Growing your weed at home is a perfect solution for most regular consumers. First, you have full control of the production quality and care for your plants the way nobody would. Second, you’re able to identify the plant’s stress and disease early and take remedial actions to improve the quality of your harvest. Third, it’s vital to note that watching your weed grow and mature is a delightful, enjoyable experience many weed connoisseurs love.
So, what should you do as soon as you decide to set up a personal weed plantation? The first important point is to choose a strain and a seed type you will cultivate. Many factors predetermine this choice, and you should study the cannabis basics to choose wisely. This article walks you through the essentials and illustrates the strain comparison on an example of Dragon Fruit and Black Gorilla seeds.
How to Select an Ideal Strain?
Newbies may need guidance amidst the abundance of offers in the local dispensaries and online stores, with each seed bank claiming to supply the best seeds that will deliver unrivaled cultivation and use experiences. So, it’s extremely important to understand the basic features and distinctions of strain varieties to make the proper choice compliant with your available space, climate conditions, and medical needs.
When choosing among several variants of cannabis, cultivators usually consider the following parameters:
- Genetics. There are few pure cannabis strains today, with seed banks and breeders conducting numerous experiments to cross the most resilient cultivars and produce new varieties with superior qualities. So, to understand what you may expect from a specific cultivar, you should look at the qualities of parent strains.
- Growing specifics. Weed cultivation is not that simple, as plants thrive only in specific conditions. They need plenty of sunlight and a warm, humid climate to develop and give healthy harvests. So, growers should consider each strain’s specific requirements to see whether they can meet them.
- Flavor and aroma. Smoking weed should be a relaxing, indulgent experience you naturally want to enhance. Many modern strains come with notes of fruity and citrusy flavors, while others offer a more intense, skunky aroma. Thus, you may choose the aromatic mix that speaks to you and enjoy your weed to the fullest.
- Immunity to pests and disease. Growing weed plants is not a walk in the park, so you should know what to expect in the process. Some cultivars offer huge harvests of buds with unique properties but are susceptible to mold, disease, and pests, so they require a great degree of mastery on your part. Others may be more resilient to these influences and give you hassle-free time growing your weed.
- Feminized and autoflower flowering types. Feminized seeds guarantee higher yields but grow longer, while autoflower seeds flower quickly and deliver medium-level potency buds. So, it’s up to you to choose which parameter to sacrifice for the sake of getting what you want from your weed crops.
- Expected yields. Some growers strive for high yields, while others are fine with modest harvests for exquisite flavors, aromas, or therapeutic effects.
- Medicinal effects. Weed is a versatile herb with a broad range of magical effects. It may invigorate you and make you more creative and focused, or it can calm you down and impose a powerful relaxing buzz on your mind and body; it all depends on the chosen strain.
- THC and CBD levels. THC is a psychoactive compound responsible for the cerebral high caused by weed; still, it’s wrong to associate weed’s potency only with THC. Other cannabinoids and terpenes also play a role in the outcomes of cannabis consumption.
You can make the final choice much easier by evaluating all these points. With these criteria in mind, you’ll always know what to expect from the growing process and what risks and vulnerabilities you should manage.
Dragon Fruit vs. Black Gorilla Comparison
Now, using these comparison criteria, let’s go through the two popular seed varieties you may consider for a purchase – Dragon Fruit feminized https://askgrowers.com/seeds/dragon-fruit-seeds-feminized and Black Gorilla feminized https://askgrowers.com/seeds/black-gorilla-seeds-feminized.
Genetics
In terms of genetic lineage, Dragon Fruit is an Indica-dominant hybrid that emerged from the crossbreeding experiment with Snow Lotus and Silver Haze. Black Gorilla is also an Indica-dominant hybrid, but its genetic lineage comes from Gorilla Glue #4 and Bright Berry.
Growing Specifics
Dragon Fruit plants grow pretty low, up to 60-80cm, so they are convenient for indoor and outdoor cultivation. The optimal harvesting time is September and October. The plants thrive in Mediterranean climate conditions, with plenty of sunlight and moderate humidity.
Therapeutic Properties
Dragon Fruit contains up to 25% THC if grown properly and collected after the buds reach full maturity. The strain also comes with 1% CBD, which is a therapeutically valuable cannabinoid making the weed variety suitable for many medical conditions. This weed’s consumption is usually associated with a feeling of euphoria and an uplifted feeling that culminates with a full-body relaxing effect.
Black Gorilla is popular among seasoned cannabis users due to its extra-high THC concentration. A careful grower can achieve 25-32% THC in the collected buds, which is pretty much for beginners. This strain’s chemical profile is associated with potent calming and relaxing properties; it is also used for anti-inflammatory effects and an ability to calm down pain. Some consumers also prefer Black Gorilla for stress management, but it’s not for rookie users.
Adverse Effects
Since Black Gorilla is a THC-rich strain, users sometimes experience dry mouth and skin dryness, dizziness, and headache due to overdosing. Other overdose symptoms are paranoia and elevated anxiety, which may strike inexperienced newbies.
Users of Dragon Fruit may also experience a dry mouth and get paranoid or dizzy when overdosing on this weed. Thus, moderate consumption is recommended.
Expected Yields
Dragon fruit is a high-yielding strain, and careful growers can expect to collect from 300g to 550g of harvest per plant outdoors. There’s little data on the exact yields from Black Gorilla plants, yet, experienced cultivators assure the growers of medium harvests.
Aroma and Flavor
Black Gorilla has a captivating mix of berry, diesel, and fruity notes mixed with herbal and sweet undertones. The aroma radiating from a lit bud contains sour and sweet shades, berries, and chocolate. There are also distinguishable earthy, diesel-like aromas in this strain’s aromatic mix.
Dragon Fruit, in its turn, is characterized by fruity and citrusy notes in the flavor, mixed with undertones of fruit, herbs, and spice.
Which One to Choose?
As you can see, even Indica strains may differ from one another and deliver various medicinal effects and growing experiences to users. These two varieties are alike in their genetics and cultivation peculiarities, but due to the presence of different Indica parents in their genetic makeup, they produce different effects and smell and taste differently. Thus, you may opt for Dragon Fruit if you opt for energizing effects and choose Black Gorilla if you’re a seasoned user with a tolerance to high THC levels.
This article was produced by Denys Svirepchuk, an expert in the cannabis industry writing for AskGrowers. Denys is actively researching the weed market to find the best picks for cultivators and users and improve user experiences with cannabis. He is also an avid researcher of cannabis-growing technology.
