Acapulco Gold by Barney’s Farm – Review

Acapulco Gold Feminized Seeds Overview

8 out of 10

This strain by Barney’s Farm is a modern take on the legendary Mexican Sativa that won’t disappoint. The original landrace strain has a storied history and was a founding parent to Skunk #1 – making it the ancestor of a huge swath of our modern strains. This modern variant has a more manageable size for indoor growing and a shorter flower cycle for outdoor growing in cooler latitudes.

Easy to Grow
7 out of 10
Flowering Speed
8 out of 10
Yield
9 out of 10
Potency
8 out of 10

Pros

Medicinal uses

Perfect structure for training

Great flavor profile

Stable size and structure

Cons

Strong odor while growing

Prone to nutrient issues

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The Details

We have grown quite a few of these girls over the last 5 years and it continues to be a show piece in our tents. It’s a very stable strain, showing consistency from generation to generation in height, bulk and every specimen has been strong and vigorous.

We’ve seen some issues with nutrient uptake, particularly in cooler conditions, but these were manageable with a few simple steps. In our experience, this plant seems to be particularly resistant to mites when compared to similar strains.

This plant is a true Sativa structurally, with lanky branches that can become overweight during flower. While their height is manageable through topping and training, they will stretch quite a bit when you first put them into flower.

The flowers are large for a Sativa and are coated in fair amounts of resin. Flowering takes between 60 and 70 days and the leaves turn golden in late flower, just like the legends say.

Easy to Grow?

This plant has a medium difficulty level because it can reach heights over 210cm (7 ft) outdoors and requires height management to grow indoors. We have successfully used topping and training as well as screen-of-green (ScoG) methods to make the best use of indoor space.

Acapulco Gold are vigorous growers in all stages – these two girls in vegetative growth stretched so fast they had to be hard cut back to even them out. 

During vegetation, the plant grows vigorously.  This is the right time to perform topping and training so the plant doesn’t stretch too much when put into flower. During flower, the lanky stems can start to droop with the weight of the colas, so they might need to be tied up or otherwise secured so they don’t break off. This might sound like a lot of work, but overweight buds isn’t the worst problem to have!

These plants grow fairly large colas on thin, lanky branches, so they can benefit from the spread and extra support from a SCROG setup.

We found this strain particularly suited to screen-of-green, since the lattice will provide the support that the buds need in later stages.

Speed to Flower?

For an old-school Sativa strain, 60 to 70 days isn’t bad.

Resin begins forming early in the flower stage and ends up coating the surrounding leaves.

Medical Use?

Acapulco Gold has been celebrated since the 60’s for its energizing and euphoric cerebral effects, making the strain useful in treating anxiety, depression, stress and even pain.

Let’s face it, this strain has been a part of our popular culture for so long and has had such an impact because it has an actual physical and mental impact on it’s users. Linguist Jean-Charles Seigneuret said it played a role as a “psychedelic Philosopher’s Stone” and could “transform the metaphorical lead of the harried, detribalized modern conscience into the ‘gold’ latent in ‘Acapulco gold.'”

Acapulco Gold flowers are covered in red hairs and lots of resin.

Potency

This plant is has medium to high levels of THC, with most test clocking in between 18 and 24% with low levels (<1%) CBD.

Yield?

The advertised yield is high at 1500 grams per plant outdoors and up to 500 grams per square meter indoors. In part because it is so adaptable to training and nets, we’ve come close to these indoor numbers with each grow. With large buds that are densely packed, this strain has proven to be one of the highest and most consistent producers in our tents.

Taste

The tastes and smell profiles of this plant can vary from citrus to woody, but one consistent profile we noticed is an overarching pine smell and taste. The smoke is smooth and rich.

Summary

This is one of our favorite strains for indoor growing and if you are up for a little topping and training, you’ll find it to be a top producer too.

About Barney’s Farm

Started in the early 90’s, Barney’s Farm has become one of the most prominent breeders in the world. Over the last decade, Barney’s Farm have produced some of the world’s most popular varieties of cannabis, Winning the Cannabis Cup and Indica/Sativa Cups with G13 Haze, Liberty Haze, Amnesia Haze, Willie Nelson, Cookies Kush, Pineapple Chunk, Tangerine Dream and Critical Kush becoming a bestseller within months of release.

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