Gorilla

As an organic enthusiast, l will choose to feed only water until the flowering period, where I will apply an organic compost tea. After germinating the seeds overnight in a glass of water and kept in a dark cupboard, the next day I was happy to see that my one seed had sprouted. There was a healthy white tap root and a few hours later, the seed was planted into my growing medium. This particular medium is heavily treated with beneficial microbes and fungi, so the need to apply liquid nutrients is not necessary. Once the tap root had made contact with the seed, the micro-organism will attached themselves to the root and begging a long term partnership with the root zone and surrounding growing medium. Whenever testing a new strain for commercial reasons or for breeding projects, I personally like to feed only water and create an organic substrate that requires little maintenance and will return the best results. When the seedling sprouted, the first thing that could be noticed was the thick white stem, similar to a bean sprout in appearance.

The first leaves grow with a dark green, healthy glow and by the time she has her first true leaves, she is around 2 inches tall. After the second set of leaves grow, here is when I decide to pinch the plant out as my overall goal is to have a plant that is shorter, and wider in structure, allowing me to train the canopy as I desire. After the first 7 days of growth, I foliar spray the plant as she recovers from the removal of the crown shoot and grows 2 shoots in return. Now over the next few weeks I will patiently wait for the structure to become more bushy as I begin to train the axillary shoots to grow outwards. Basically this is a form of low stress training and the Gorilla is an excellent variety for L.S.T and topping. The growth structure is more sativa dominant in appearance with sharp bladed fan leaves with a thin width. The stem has become quite thick and woody after the 21 day mark and now this plant has a solid feel and look to her. A height of 4 inches and the aroma of the plant when smelling under the leaves and rubbing the stems reveals a pungent, gassy, earthy musk that is a good indicator this lady will have a serious strong body when flowering.

After day 30, the plants have grown up very quickly so decide to tie my plants down further to open up the spacing between the main branches. I also take this opportunity to prune all of the lowest growth from stems to fan leaves. This not only improves the spacing and airflow around the canopy, it also converts all of the new growing energy to the remaining crown shoots. From this point on, vegging my plants for a further 3 weeks and allowing a further prune and tie down before flowering will really bring out the best in this plant, in terms of structure, vigour and overall production. Feeding the plants only water, the Gorilla is a big eater and is growing new, lush green growth all the time. The leaves are now more narrow and longer than when first growing, and under the SANlight LED, she is really thriving and pointing her leaves to the sky at all times of the day. So far looks wise after pinching and pruning, the Gorilla is fast growing plant with thick stems and branches. I have even noticed resin forming on the newest growing leaves which is a very impressive trait especially during the growing stage. After day 40, she is ready to be flowered in the tent a long side the other strains that I have growing in there. Her height now is close to 12 inches tall with strong side branches all around. A wonderful strain for people who like to train their plants, also for anyone who does not have a lot of height and requires short, stocky plants.

The Flowering Stage

The plants will be left to grow from this point on without any further pruning. I will feed only water for the next 2 weeks until the stretching phase has ended. After the first 7 days of 12/12, the plants are still looking very happy with leaves pointing upwards to the sky praying, and there is an explosion of pre-flowers. Due to the amount of training that was performed during the growing period, there should be very little stretch and the plants will focus all of their energy into the top parts. The aroma of the plants is still earthy with a background of fuel and glue. After feeding every few days and when the plants need it, two weeks in and the plants are flourishing with pre flowers at every point. Over the next few weeks is when this lady will begin to pack on more structure and fill out with pudding sites. The internodal spacing is very short and this plant is perfectly suited for growers who prefer small sized plants, due to circumstances and practicality.

After day 21, the stretching phase seems to have ended at 20.5 inches with multiple tops. This is the total height from the base of the main trunk to the tallest point of the canopy. If you were to leave this strain untrained she will grow much taller yet when trained does a great job of staying low and wide. There is a strong presence of trichomes that are growing on all of the new flowering sites. The buds grow between every internode that are all clustered together quite tightly despite the plant training. The once smaller side branches have now become thick, hardwood which indicates that this variety is a big feeder and has a tough resistance to any environment. After the fifth week, she is becoming seriously stacked and is easily the biggest producer in the tent amongst my other plants. Her resin profile is heavy and as she glistens white and silver, the mixture of purple, orange and pink hues as she flowers is certainly a sight to see.

The buds are beginning to fatten up and as I feed a BIOtabs compost tea every 3-4 days, the Gorilla is really taking shape now and the vuds are very thick and dense. The aroma of the flowers up close is pungent, very earthy and lightly gassy. One thing I must say is that I am impressed by the resin profile of this strain and how abundant the trichomes are as we enter the last part of the flowering stage. This strain will be taken to a total of 60 days, meaning I shall start to feed only water as we get close to day 40 and despite my plants being totally organic, for the sake of pushing the plants to their full potential and to use up any dissolved minerals and salts left behind over time.

After 50 days, the calyx are stacked and swelling up very nicely and the pistils are fading to a mixture of maroon and dark red. There are so many smaller leaves surrounding the buds which will make Gorilla ideal for collecting quality trim material for making isolator with, as the buds are drying out. The flowers are dense and after a squeeze, the greasy nugs reveal a dank, musky fragrance that smells pungent and potent at the same time. The plants are now flowering under 430w of SANlight LED and have reached the eighth week mark. The plants look ready to harvest in my opinion, however I shall let the plants finish up and truly ripen over the next week and allow the calendar to extend by four more days. Trimming will be quite easy and as their is such an abundance of frosty buds, it may take some extra time to really clean these nugs up professionally..

My Conclusion On Dinafem Gorilla

After growing this femenised strain, I have written a short list of attributes that I feel this strain represents. • Light hungry strain • Thick hardwood stems • Vigorous growth • Pungent earthy aroma • Big feeder • Excellent for L.S.T / Scrog • Long fan leaves with thin fingers • Grows dark green • Very large producer