Tropical Mix Identification

Greetings Everyone,
This is my 1st post. I've been reading the forums for quite a while, but now I think these plants are mature enough that maybe someone could identify them for me please? I have some ideas what they are, but will reserve comment in order to hear from some of you that have much more experience in these particular strains. First, I just want to say that it is truly an honor to be part of this fine community. I look forward to getting to know all you fine growers. And now for the ladies.
January of this year, I picked up Ace's Tropical Mix, Malawi, GT, OTH and PCK. I germinated 6 tropical mix and all 6 sprouted. There appears to be 2 strains, 3 of them with wider leaves and 3 with very narrow leaves and bamboo structure.
In the middle of March, we left for vacation for 2 weeks, so I put the plants in the greenhouse with drips. I knew they would flower, which was perfect for me. I usually put out 2 plants each month from the veg/clone room and flower them during the long days by bringing them into the dark room each evening. Aside from winter, I prefer sun grown, but enjoy my winter indoor goodies just as much.

When I came back from vacation the 1st week of April, my entire garden had taken off as if on steroids. Vegetables that were just coming up were already bolting for seed when I returned. TS1-3 were about 20-24 inches tall (doubled in size) and TS4-6 (thin leaf plants) were around 3 foot tall and had tripled in size (even my yellow lab got bigger while I was gone!). TS1-3 had dime sized crowns of pistils already. This was at [FONT=&quot]12 hrs., 13 minutes of sunlight. TS 4-6 did not even show their sex until May 7 ([/FONT][FONT=&quot]14 hrs., 02 minutes of sunlight), at which point they started going into the dark room each evening (11/13 for flowering)[/FONT]
I'm allowed to post 5 pics so I will discuss the 3 wider leaf plants in this post (TS1-3). TS 1 initially was male, but then started producing hairs and small flowers (hermie). TS 2 and 3 are females. The buds look and smell the same, but TS-2 has a more compact structure, whereas TS-3 has wider internode spacing, therefore much taller. Only interesting physical traits are, stems on the shade leaves are a redish purple, at least on the clones of TS2&3, but not on the seed plants, at least not while in flower. This is not caused by the cold, because my clone room stays an even 70F. TS 2 will produce leaves up to 11 points.
As far as smell, these are not as easy to identify as other strains I have grown. At 9 weeks of flower, they smelled mostly of mango, but that changed by the next week. Right now, I'm in week 10 (day 70) and my initial thoughts are peach, however, my son swears it's strawberry. Tropical fruits would probably be a safe description. What makes it difficult to detect, is the over-powering smell, not sure how to describe, but I'm sure you know what I mean when I say skunk, but not skunk. It has that strong smell that is only reminiscent of skunk, but without the foul skunky odor. TS-3 has a nice sweet smell and has a slight jasmine and minty background, whereas TS-2 is more musty. They are both foxtailing, mostly the smaller lateral buds that make up the main colas, which are nice and firm. About 90% of the hairs are brown, as I believe it is done producing new hairs and only new hairs are still white.
The pics are of last week, so I will try to get some better/updated pics today.
Thank you kindly in advance and I can't wait to get to know you all.

jasmine sounds nice, theres another Tropical mix thread where dubi states the current lineup for the mix. Those plants look very healthy thanks for sharing the pics. Ive been more then happy with ace. Ive grown the erdpurt, and the standard mix, and the plants did the work. Id very much like to know what line is expressing jasmine, cause its one of my favorite teas, and my standard rice atm.

Thanks for the reply Tp01. I'm with you on the jasmine, just got back from the Kunming Province in China. My wife is from there and we have a second home there and I go there for my treatments.
I cannot edit my post, but I meant to say TS2&3 were in flower when I returned from vacation, TS-1 was hermie.
I have 4 GT vegging now and will go out and into flower in a few more weeks. I can say that I have tried other breeders and have not gotten the best of genetics. Based upon my research, I have the utmost confidence in Ace and have a lot more of their gear lined up for planting and purchase.

Ace 2018 Tropical Sativas

Ace 2018 Tropical Sativas

Here are some close-ups that I just took. Today is day 70 of flower.

Other 3 Tropical Sativas

Other 3 Tropical Sativas

Here is TS-4,5&6. The 1st picture is ST4, which is male, so I have left it for now to veg until I decide what it is.

The second picture is TS 5 and 6 together. Very narrow leaves and I think these 2 are going to produce the really light airy buds, but we will see. I'm pretty sure I will be in for the long haul, as I'm sure these will go quite a few months in flower. Again, they refused to show their sex when they were 10 weeks old and at 12 hours, 3 minutes of sunlight per day. In fact, they waited until they were at 5 months old and daylight was over 14 hours! I don't know if these will even need the tomato cages, we will see. I figured, since I'm in for the long haul, I potted up into 15 gallon pots with a fair amount of bat guano and fresh worm castings from 3 of my worm bins. Since I have to bring them in and out of the dark room each evening/morning respectively, I'm taking a gamble that the extra root space will yield a little extra flower. They get heavy, especially after watering (the dolly comes in handy, but I will probably get some small travel carts with wheels to move them around).

I know it's way early for positive identification, but just throwing these out here for now and will continue to update with pictures. Peace.

dubi said:

Hi jonhova,

Strong and healthy seedlings, what a nice trunk they have!

Current Tropical Mix contains mainly Malawi/Panama, Panama/Malawi and Panama/Tikal hybrids. I think i will be able to identify them better in flowering.

Best wishes and please keep updated!

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There is a quote from dubi in the other thread dated March 29 this year

I remember Tikal being described as sweet strawberry. But I have no Idea what you got. They sure do look pretty!!!

Good luck!

Nice to hear from you gr8fulguitr. Yes, I saw his post where he mentions which strains they had available in the tropical mix. However, I've also seen posts where someone had a Vietnamese from the OE line I believe, which I don't recall being on the list. Therefore, I'm hoping to be honored by having the master himself stop by when he has time, to give me his thoughts on what it is, expectations, etc. since he is the expert on these strains he is breeding down at Ace. In the mean time, I am just loving growing their genetics. Already finished the PCK and have 4 GT on deck. This winter I'll start my 7 OTH indoors and put them into the greenhouse around March. That should finish them around Aug-Sept. Peace

Good Deal, I have 10 of the tropical mix regs myself. I am not running any of them yet. I have Zamaldelica and GT to get through to harvest before I have room.
I am in awe of anyone who has a greenhouse, I am sure you will rock the OTH!
GrateDay SolarLogos!

Edit: For some reason I thought the Vietnamese Black was in older packs of mix seeds. But yes I remember seeing one not too long ago. Good looking. Thinking I remember Snow moon had OE x PCK. . . .
....That would be interesting if you found a VB leaning plant in the mix.

That was actually me with a vietnam black pheno OE. Its been on 12/12 for going on 12 weeks.

jonhova said:

That was actually me with a vietnam black pheno OE. Its been on 12/12 for going on 12 weeks.

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Bingo. You're the post I was thinking of. In early flowering, the base of the hairs also took on a pink/purple look, but I don't know if that was the cool spring weather. Thanks for stopping by. Peace

TS-2,3 Clones

TS-2,3 Clones

TS-2 and 3 (Tropical Sativa #'s 2 & 3) clones have red stems on the leaves and the main stalk is vertically striped in a pinkish/purple also. I'm familiar with plants turning purple from the cold, usually an Indica, which is the majority of what I've been growing for the past12 years or so, because of my chronic back, hip and joint pain. However, my veg room stays a constant 70F. If weather is the cause, it would have had to have changed while we were on vacation (end of March-end of 1st week in April), when I had to put all my plants out into the greenhouse. Of course, everything when into flower while we were gone, so the clones have been back under lights re-vegging for the past 26 days. The new leaves don't have the redish/pink-purple stems, so perhaps they were exposed to cold back when we were on vacation? We did have 2 days back to back where the high temp was 6oF and the low 39-40F. Whether or not this information is helpful an identifier, I do not know. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you kindly for all the replies so far.
Peace.


Ps. I know this is probably not the right thread for GT, but since I mentioned they were on deck, I thought I would put them up. These 4 GT standard are 26 days old. Room is not an issue, so I will veg another month or so before going into flower.
BTW, GT is one of the easiest plants I've ever cloned, they practically clone themselves. I'm thinking, this is a very easy plant to grow so far, especially for those who don't have a lot of sativa growing experience, this might be a great plant for someone looking for 1st time sativa growing experience (not 1st time smoking experience). Last year I purchased seeds online from another vendor in Amsterdam and the genetics were terrible. Ace on the other hand, will probably be my only source of seeds from now on. I'm extremely impressed with Ace. I've not seen the kind of passion, love, dedication and enthusiasm from other commercial breeders like I have seen with Dubi and those at Ace Seeds that post here. I also like the fact that they are transparent and don't hide or try to keep information or special genetics just for themselves. Excellent grow advise, (FREE!) and just an awesome attitude towards us clients and genuinely supportive. All this pretty much sealed the deal for me. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking other sellers which I have not had experience with, nor am I trying to kiss anyone's butt. Credit should go where credit is deserved. So far, it has been a wonderful experience and I can't wait to eventually get to grow all of of their strains that I can.

GT

GT

Sorry, forgot to post the GT
Peace

gr8fulguitr said:

I am in awe of anyone who has a greenhouse, I am sure you will rock the OTH!
GrateDay SolarLogos!

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Gr8fulguitr,
I don't know if you have room for a greenhouse, but here is the one I got off of Amazon. It's 10'x10' and 8' tall. It has a tubular metal frame and the material is very heavy duty and just the right size for someone like myself, because I am only growing for myself. I paid $159 last December, but this particular model isn't available at this time, however, they have a lot of nice greenhouses this size and close to it to choose from, starting as low as $120. It's really amazing how affordable they have become.

BTW, the material is not as clear as in the picture, more diffused lighting, but I have 6k watts total in LED and a greenhouse heater to supplement during the winter (I put green shade cloth across the 6' door for privacy and ventilation, since it faces away from the sun). If you have room in a backyard for a greenhouse, I sincerely hope this information will be helpful to you or someone else. The first pic is my greenhouse and the second pic is the picture of the one on Amazon so you can see the actual material covering the greenhouse. It really gives you privacy though, people cannot see what is in there through the white material. It's legal for recreational here, but stealth and silence is still absolutely necessary. Peace

Welcome SolarLogos

Thanks for your kind words, for supporting our work and for joining our community here at ICMag, i'm sure you will feel comfortable among the great souls visiting this room.

I think you have identified correctly the 2 different groups of genetics you have in hands.

The high yield, flowering and growing structure, leaf traits, .... of the first 2 females make me think they are indeed the Orient Express sativa pheno. The strong aroma you are getting now at the end of flowering is probably the rotten/organic classic OE aroma. It doesn't come from Skunk, it comes from the Vietnam Black mother.

The other 2 females are even more tropical. They are most probably Ethiopian or Honduras, although i would need to see more pics through the flowering stage to fully confirm it.

Guess you must feel happy and proud for being able to grow fully legally and comfortably in your outdoor garden. It's amazing what the citizens of your country and your state are achieving

Greetings Dubi,
Thank you kindly for the welcome to the board. I've been reading the threads for months now and there is so much respect for each other, a wealth of knowledge and an amazing passion for growing this wonderful herb.
Wow, a black viet pheno from the OE line! I was planning on OE for my next purchase so how great is this find! Thank you so much for identifying this plant for me. Now I see the odor you mentioned on TS-2, kinda reminds me of a swamp.
Orient Express finishes in about 10 weeks. How long would you expect the sativa leaning pheno to go? Right now, the top 2 inches of the cola's are about 50% white hairs, but the lower 6-12" of the cola, depending on the size, is all brown withered hairs. About 5% of the trichomes are brown, 5% clear and about 90% milky. However, my gut instincts tells me it needs another week or so. They have been in flush for a week now. Here is a couple of pics.
I have an update and pics on the other two plants; I'll post that next. Thank you again for help identifying these plants. God bless you and your work. You must walk a beautiful path.
Peace

Different strain, pheno?

Different strain, pheno?

Today is day 26 since TS-6 starting showing and started going into 11/13 flowering, by bringing them from outdoors and into a dark room each evening. The two plants are starting to look like either two different strains, or two very different pheno types.
Here are the differences between the two plants.
TS-5 branches with pairs of branches at each innernode. The branches are horizontal from the main stalk and continue this pattern until the branches eventually become short enough to become each flower on the main stalks/colas. TS-6 on the other hand, have branches that run "vertical" to the main stalks, about 1/3rd the length of the branches on TS-5, and the branches don't pair off at innernodes, but rather each branch winds around and up the main stalks in the direction of north, west, south, east, etc. Moreover, TS-6 has very little space between branching (less air flow through the plant), whereas, there is a lot of spacing between innernodes on TS-5. In the first pic, you can see the spacing and horizontal branching of TS-5. The next pic is TS-6. The 3rd and 4th pics are the bottom branches of TS-5, then 6 to show the same pattern. The last pic is the top of TS-5. I can only post 5 pics per message, so I will post TS-6 under this for comparison. So, what do you think? Did I get one Honduras and one Ethiopian, the same strain, but different pheno, or something entirely different? What do you think? Thanks again to all for your replies and input. I'll keep the pics and updates coming as they progress. Peace

Top of TS-6

Top of TS-6

Here is the top of TS-6 for comparison to TS-5's top.

dubi said:

Welcome SolarLogos
Guess you must feel happy and proud for being able to grow fully legally and comfortably in your outdoor garden. It's amazing what the citizens of your country and your state are achieving

Click to expand...

It is a relief to be able to grow outdoors without constantly looking over my shoulders. Other than that, I don't really see much of a difference. We don't have any cannabis shops in our town yet and I've only noticed one billboard for recreational cannabis while in San Francisco. At least where I live, no one really talks about it and to me it seems like there really is no noticeable difference, again, in my area. On the other hand, last year when I went to Seattle, it seems they really celebrate it there. When we went from the airport to the hotel, we saw the cannabus, a tour bus ride around Seattle, which includes all the different strains to smoke on the tour. We saw several billboards and even signs in restaurant windows that say, "We love cannabis." When we checked into the Hyatt, the front desk directed us to the cannabis brochures, informed us of some recreational cannabis stores near by and let me know I could comfortably light up in their parking lot. That night we had dinner with several physicians and they were openly talking at the table about their favorite edibles, strains, etc. All I could do was smile--I never dreamed I would ever see this in my lifetime.
But yes Dubi, I am proud of the people of this state and country for making this happen.
Peace

My apologies for all the above pics, when I look at it, it might seem a little confusing. To simplify things, which I should have done the first time, I put the two plants side-by-side for comparison. The two pics are the same two branches side-by-side: The branch on the left is from TS-5, the longer, horizontal "pairs" of "horizontal" branches on the main stalk. The branch/top on the right is from TS-6, showing shorter, "single", "vertical" branches/flowers that individually spiral around the main stalks. Additionally, if you look at the pics above of the lower branches, TS-5 has small branches that branch off of the main branch, and each of these small branches are filling up with small buds (fairly normal pattern); however, on TS-6 lower branches, the small buds seem to grow right off of the branch, or branches, that are fairly uniform and are the same size all up and down the lower branches, rather than starting with longer branches at the base of the stalk and having the branches get smaller as they go towards the tip. I hope I haven't totally confused everyone. Truly sorry if I did.
Peace

Sorry for all the posts. Those pics of TS5,6 are at 26 days in flower.