Grow #2 - Barney's Farm Acapulco Gold Feminized

[BigBlonde]

My vertical seed germination seems to have worked well. The roots are clearly heading downward. One of the benefits of this is to keep the root from growing into the paper towel. This made them very easy to plant. Next time I'll try to point the seeds in the right direction.

The seeds sprouted in three days.

They're in their first pots now. I'm trying a different method, as you can see. I have the starter pots in the soil where the plants will eventually live. The idea is to provide the plants with as stable an environment as possible to minimize their stress load. When they're ready to transplant, they'll go right into the same holes in the soil that they're in now. I'll have to be careful not to let the roots grow out of the starter pots. I don't think that will be a problem.

The white powder is diatomaceous earth. I'm using it to fend off the spider mites that were so much trouble for my previous grow. I'll be watching for them this time and I have a good stock of things to kill them.

The lights are set to 25%. I'm not sure if that's the best setting. That's about 120 watts or 15 watts per square foot. I'll adjust as necessary. I'll have to be careful not to set the lights too high, because they can go as high as 60 watts per square foot.

I haven't quite finished the electronics and I'm still learning how to use the ACI Controller 69 Pro. It's a bit complex. I like how it can be programmed from my phone. The initial setup was easy. It's running on "auto" mode at the moment. One gripe so far is that the print in the manual is too small to read, even with magnifier glasses and looking through a magnifying glass. I may do a high-resolution scan so I can enlarge it enough to read it.

The app looks great, though. Here's a screenshot. I'm still working on the configuration. It reports in real time. I can watch the values change.

 

[MoLdYtWiG]

@BigBlonde - can you tell me what you are using for pest control beside dichotomous earth?

 

[Average_Joegrow]

Watching. I was just talking about this strain with my brother the other day. Happy growing up, and best of luck to you!!✌️😊

 

[BigBlonde]

@BigBlonde - can you tell me what you are using for pest control beside dichotomous earth?

Nothing yet. We made changes from the first grow. We're using a different room and new tent and pots. We have several things ready if we need them.

If you're asking about spider mites, then I can say the my biggest lesson learned was to use more than one method. The adapt quickly because they have a short reproductive cycle. There are numerous ways to kill them, so finding more than one method shouldn't be hard.

Diatomaceous earth only works for critters that crawl through it. It damages their internal fluid balance and they die.

 

[BigBlonde]

Watching. I was just talking about this strain with my brother the other day. Happy growing up, and best of luck to you!!✌️😊

We bought our seeds from Seed Supreme. So far, so good. Both our seeds sprouted quickly and look healthy. We should see some green soon. I'll post pics as the grow progresses.

 

[Average_Joegrow]

We bought our seeds from Seed Supreme. So far, so good. Both our seeds sprouted quickly and look healthy. We should see some green soon. I'll post pics as the grow progresses.

Very cool 😎!! Grabbing some 🍿 for the 📺 show!!

 

[BigBlonde]

I have three little plants. One of the first two seeds looked like it wasn't going to make it, so I started a third. Now it looks like the sickly one might be okay. It had a very narrow stem and that was dark reddish brown in color. I packed soil around its stem and now it looks much better and appears to be growing well. It's just slightly smaller than it's older sister. The third sprout is in a starter cup now and working on pushing off its husk. I don't know what I'm going to do with a third plant, though, because I only have room for two plants in my tent. Here's what the little girl looks like:

Here's a picture of the first born:

All the seeds in this batch have sprouted with two sets of leaves. They had their cotyledons, of course, plus they had a second set.

 

[BigBlonde]

My last update was two weeks ago. Today is day 22 since sprouting.

For this grow, I decided to go with an AC Infinity system. Well, mostly ACI. I'm still using Viparspectra XS2000 lights. The new Controller 69 Pro is excellent, except for one problem. That is ACI's product shortages. Having a controller for a humidifier and outlets is great. The problem is that those things are not available. I have a T3 humidifier on order, but it won't be in stock till next year. I can't buy an outlet controller for a non-ACI humidifier because those are also out of stock. So far, I have only been able to buy an inline fan and a clip-on fan. ACI sells great products, but frequently being out-of-stock of important components is disappointing.

That said, this new controller is great! It is very nice to have a controller that calculates VPD and that can use VPD to control components. I hope to use VPD when I have more ACI components. Till then, I'm using Alexa plugs for the lights, the humidifier and the heater. Here's a screenshot:

Now that I have a controller that is much smarter than I am, I am able to know how much trouble I have had with low humidity. The weather here has been very dry, which is surprising because we live in an area known for rainy weather. The humidity in the tent has been way to low, usually, about 43%. The VPD has been way too high, about 1.5 kPa and sometimes as high as 2.0 kPa. Lacking a humidifier, I sprayed water into the tent using a hand-held pressure sprayer. That helped a little, but I had to spray almost hourly when the lights were on.

Just yesterday, I finally received a small, $30 humidifier from Amazon that I'm controlling with an Alexa plug. It runs when the lights are on. It seems to be working well and is about the right size for the 2x4 tent. I named the Alexa routines "Tent Day" and "Tent Night." As I write this, it has been Tent Day for two hours. The controller's app reports that the temperature is 71.7F, the humidity is 66.4% and the VPD is 0.89. The plants seem to be responding well to the changed conditions. Unfortunately, they have been slow developing up to this point due to the poor growing conditions. Nevertheless, the girls are all surviving, in spite of the problems.

In other news, I now have a medical marijuana card, so I can legally grow up to 15 plants. I'm only doing three now. I plan to have another indoor crop early next year. After that, I'm very much looking forward to growing outdoors next summer. I don't plan to have an indoor crop during the summer--it's just too hard to control the heat.

 

[steamroller]

72 is too low IMO.
Get the temp up near 80 at least.
For more humidity and less tech I place a bowl of water and a sponge that is in the water and air with a fan blowing on it.
The water wicks up [ capillary action] and the fan moves the moisture to air.
In small areas this can make a big difference. 🤷‍♂️

 

[Ganjadad]

72 is too low IMO.
Get the temp up near 80 at least.
For more humidity and less tech I place a bowl of water and a sponge that is in the water and air with a fan blowing on it.
The water wicks up [ capillary action] and the fan moves the moisture to air.
In small areas this can make a big difference. 🤷‍♂️

I’ve used this same method in a pinch and works great

 

[Ganjadad]

I’m also growing Barney’s seeds, heard great things. Pulling up a chair for the show 😎

 

[biggerbud420]

this was mine barneys farm gold

 

[biggerbud420]

growers choice seed aculpoca gold

 

[biggerbud420]

and lastly i really hope they dont hijack your thread and do nothing but say how it is not aculpoca gold because that is all most of them did to me

 

[SSgrower]

Grower need education as we in the know realize "hybrid influence" over the years has taken it's toll, my 2 cents,Cheers SS

 

[Titleist]

Very few people still trying to keep original landrace strains alive. And honestly, without the soil, nutrients, air and sun from where they came from you're going to get a slightly different result than the original plant grown in it's native origin would produce. So long as you like the result it's a win.

 

[mrcrispy13]

Very few people still trying to keep original landrace strains alive. And honestly, without the soil, nutrients, air and sun from where they came from you're going to get a slightly different result than the original plant grown in it's native origin would produce. So long as you like the result it's a win.

We're out there...going in the opposite direction as most. I've learned a lot growing true Landrace strains. Mostly that almost all modern indoor grow methods are not applicable.
e.g. My Uttarakhand took three weeks to sprout and only when I put them in 50% play sand on a heat mat where temps stayed above 80F.

 

[BigBlonde]

72 is too low IMO.
Get the temp up near 80 at least.
For more humidity and less tech I place a bowl of water and a sponge that is in the water and air with a fan blowing on it.
The water wicks up [ capillary action] and the fan moves the moisture to air.
In small areas this can make a big difference. 🤷‍♂️

I’ve used this same method in a pinch and works great

I can raise the temperature, but I'm having a problem with low humidity. Increasing the temperature will dry it out more. I did buy a humidifier and it is running. It's helping. I don't have much room in the tent, but can put a sponge near the air intake. Thanks for the suggestion. I had been thinking of doing something like that.

 

[BigBlonde]

I’m also growing Barney’s seeds, heard great things. Pulling up a chair for the show 😎

What show? I'm just trying to get a good crop.

 

[BigBlonde]

and lastly i really hope they dont hijack your thread and do nothing but say how it is not aculpoca gold because that is all most of them did to me

I'm not worried about that, but a grow diary doesn't seem to be a good place to have that debate. I could use some help, though.

Grower need education as we in the know realize "hybrid influence" over the years has taken it's toll, my 2 cents,Cheers SS

My "education" is apparently lacking so much that I don't understand your comment. I do understand, however, that this isn't the original Acapulco Gold. There's an explanation in the seed catalog that explains that the breeder is trying to recreate the qualities of the original. That is okay with me. They acknowledged that this is not the original.

Very few people still trying to keep original landrace strains alive. And honestly, without the soil, nutrients, air and sun from where they came from you're going to get a slightly different result than the original plant grown in it's native origin would produce. So long as you like the result it's a win.

Yes. The results are what matters and I could use some help getting good results.