Skunk Auto

Germination and early veg, days 1-14. Skunk seeds generally crack inside 48 hours on damp kitchen roll and break the surface around day three. Early growth came in squat and willing — broad seed leaves, then the wide dark fans the indica side is known for. Four nodes by day 14 with the internodes already tight. Damping off is rare around 70% relative humidity, which is also roughly what an unheated British room sits at in spring.

Veg, weeks 3-6. Side branching took off after a top at the fourth node. The plant held a 60cm square by week five and stayed under 40cm tall, which is the shape you want in the small tents most people actually own.

Bloom, weeks 1-8. This is where the 65/35 balance in Skunk showed itself. The linalool came up in week three and kept building; trichome cover was obvious to the naked eye from week five. Indoor yield: 250-300 g/m2. Height: 90-120 cm. THC testing at 22%. Rated intermediate.

Mid-bloom, weeks 4-6. The change came quickly. Sites that were loose and wispy at week three closed into defined colas. Density went up almost daily; by week five a developing bud squeezed like a firm rubber ball. Fan leaves came off at the start of week four to move air through the bottom of the canopy, which mattered — the room sat around 55% humidity through a British autumn and dense flower at that density does not forgive still air.

Ripening, weeks 6-8. Feeding dropped to plain water for the last ten days. The linalool got strong enough that carbon filtration stopped being optional in a terraced house. Trichomes ran clear to milky across the final fortnight, amber showing on sugar leaves first. Around 15% amber on the calyxes is a common place to stop.

Drying and curing. Whole plant hung in the dark at 17°C and 58% humidity for twelve days — both numbers held by a dehumidifier, because an October room in this country will not hold either on its own. Stems snapped rather than bent, which is the test worth trusting. Four weeks in glass followed, burped twice daily for the first fortnight and once daily after. Final weight matched the 250-300 g/m2 figure. The myrcene was far more present after the cure than at harvest, which is the argument for curing properly: the process makes flavour rather than merely keeping it.

Flowering: 55 days. Indoor yield: 250-300 g/m2. Outdoor yield: 550-600 g/plant. Plant height: 90-120 cm. Rated intermediate difficulty. Regular seeds with autoflowering genetics.

Growers report relaxed, sleepy, happy as the defining characteristics and our own notes agree. At 22% 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 Linalool/Myrcene pairing leaves a finish that keeps changing across a session.

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

Primary: Linalool · Secondary: Myrcene · Tertiary: Caryophyllene. This combination turns up often in cultivars that win things, and it is usually the one growers comment on when a jar is opened for the first time after curing. Linalool anchors the aroma, myrcene occupies the middle, and caryophyllene sits behind both — which is the part that separates this strain from others sharing its primary terpene.

Skunk 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 a bloom of 55 days comfortably for outdoor growers across the country.