Emmie's Recycled Organic Soil, Acapulco Gold, Retro Grow, 2016

This grow is for my Dad, who has told us stories of the 70's and the legendary Acapulco Gold of his day. I have promised him for a long time that when I got good enough, I would grow some for him. The time has come my friends, and 2 spots in the flower tent are reserved for this very interesting variety.


The strain is from one of our sponsers:
Barneys Farm - Acapulco Gold
Cannabis Cup: Sativa Cup Winner 2010.
One of the most important strains ever. Acapulco Gold is a benchmark of Sativa genetics. Grows beautifully tall with firm colas sparkling with gold and red trichomes.
The intense fruit cocktail of flavors pack a strong sensation that lingers.


Acapulco Gold is sativa dominant, offering a long lasting high that balances upbeat effects with body-relaxing, stress reducing calmness.offering a long lasting high that balances upbeat effects with body-relaxing,stress reducing calmness.


Genetics: Sativa 80% Indica 20%


This is an indoor grow, in various sized tents. I will be using recycled SubCool based Supersoil and organic soil mixed in layers, successively uppotting into containers mixed and layered exactly the same way. Later in flower, one plant will be uppotted to a 7 gal container using the no-till method and placing it in a container just previously used in the last grow, with the center of its rootball scooped out to make room. The second plant will get freshly cooked recycled supersoil. This should give us a good side by side of the no-till method against fresh soil.

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These mini solo cup 2 oz containers will be my seed starters, and all normal transplanting rules will apply and when indicated, the next transplant will be into a normal beer cup.


In veg I use T5HO Agromax PurePar bulbs. I will start with one 54w bulb lit for the seedlings and will work up to whatever is needed, generally 4 bulbs by the end of veg in that tent.
In flower I use a big air cooled Raptor hood redesigned a bit to hold 2 600w bulbs. I run a combination of HPS and MH throughout the grow.


I have a lot of fans going in my 3 tent system and move a serious amount of air. Temperature is never a problem. I will be growing these plants organically, never giving them synthetic nutrients or tap water. All throughout their life they will only get actively aerated compost teas or pure water mixed with 1 tbl of molasses per gallon. pH is not adjusted as there is no need to do so in an organic grow. I am a firm believer in watering using the lift method and have no set time between waterings. In whatever sized container we are in at the time, I saturate the soil and then patiently wait for it to dry out. Always I let my plants determine how much to water and how often to do so.

I hope this will be fun. Let's see if we can find out why this strain has become such a legend.
 
Let's see if we can find out why this strain has become such a legend.

hear, hear!

I'm gonna get in early on this one

:nomo:
 
For me when I hear Those strains like Acapulco gold and Maui wowy, all I think of is cheech and chong. Classic strains are the cats meow. I'll tag along and watch this grow, I look forward to seeing your garden in blood...

KiG :green_heart:cheers

Ps. I finally found where I read that quote.. You go cheap, You grow cheap. Who's zandor? Its been my motto since I started. Thanks for the credo.
 
For me when I hear Those strains like Acapulco gold and Maui wowy, all I think of is cheech and chong. Classic strains are the cats meow. I'll tag along and watch this grow, I look forward to seeing your garden in blood...

KiG :green_heart:cheers

Ps. I finally found where I read that quote.. You go cheap, You grow cheap. Who's zandor? Its been my motto since I started. Thanks for the credo.
Zandor was a prolific online mentor on several of the early electronic forums around the turn of the century. He was a big advocate of spending money up front to buy good equipment that would not break down. He taught that cutting corners, being stingy and taking shortcuts always resulted in less of a grow than you could have ended up with.
 
I have a feeling your dad and I ere from the same era and I have thought about trying to grow one too. I will watch carefully:thumb:
 
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Today was flip day in the flower tent, and seed starting day for the next round. I have been dragging my feet getting this started as I am still waiting on a seed shipment to get out of the Chicago sorting facility and wanted to plant a few of those this time. Needing to get started though, I have dug into my seedbank and chosen a couple of old seeds that should be used before they go bad, and will still save 2 slots for the Knockout seeds that should be getting here any day. Joining our 2 Acapulco Gold plants (if they come up) will be Delicious Seeds' Sugar Black Rose and Cali Connection's Louis XIII OG Kush. If either of these two turn out to be viable, I will start separate grow logs on them.

So today, start the clock. These 4 seeds have been planted 1/2" down in a basic organic soil, pointy end up. The little 2 oz mini solo cups were then watered to saturation and set in a windowsill. Germination is no more complicated than that here in Emmie's garden.

I am giving till the end of this week for the gifted seeds to arrive. If not, the last two slots will be taken up with 2 Amherst Sour Diesel seeds from Humboldt Seeds and they will be planted on Saturday night so as to not be too far behind these planted today.
 
ok, quick update...

the windowsill turned out to be a dumb move and after the first two came up I decided it was silly not to have them under some real par light... so they all got moved to the veg tent.

You will notice that I am also starting my outdoor vegetable garden here too, with a bunch of Roma tomatoes and Jalapeno peppers planted in the front row. I get a lot better start and stronger plants (trained too) when I start them myself instead of buying them at the local box store.

The cute little starter cups seem to be on about a 36 hour cycle without an active plant in them, and it is going to be interesting how quickly the seedlings start to build a root ball and how fast they are going to have to be transplanted up to big girl cups.

As of this evening another of the Acapulco Gold's has popped up and it looks like there is some activity with the Louis XIII. It is too early for the KO's yet, or is it? They were $20 seeds after all... I expect fireworks... automatic pop up umbrellas and fancy drinks... or at least a very robust plant. I suspect they will be up before long.

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Emmie,
Speaking of retro grows... I've been unsuccessfully chasing Panama Red. Do you know if is available to us these days?
 
Emmie,
Speaking of retro grows... I've been unsuccessfully chasing Panama Red. Do you know if is available to us these days?
I remember reading a writeup on the legendary Panama Red that said that the taste and appearance came from something in the soil down there as well as being right on the equator. The article seemed to indicate that without that legendary soil, it was not possible to reproduce Panama Red. Anyone else know more on this?
 
I found the information on this for you...

From the great Wee'zard on the big island:

Panama red, got it's color, and it's character from the panamanian soil.
They used fermentation to "cure" the buds.
On a large scale.
The plants were cut and laid in piles on the red dirt and were covered with tarps to sweat in the sun.
There is an organism in that red dirt that is unique to Panama.

I forget the latin name and don't even recall if it was bacterial, fungal, or yeastish.
Hoping someone here has that information.

The point is, it is not sufficient to just obtain and grow the seeds.
The red dirt fermentation is responsible for the special quality of Panama Red.
The color, and the character of the high come from the curing method and from soil borne organisms.
 
Thanks for that info Emilya, now I can quit looking.

I did follow your lead and order some Acapulco Gold this morning. (along with AK47, both strains will be new to me.)
Could make for a fun class reunion :woohoo:
 
Here we are, 10 days from planting. We have the first one to come up, our leggy little girl who sat in a windowsill too long, and her sister, who has had a problem from the very start.

The cotyledons both had an oddity to them on this plant, and it looks like the seed shell never fully detached. I tried gently prying... I tried saliva... I tried mean looks. Both cotyledons were pointed up in the air in a tight v, and I could see tiny little first leaves down in the notch, trying to get light.

First I bent the problem leaves down toward horizontal to try to widen the gap. Overnight, the gap again closed. So, I got out my scissors, and I cut one of the cotyledons right in half, and again tried to bend them horizontal and out of the way of the new true leaves. This seems to be working. The true leaves doubled in size overnight. I think she is going to make it now, after all.

Here are the pics:

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Following this one, curious to find the old school stuff

Thanks Olschoolbud! A lot of things I do around here are pretty retro, right down to the way I plant seeds right in the soil and let mother nature do her thing. Glad to have you along for the ride...

right now we all have our eyes on our little clipped cotyledon runt... and again overnight her true leaves doubled in size. She is going to make it, and is a fighter. I like that, 'cause she is going to need that fighting spirit in my tent. Just wait till she gets wind of the contortions I am going to put her through.
 
Just a quick update today on our runt. I had to perform a second cotyledonectomy yesterday to get still more of the woody cotyledon out of the way for our first true leaves. After the complete evisceration of the right cotyledon, the true leaves now free, again doubled in size and I am certain at this point that she is going to make it. I know I could have started over with a new seed by now, but I like doing what I can to save the stragglers... I have high hopes for this little fighter of a girl.

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Just a quick update today on our runt. I had to perform a second cotyledonectomy yesterday to get still more of the woody cotyledon out of the way for our first true leaves. After the complete evisceration of the right cotyledon, the true leaves now free, again doubled in size and I am certain at this point that she is going to make it. I know I could have started over with a new seed by now, but I like doing what I can to save the stragglers... I have high hopes for this little fighter of a girl.

DSCF53641.JPG

Hi, It's a very noble grow you are doing. Me as a noob will pull up a chair to watch and learn. By the way, I may need to do "cotyledonectomy" myself. Is it safe to remove one leaf just like that ? :) I have a Johny Bravo shaped plant :S

I wish the very best for your grow.
:Namaste:
 
Hi, It's a very noble grow you are doing. Me as a noob will pull up a chair to watch and learn. By the way, I may need to do "cotyledonectomy" myself. Is it safe to remove one leaf just like that ? :) I have a Johny Bravo shaped plant :S

I wish the very best for your grow.
:Namaste:
It is never 100% safe to operate on a young plant and this could easily have gone either way, it's just that sometimes you have to take drastic actions to help these little ones out. The need to do what I have done here is very rare, and this is the first time I have attempted something so bold as to take away 1/4 of the leaves in order to save the plant, especially this early.
 
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