El Chapo OG Auto

Read El Chapo OG backwards from the harvest, with resin filling out towards 20% THC. Most of the final weight lands between weeks five and eight, when the 87/13 genetics stack calyxes quickly and the trichome cover goes from scattered to solid. Outdoors you want that stage falling in late August and early September while the light is still long, so count back to it from the first frost your own area usually sees rather than from a date on a packet.

Three stretches of bloom decide whether you reach the top of this strain's range. The rest is maintenance.

The first ten days of flower. What the plant does during the stretch sets canopy height, and canopy height sets how evenly the light lands. Expect 20-30%, which is manageable; stripping the lowest fans around day seven sends the energy up to the sites that will actually finish.

Weeks three to five. Myrcene production climbs through here, and it responds to a day-night temperature gap of 6-8°C. British autumn nights hand that to outdoor growers for free from September; indoors you have to build it, at roughly 25-26°C lights-on and 18-20°C lights-off. Bloom feed goes potassium-heavy around EC 1.6-1.8.

The last ten to fourteen days. Stop feeding and run pH-corrected water. Check trichomes daily under a 60x loupe — cut at 15-20% amber for the weight of effect this genetics is bought for. Outdoors that lands between late September and mid-October across most of Britain, and the weather forecast should get a vote.

Rated intermediate difficulty.

Growers report focused, calm as the defining characteristics and our own notes agree. At 20% THC this indica sits where dose control starts to matter. A single bowl through a vaporiser at 185°C gives a manageable physical ease with the head still working, which is what most people want at the end of a day. Push the dose and it moves firmly towards sedation — the reason it tends to become a winter evening cultivar rather than an all-year one. The Myrcene/Humulene pairing leaves earth and faint sweetness on the palate, with fruit at the end.

Best suited to quiet evenings, a film, recovery after exercise, and the hour before sleep.

Primary: Myrcene · Secondary: Humulene · Tertiary: Linalool. These three build an aroma that keeps moving through the cure. Fresh off the dry it leads with myrcene; after three or four weeks sealed in glass at 16-18°C the linalool underneath comes up and the whole thing gains a layer. Vaporising between 180°C and 195°C catches the widest span of them, since the lighter linalool molecules are the first thing heat destroys.

El Chapo OG suits growers with the basics in place. Understand pH, rough nutrient ratios and light cycles before you commit to it; it asks for competence rather than expertise. Autoflowering genetics take the light cycle out of the equation, which suits balcony growers, anyone working around British daylight hours, and anyone who wants the whole thing over quickly. The April to October season accommodates the bloom period comfortably for outdoor growers across the country.