weed that makes me very high, really "dazed and confuzed" but with a short duration. My outdoor DP plants give a decent buzz, good for relaxing after work but I want something else too.
Due to covid my source of thai weed has stopped for now.

Pictures are coming asap, my life is busy as f*ck these days caring for old parents while also trying to work and manage my new house.

P.

 

[I wood]

Nice selection but will take some effort to contain it in the box.
Only grew one of these last year it didn't get as tall as expected but did bush out, without topping, to an octopus type structure with three foot branches.
I would suggest flowering a small clone in a small pot to keep it fitting in that box. Up potting several months into flowering has served me well with sativas. Or a similar idea is to use bigger pot but only fill 2/3 with soil so you can add the final 1/3 after plant is well into flowering.
Excellent smoke, produced well and kept me happy for over a year.
Good luck.

 

[Podenco]

Thanks Iwood. Flowering small clones is exactly the plan. I will upgrade to a bigger box soon, 1.5 meters in height.

P.

 

[Podenco]

Plant pics.

Box and filter box in the shed.

Start in April.

My 4 M x E. Of course they outgrew the box, so now in a very sunny window at 15hrs daylight, growing the next batch of cuttings. They yielded 3 cuttings each.

Cuttings are dipped in rooting powder and go in roughly 50-50 peat based potting soil - vermiculite, a bit away from a south window at 18-25 C room temp in transparent boxes with lids. Works fine. Love those narrow leafs.

Guttation (forming droplets on leaf surface) is a good indication of roots.

Cannabiogen durban pics still to come.

 

[Podenco]

BTW I have been re-saving pics for the proper rotation but it doesn't seem to work. All are I-phone pics.

 

[F2F]

Hiya Podenco,

Got a tip from someone else here - just crop a little sliver off one side of your pictures, save, then upload. No idea how/why but it seems to “set” orientation.

Cheers
F2F

 

[Podenco]

Smart. Thanks F2F.

 

[dubi]

Welcome to our room Podenco

Thanks for choosing our genetics for your current grow. If you like the effects of extreme tropical sativas then i expect you will like the outcome of Mauritius x Ethiopian limited edition.
To flower clones instead of plants from seed is a wise decision for such a small setup. Btw, what are the dimensions of your indoor cabinet ? Best wishes for the grow and at the new house!

 

[Podenco]

Thank you Dubi.

The starting cabinet is about 60 w x 40 d x 70 h. The "serious" cabinet will be 80 w x 50 d x 171 h. Effective height will be 150 cm. It will be a modified Ikea sundvik wardrobe.

I made a second batch of clones, so I have plenty. I am going to use the Phylos plant sexing test to find out the sex of my plants.

Best,
P

 

[Podenco]

Update 1sep2020.

I made a new box to accommodate the growing cuttings, it does not get a beauty price but it works. It now has 3 70w cdm-t and 2 x 20 w led strip 3000k. Making a super reflector with the cdm-t and a few Arcadia 23 w UV lamps is on my list still. Filter still performs nicely.

Plants do OK, I am learning the management of small multi-plant set ups. When I have made the reflector and painted the walls, the plants will go to bigger pots. Trying to find white 2 L pots for them.

Power plant and Durban flowered the quickest, followed by Desfran. M x E is slowest and stretchier.

Box:

Clones:

Typical M x E mother plant:

Typical Durban mother:

Male forest:

 

[Podenco]

Missing pic in above post: Durban mother

 

[Podenco]

Other (important) info:

Of the 4 M x E 2 were female. Of the 4 Cannabiogen durban 3 were female. The M x E smell strongly to carrot/beet, the durban smells to pepper-gasoline, power plant and desfran both smell more to citrus.

Power plant "behaves the best" for a sog, it is rather columnar, stiff short plant that will be one big flower stalk. Desfran is similar. Durban also tends to a stiff columnar plant, while M x E is very branchy with lots of space between the flowers/leafs. I'll try to make some up-close pics.

 

[Podenco]

Update.

I replaced my flimsy early small reflectors by something bigger and "more parabolic" so I used standard stucco reflectors cut to fit my frame.

Lighting is now 2 x 70 w cdm-t elite 4200K and 1 70 w cdm-t elite 3000k, combined with a 24 w Arcadia 12% UVB tube (for reptiles), so ~240 watts for my 80 x 40 cm surface.

I kept 4 M x E, 3 Durbans, 2 Desfran and 1 Powerplant. The M x E have 2 somewhat distinct forms, classic cone of leafs and upward stems with long internode space.

Classic M x E

Long internode M x E

 

[Podenco]

Front row left to right are the 2 "classic" M x E and 2 "long internode" ones.

I didn't wait for the white pots, plant are in 3 L pots with 60% peat/coco potting soil + 30% vermiculite and some mushroom compost and worm soil.

Durban