Ace rig: Mauritius x Ethiopian (4x)

[Podenco]

Update 12mar2021.

Plants have been at light dark 12-12 for a week and now at 11:30 - 12:30. In 10 days or so I will go to 11-13. UV tube runs for 15 min at mid day.

Ethiopia x Malawi was the fastest to respond to shorter light hours, followed by Bangi with Desfran the latest. Bangi is kind of hard to do LST with, stems are stiff and tend to push back, also when I knack the stems in angle Bangi easily returns "straight" so I need to knack stems multiple times.

All plants are growing fine. I increased feeding cause I thought they looked a bit pale and they indeed turn a darker green. Plants are in Biobizz light mix with a bit of extra perlite and left over lava/pumice (vulkastrat), didn't mention that earlier. Feeding is done with Biobizz grow and fish mix following the Biobizz feeding schedule.

I saw the typical white spot damage of spider mites on a leaf and indeed found 1 mite. So I look at all the leaves regularly to prevent infestation and remove minor leaves at lower stems that are hard to see and do not support stems with buds. I remove pop corn bud as well, I only want 10-15 "main bud stems" perfectly exposed to light.

So far I am not bothered by stretching. I think my light is too blue, though I exchanged the middle 942 lamp by a 930 lamp.

 

[Podenco]

Update 22mar2021.

The box is filling up. Plants are bit pale, Desfran is most green. Plants are growing well. Bangi was the first to show trichomes, followed by Ethiopia x Malawi with Desfran latest. Buds of Bangi and Desfran are "leafy" while E x M is more spear shaped. So far I am happy with the smart pots and airy substrate. So far I don't have a problem with stretching, they can go for 30 cm more, I can move lamps up still. Next time I will feed earlier, the first phase being stressed in "bad substrate" and re-potting caused me to be too careful.

Bangi.

E x M

 

[dubi]

Hi Podenco the new sativa indoor cycle looks pretty well and under control

If the tropical sativas are yellowing in early flowering and stretching is over, i would recommend to increase nitrogen with organic liquid (for a fast absorption) fert + mictronutrients until they recover a bit of green color, and keep an eye on them... looks like they are going to be delicate with the feeding this flowering cycle.

 

[Podenco]

Thanks Dubi. About 10 days ago I started feeding more (biobizz bloom at 2 ml/L and a few drops of mineral room plant fertilizer all waterings) and at a higher pH (more towards 7). Plants are a bit greener now and growing strongly.

The pictures do not really show the amount of trichomes but all buds are well covered. Bhangi has the most crystals and is also growing extra leafy flower stalks.

Update 15apr2021.

Ethiopia x Malawi. Looks a bit like Ethiopia x Mauritius but has more trichomes.

Bhangi.

 

[Paddi]

It´is growing really very very well Podenco

P

 

[Podenco]

Thanks Paddi. They are less green then yours though. I will leave them for another month and cut them.

 

[Podenco]

Update 4 May. After 10 - 11 weeks I cut and dried my plants. They were well covered in trichomes and pistils were mostly brown. I could have waited longer, new white pistils were still coming, but for me they are ripe enough and I want to make some changes to the box.

Plants getting some real sun in their last days.

A smart pot root ball. So far I like the smart pots.

Bhangi bud.

Ethiopia x Malawi bud. The most narrow leaf type of the 3.

Estimated total yield is 35-45 grams per plant, similar for the 3 plants, Bhangi, Ethiopia x Malawi and DP Desfran. Their canopies and size were similar. All potent grass (for me), I do not smoke much so it is going to last long if I do not give too much away. I'll freeze some and let the rest age in pots.

Updated box. Now with mylar.

The next project will be Kerala from RSC. Long flowering narrow leaf, let's see if I can keep conditions and feeding stable with 16 weeks flowering. I might run an ACE fem Panama Haze.

 

[TexasTea]

Great mini grows and looks like some sweet results. Just goes to show what you can do with a small space, even with long flowering sativas. All the head stash that you need from one small cabinet. Well done man.

 

[Podenco]

Thanks TT.

I am having so much fun growing like this and the end products are high quality.

3 portions like below will last the rest of the year at 2 gram / week.

Total yield of E x M:

Total yield of Bangi:

 

[TexasTea]

Nice!

Yeah, small cabs use very little power so it's very cheap to run too. Especially now with LEDs.

 

[Podenco]

The modern leds are good. I have 2 Marshydro SP150 for other plants and these plants perform well. No noise, no heat, lots of light.

But I stick to my mini CMH for now, "the best of the old school hid" as they do work and heat up the room which is a benefit. I also like the behavior of the lamps, the starting phase and how the light changes. Led is less "romantic". With the box I pull 3 x 70 watt CMH + 24 watt UV t5, costing me about 25 dollar/month for electricity. In a few years I might switch to led, combined with UV t5. I have this "belief" that mixed light sources are better.

 

[dubi]

Sweet sativa pics Podenco Really like the look of the buds in the outdoor pic and harvest pics as well, they look very well developed and resinous Well done! The wait was well worth it, great smoke times coming for end of spring and summer time Enjoy!

 

[Podenco]

Update 29jun2021

Thanks Dubi.

The material has been in pots for 5 weeks. Smells are a bit subjective but to be complete: Ethiopia x Malawi smells to acid candy, bit like fruit chewing gum. Bhangi smells to gasoline with anise. Desfran smells like gasoline.

Potency of all plants is good. Ethiopia x Malawi is the most "high", Desfran the most "narcotic". I still need to evaluate the Bhangi really.

But all are different from Ethiopia x Mauritius. Ethiopia x Mauritius is less potent than the above 3 but smoked pure it has the biggest effect on short term memory. It is the most "dazed" so far. On the moment, after 6 months on pots, Ethiopia x Mauritius smells to carrots and bread, it smells edible. But the difference in effects might be cause I only smoke that pure. And maybe it is part placebo cause I liked the plant so much.

Coming months there will be no grow, it is too hot here and I am too busy. For autumn, I am still doubting between growing a bunch of RSC Kerala or just 1 ACE Panama-haze feminized.

P

 

[dubi]

Thanks to you Podenco Glad you are already enjoying with your harvest, Ethiopia x Malawi and Mauritius x Ethiopia sounds delicious
Better stop in summer time unless the temps are good for indoor growing and you have the time and will. Take care!

 

[Podenco]

L.S.,

A little 2022 update of my grow box. The final configuration of the lights. Originally the box had 3 70 watt CDM-T Phillips Elite and a 36 watt reptile UV tube but in the end the CDMT produced to much heat for the amount of light they give. So now I have a combination of 2 70 watt CDM-T, a MarsHydro SP 150 led and the UV tube. The MarsHydro gives a lot of light for what it consumes, very economical lamp. All lamps are on separate timers so I can "compose" my light. The plants start with 2 hours of 930 (reddish) CDM-T, after that the led comes on for the rest of the day, with the UV tube on for 30 minutes at noon.

Currently I do not have any ACE genetics. I am doing an "indica" run with feminized White Widow, Sweet Valley Kush and CBD kush. And the freebee Afghan mix from TRSC, real native Afghan plants. For me, the indicas are less easy/different to grow, they tend to break and push while LST.

TRSC Afghans to the left.

 

[Uludag]

Thank you for sharing your lovely sativas!

 

[Podenco]

Update 11apr2022.

The Dutch plants are what you expect. Branchy broad leaf type with a lot of big trichomes. Similar smells, pine/lemon with a bit of "old fruit".

The TRSC plants are different, they are the most columnar plants I have ever seen. Leaves including the larger ones are full of small trichomes, only seen when using a flashlight. These plants smell to gasoline and glue.

Afghan afghan:

 

[Podenco]

Update on smoking broadleaf run. The White Widow is downright potent grass. Dutch coffeeshop 10 euro/g potency. The CBD plants are way less potent as far as the high is concerned. Very sticky and very resinous but incomparable to White Widow. Same goes for the TRSC Afghan plants, a lot of material smoked does not make you very high. Something is missing. The CBD/Afghan plants probably have pain killing/relaxing properties but they don't do it for me. As a concentrate they will be interesting but my small set up does not yield enough to "justify" a run just to make concentrate.

So for my tiny grows, I am sticking to strains like Ethiopia x Malawi and Kerala. Another good potent plant I ran that unfortunately has no grow report is Panama Haze. Great relatively calm effect, less "dazed" than Ethiopia x Mauritius. Ethiopia x Mauritius has been in glass pots over a year, it still works but is less potent than the Malawi and haze strains. It smell amazingly strong to carrots, I expected that smell to fade but it didn't.

 

[dubi]

Nice to read your comments @Podenco every Malawi direct cross will be steps higher in potency than most other sativas without it, this doesn't mean other sativa hybrids without Malawi cannot be interesting.... The goal with Mauritius x Ethiopian was not really strong raw potency like with Malawi hybrids, but to offer truely interesting African sativa tropicalness without heavy effects, their character and personality are quite different too.

Regarding Afghani P1 landraces, you can expect all kind of chemotypes due to being field open pollinated using dozens and dozens of different parental plants with different qualities and chemotypes, from pure THC, to pure CBD and THC : CBD chemotypes in different ratios, that's the potential of such raw Afghani P1 landraces, but needs lots of diligent selection to bring them to what you want, otherwise choose refined THC rich Afghani hybrids without CBD like OGs or Bubba.

 

[Podenco]

Thanks Dubi,

I now realize how much work it is to create a reliable uniform strain. Lot of time and space and administration. And an HPLC or dozens of people smoking the material to give feedback :-0

I had Ace PCK outdoors years ago and I remember that as stronger/more "normal" than the Afghani plants.