Indoor ACE run - multiple strains

[Range]

Hello everyone. I browse this forum often and always enjoy seeing the plants that people are growing, reading smoke reports, and anything else associated with growing cannabis, and in particular, ACE genetics.

So I have made this thread to document my journey with ACE genetics.

I will be doing two grows indoors this season. This first run consists mainly of ACE genetics, I have:

Panama (Feminised)
Tikal (Feminised)
Bubba Hash (Feminised)
Pakistan Chitral Kush (Feminised)
Snow Moon (Regular)
Violeta (Regular)

In addition I am growing:

Angelica from Bodhi (Regular)
Hashberry from Mandala (Regular)
Rishi Kush from Mandala (Regular)
Mazar from Dutch Passion (Regular)

This thread will focus specifically on ACE plants, unless there is a demand for the odd picture and info about some of the other "incidental" strains.

I am indoors in a 1.2m x 1.2m x 2.0m tent and will flower with a 600W 400V Gavita HPS.

Currently the plants are under a 130W CFL @ 6400K and they are approximately 3.5 weeks old from when the seed was first sewn.

I am in organic soil, 2/3rds dank.frank original soil mix (2013 recipe): https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=258168, cut with 1/3 high quality potting mix with extra perlite, as I found the recipe in the link to be quite hot. Also added in extra worm castings. Fed with plain pH'd water and the odd molasses / liquid seaweed feed for veg. In bloom I use more worm castings along with liquid guano, molasses, and seaweed extract.

As you can see from the photos of the plants below they are going quite well. The Tikal, as advertised, is a lighter feeder, and the trained eye will notice the response from her at the leaf tips. The PCK had some "mutant" growth to begin with, I think she will/is growing out of that now.

They are all displaying excellent vigor but in particular the Violeta, Snow Moon, and Bubba Hash are powering along.

My plan is to veg these plants for approximately 6-7 weeks total, top once at the second node "Uncle Ben" style, then flip into flower after their final pot up into 5 gallon fabric pots. Perhaps the Tikal and Panama may go into flower slightly earlier.

Hopefully I will get a couple of males to make some crosses with, otherwise things may get mighty crowded in the tent!

Thank you to ACE for the genetics and the bonus seeds in each pack of 5 or 10.

I aim to update this thread regularly. Please post questions or comments if you have any.

 

[Ur Humbl Nr8tor]

Good luck and a nice start

 

[Koondense]

Welcome,

good choice of seeds, i hope you'll be happy with the flowers, surely a lot of potential in those seeds. Keep them under control during stretch and you'll be one happy grower.
Best of luck


Cheers

 

[Range]

Well here is a picture a week on since my original post, and the plants are roughly 4.5 weeks from when the seeds were planted.

As you can see all but the PCK have been topped at the second node. Not much to report as I wait for the plants hormones to be redirected to those lower branch sites, although I'm starting to see some growth already in all of them after only a few days.

I'll let them get a little bigger and will probably flower the Panama and Tikal first, seeing as I have been advised to expect a 4x stretch with those varieties. The others I am going to leave a little longer as particularly the Indica-dominant plants I am not expecting to stretch too much.

Speaking of Indicas, I have left the PCK un-topped as it is still exhibiting some gnarly growth and just doesn't seem real happy at the moment. Nothing terminal at this stage, and it's still growing, but it's clearly got something going on. I've never grown this strain before so I'm not sure if this is a trait or not. I have other similar plants in at the moment (not pictured) including Mandala's Rishi Kush and Hashberry, as well as the Snow Moon and Violeta which of course have PCK in them, and all them are happy and healthy.

I'll keep waiting it out, the only thing I can think of is something to do with the pH of my soil, despite the other plants thriving, for some reason the PCK doesn't like it. Either that, or it could simply be the genetics of the plant itself, although I am loathe to point the finger there. Is it a very inbred strain? Often from my experience they are a little more finicky.

Regardless, I'm going to continue being patient and just see what happens with it in the long run.

I've simply been giving them plain water pH'd to 6.5 with a little vinegar, as per the advice I read years ago on the Mandala website.

Temperatures have been good here, between 19 and 24 degrees inside the tent the entire time.

The topped plants:

The PCK:

 

[Range]

Transplanted all of the ACE plants (and most of the others) into 5 gallon pots ready for flower in a couple of weeks.

Conditions have been challenging here. Despite the fact that it's almost December, and of course only few days off summer here in the Southern Hemisphere, we have been having very cool weather with below average minimum and maximum temperatures. I looked at the weather forecast this morning and see that snow has been predicted for the first few days of summer about the higher peaks in my area.

Normally at this time of the year I can maintain a pleasant ~25 degrees in the veg room and keep the plants nice and happy, but this year the temperature has been struggling to reach 20 degrees at times and that does make a lot of difference. Anyway, it's not ideal but there's not much you can do about the weather and at least I'm not growing outdoors!

After I transplanted into the 5 gal pots I did not water them in as the mix was sufficiently moist. Then a good 4 or 5 days later I noticed the area around their stems with the rootball was dry, and so I gave them a very small watering with a solution consisting of water, a handful of organic compost and worm castings from my compost pile in the backyard, a little molasses, and a dash of liquid seaweed. The plants seemed to enjoy it very much. I am always very cautious of overwatering though, as they have gone directly from 1.5L pots into 19L pots. So far, so good.

Pics of the plants:

And a bonus picture for this week, what is finishing off in the flower tent - DNA's Lemon Skunk in the foreground, TH Seeds Sage N Sour in the background. The Lemon Skunk is ready for harvest any day now, the Sage N Sour has about another two weeks:

 

[Range]

Low outside temperatures continued for the past week, our maximum daytime temperatures have been over 6 degrees below average and our nighttime temperatures over 4 degrees below average for this time of year. Despite that, I've managed to keep the room between 17 and 21 degrees throughout the day and night which is mostly thanks to the 600w HPS running in the flower tent alongside this one. The warmth from the HPS can be very useful at times.

I went ahead and topped everything a second time at the top branches (except for the PCK which I have left for now). The slower than expected growth in veg (simply because of the lower temperatures) means that I have more time to consider how I want to grow them and decided that I would like a few more tops and slightly bushier plants.

The Panama and Tikal are both around 20-25cm tall, I expect I'll let them veg for another week or two then flip them. I'll let the more indica-dominant plants veg so that there are a few more nodes developed and probably flip just after Christmas but we'll see, it depends if they start growing a bit faster, as temperatures here are forecast to heat up a little next week.

As far as the PCK is concerned, I really do think it's the pH of my soil (and water) that is causing the issues. Instead of using vinegar to pH the water I have switched to phosphoric acid, which seems to hold the pH of the water down better. I am pH'ing it to about 5.5 - 6 at the moment, and it slowly drifts up by about 0.5 pH each day. As the water comes out of the tap it is well over 8.0 - very high!

I also tested the pH of my soil, which is around 7.5 and so that is not ideal either. Most of the plants look happy but I conclude at this stage that the PCK is simply more sensitive to the high pH / pH swings.

Interestingly, I noticed that another ACE grower on here, chiesesganja, has a plant that looks extremely similar to my stunded PCK. It shows the same issue with the leaves. The plant is the one in the bottom left of the photo in this post:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=8702997&postcount=63

I took some closeup pics this week for a change. The Violeta in particular is doing so well, such a vigorous and aesthetic plant in veg, I am excited to see what it does in flower. It could well be a male, but either way I am pleased to see such nice growth. The Bubba Hash, Snow Moon, Panama and Tikal are all doing great, as are the non-ACE strains (Bodhi's Angelica, Mandala's Hashberry and Rishi Kush).

As far as watering goes, nothing too fancy, just pH'd water with a little molasses for now.

I also planted seeds for my second run recently. I put in a Congo (fem), Orient Express (reg) and also Kali China (fem). I had some issues with the Kali China germinating but I am going to buy some more and try again with them, I've heard too many great things to miss out on growing the Kali China. The Congo and Orient Express are doing great and are about 2 weeks from sprout (no pictures as there's not much to see yet).

Here are some pictures:

Snow Moon

Bubba Hash (L) & Panama (R)

Tikal

Violeta

Pakistan Chitral Kush

 

[Range]

Getting very close to flipping the first couple of plants. Panama and Tikal will go into the flower tent in a couple of days, and maybe the Violeta, and Bodhi's Angelica, as they both are a bit lankier than the rest which are hashplants.

Been giving them pH'd water with phosphoric acid to bring the pH down instead of vinegar. This seems to have made a huge difference, they look much better with using this in the water which has a pH of over 8.0.

Temperatures have improved, and they are sitting at between 18 - 24 degrees Celsius inside the tent. What a difference those extra couple of degrees make.

Even the PCK seems to be improving now, I think it is growing out of the initial gnarly-ness and I attribute it to pH water and patience.

I will add some mulch and maybe a light sprinkling of worm castings as a top dress to the pots before flower, but other than that I think I will leave them and address any issues with liquid fertilizer if needed. I have organic fish emulsion, liquid seaweed, and liquid guano if required. Other than that it's molasses all the way!

One picture for this week.

 

[deepwaterdude]

Getting very close to flipping the first couple of plants. Panama and Tikal will go into the flower tent in a couple of days, and maybe the Violeta, and Bodhi's Angelica, as they both are a bit lankier than the rest which are hashplants.

Been giving them pH'd water with phosphoric acid to bring the pH down instead of vinegar. This seems to have made a huge difference, they look much better with using this in the water which has a pH of over 8.0.

Temperatures have improved, and they are sitting at between 18 - 24 degrees Celsius inside the tent. What a difference those extra couple of degrees make.

Even the PCK seems to be improving now, I think it is growing out of the initial gnarly-ness and I attribute it to pH water and patience.

I will add some mulch and maybe a light sprinkling of worm castings as a top dress to the pots before flower, but other than that I think I will leave them and address any issues with liquid fertilizer if needed. I have organic fish emulsion, liquid seaweed, and liquid guano if required. Other than that it's molasses all the way!

One picture for this week.

View Image

Been lurking and admiring the progress of your babes, Range. Very nice start, as Koondense noted. Looks like you'll be fine and I think your nutrient approach is wise first time around. I started with a similar lineup including Panama and Tikal regs, both of which were VERY good. Especially the Panama

 

[Range]

Thanks deepwaterdude, I am trying to find the balance between "keeping it simple" and also allowing myself a little bit of room to play around with the soil / liquid organic inputs. So far, so good.

 

[Range]

A few days ago I flipped the Panama, Tikal, and Violeta into flower. I gave them a top-dressing of worm castings and on top of that some composted leaf mulch to keep the moisture in, and a water with pH'd water and molasses. They are under a Gavita 600w HPS, temperatures between 18 - 28 degrees celcius at the moment. They are in 5 gallon fabric pots.

Looking forward to seeing how much they stretch. They are all about 40cm tall (15 inches), with an 8 week vegetative period from when the seed was first sewn. If they (Panama and Tikal in particular) do indeed stretch 4x their current height they will be pretty close to the light, so I will be watching them closely and may do a little bit of training if needed.

Tikal, Panama and Violeta:

The rest of the ACE plants are vegging a little longer as I don't expect them to stretch much, they are the Snow Moon, Bubba Hash, and Pakistan Chitral Kush. I'll flip them all within the next week or so. They are simply getting pH'd water, with molasses every other watering. Temperatures in the veg tent are between 18 - 26 degrees, humidity has been reasonable at about 60%. They are under a couple of 6400K 130w CFLs.

Snow Moon, Bubba Hash, and Pakistan Chitral Kush:

Also this week I have some pictures of the next couple of ACE plants that are a few weeks behind. They are Congo (feminised), Orient Express (regular) and Kali China (feminised). The larger two are just over two weeks ahead of the Kali China, an as you can see have been topped above the second node. The Congo has been much slower than the Orient Express in generating some shoots from those node sites.

Orient Express, Congo, Kali China:

 

[hush]

Looking good. I've been watching. Keep on keeping on, man.

 

[Range]

Things are going quite well here currently. The Panama, Tikal and Violeta are at 14 days of flower. The Violeta was grown from a regular seed, and I am pleased to see that it has started showing female pistils. So we will get to see how she does, all the way to harvest. The Panama and Tikal have not yet shown any pistils, but are grown from feminised seeds, so I don't expect that there will be any surprises. They are certainly stretching very strongly now and I expect they will continue to do so for another couple of weeks.

The Bubba Hash is now in the flower room, having gone in there 5 days ago. Not a huge amount of stretch yet (and I'm not expecting it will stretch much overall either), but lots of lime-green growth on the tops. I have done a small amount of defoliation just to get a bit of light further down and allow some of the sites underneath the main canopy to develop. Nothing too serious, just a dozen or so of the larger fan leaves that were shading out some key areas down below.

This photo shows (back from L-R) Tikal, Panama, Violeta, with the Bubba Hash at the front:

In the veg tent, things are progressing very well and we still have the Snow Moon and Pakistan Chitral Kush almost ready to be flipped. I will let them go another day or two and then top dress with some worm castings, a bit of leaf mulch and water with some molasses, and then into the flower room they will go. The PCK is feminised and the Snow Moon is a regular.

Snow Moon on the left, PCK on the right:

Then of course a few weeks behind are the Congo (fem), Orient Express (reg) and Kali China (fem). Growing pretty well in the organic soil mix with temperatures in the mid to high 20's (celcius). They will get another water in their current pots and then a transplant up to their final 5 gallon fabric pots. I may also top them another time very soon.

 

[dubi]

Hi Range,

Thanks for supporting our work and for starting a thread with your ACE grow diary.
Good and varied selection for indoor growing.

Nice to see Violeta, Panama and Tikal already in flowering. The more indica strains are usually slower veggers,
especially the PCK, which is not a hybrid and needs more time to reach desirable sizes and structures prior to flowering.
And glad to see more babies coming from different strains.

Btw, the Lemon Skunk and Sage N Sour look excellent Well done!
Please, keep us updated this winter with your indoor progresses.
Best wishes for 2020!

 

[Range]

Thank you for the kind words dubi. I'm at 41°S, so we are currently enjoying pleasant temperatures in the middle of summer, hope you are keeping warm up there in the northern hemisphere!

Time for a weekly update.

The Panama and Tikal continue stretching skyward. They are about 2.5 weeks along since I put them in the flower tent. Stretch hasn't been too concerning, and as long as they stop within the next two weeks or so I should have enough headroom. Hopefully.

I put the Snow Moon (regular) and PCK (feminised) into the flower room mid last week, and noticed yesterday that the Snow Moon is a confirmed female. So currently running with 4/6 from my regular seeds and have room at the most for 1 out of these last two regular plants to be female (Mandala Rishi Kush and Dutch Passion Mazar).

The Violeta started showing her beauty early, and after barely two weeks into flower she is already displaying that lovely purple trait that ACE have so expertly worked. She is easily way out in front as far as flower development is concerned, and I have a feeling she could be a fast finisher. Or, she could get to 8 weeks and get stubborn and decide not to finish off quickly like some initially fast plants do!

All plants continue to get a little bit of liquid seaweed and molasses each watering. Other than that, the worm castings and leaf mulch is doing the job so far. I have liquid guano on hand if needed a bit later on in flower.

No pics of the Congo, Orient Express or Kali China in the veg room this week as they look pretty similar to last time, in fact there's probably even less to see than last week seeing as they've all recently been topped.

The Congo and Orient Express went into their 5 gallon fabric pots yesterday, and will stay in there for about three more weeks until I flower them, which puts them all up at about 8 weeks of total "veg time". Inverted commas because I start counting veg time the day that I plant the seed. The Kali China is a few weeks behind.

Pictures below. I should add that I take them with an iPad and simply cover the camera of the iPad with my Method Seven HPS glasses, which do have some scratches and probably a couple of minor smudges on them to "enhance" the image.

(Left to Right) Snow Moon, Panama, Tikal:

(Left to Right) Violeta, Bubba Hash, PCK:

A close up of the lovely Panama (any idea of which pheno I have, or too early to tell?):

Saving the best to last, Violeta:

 

[TexasTea]

Lovely lineup! You will really enjoy these and it's a wide variety. Snow Moon is a fave of mine. Can be stretchy, fantastic aromas and potent.

 

[OZZ_]

Looking great! Subbed!

 

[Range]

Lovely lineup! You will really enjoy these and it's a wide variety. Snow Moon is a fave of mine. Can be stretchy, fantastic aromas and potent.

It's interesting you should say that about the Snow Moon, it's surprised me how stretchy it has been in flower already, considering it's hashplant heritage. Nothing too crazy, but more than what I expected. Nothing like the Tikal and Panama though!

 

[TexasTea]

Probably because it has that Vietnam Black in it. I had one outside last year that got about 8 feet tall but wasn't getting enough light up in the woods.



Another time I had an indoor plant and that one was a little bit stretchy as well, with an open structure. That indoor plant had the most delicious ripe melon aromas that just made you want to stand there and keep catching whiffs of it. The indoor was quite potent too with dense but smallish buds. I never did have one that looked white like in the catalog pics, but my outdoor one this past fall got some nice purply colors and also had sweet spicy aromas. The buds were airy though because of lack of light I think, and it really could have used another few weeks too.

 

[Range]

Plants continue to do well overall. However, at 3.5 weeks in to flower, I've noticed some deficiencies with magnesium and phosphorous which I'm now trying to correct. I am pretty sure it is due to two things: the high pH of both the soil and the water that I'm using, and not enough top dressing.

Despite pH'ing the water (which sits around 8.0 out of the tap), it does drift up over the course of the ensuing days, locking out valuable nutrients.

Another thing I have learnt lately is that I am not top dressing enough in flower. I used to run a "water only" soil mix, but that was too hot and caused too many issues in veg and early flower with excess nitrogen in particular, so I have cut that mix back and as a consequence I now need to top dress more. Especially after the stretch, it seems, as that is when these deficiencies begin to show up.

So, I have given the Panama (which was showing a magnesium deficiency) a very thick layer of worm castings as well as a feed of liquid seaweed and molasses. What I plan to do is to also add some alfalfa meal, seabird guano, and kelp meal in addition to the worm castings. Hopefully this should provide plenty of food to get through a large portion of the flowering stage. I aim to do this with all of the plants (going pretty light for the Tikal though) after they have finished stretching. Most of them are on the tail end of the stretch.

Once these plants have been harvested, I am going to use elemental sulphur to lower the pH of the soil as it is way too high - up around 7.5 - 8.0.

The Tikal required staking, she is so lanky! Stretch on the Panama and Tikal have been similar but the Panama has much thicker and stronger stems. Looks like it will yield a bit more than the Tikal too, but I'm excited to see how both of them turn out.

In other news, the plants in veg are doing great, all of them have received their final topping except for the Kali China. I will look to flower them in about another two weeks. For me at the moment it's just about eyeballing them as I check their progress and trying to determine how tall and wide they might get in flower and trying to find the best balance between all of those factors along with yield and space in the tent.

(Left to Right) Panama, Tikal and Violeta:

The Violeta bud development:

PCK (left) and Bubba Hash (Right):

Snow Moon:

 

[Range]

Orient Express:

Congo:

Kali China:

A full house in the flower tent (the 6x ACE plants plus Bodhi's Angelica, Dutch Passion Mazar, and Mandala Hashberry also in this shot):

Thanks for reading.