Durban Poison Auto

Durban Poison carries limonene as its lead note: citrus with bitterness behind it, closer to marmalade peel than to lemonade. Pinene sits beneath it and shows up second, clean and resinous, cutting through. The plant tests at 17% THC across a 50/90 split, though what decides whether any of this reaches the jar is the cure, not the seed.

Growing Durban Poison for terpene expression and growing it for weight are not the same project, and it is worth deciding which one you are on. The Limonene/Pinene/Terpinolene profile does its best work in living soil, where the biology produces compounds a bottle does not contain. Good peat-free compost and worm castings are available in any garden centre here, which makes that approach far less specialist than it sounds.

Stop foliar spraying after the second week of bloom. Anything that lands on a developing trichome is still there at harvest and is tasted rather than seen. In the last three weeks the night temperature decides which terpenes lead: held at 16-18°C the limonene comes forward, while a warmer finish protects the lighter terpinolene notes.

Then the cure, which is where Irish growers lose most of what they built. A ten to fourteen day hang wants 17°C and something near 58% humidity, and the ambient air here will not supply either for most of the year — a closed room and a small dehumidifier will. Into glass afterwards, burped twice daily for a fortnight. The pinene layer arrives somewhere in weeks three and four, not before.

Flowering: 9-10 weeks seed to harvest. Indoor yield: 450-550 g/m2. Outdoor yield: 600-700 g/plant. Plant height: 60-90 cm. Rated medium difficulty.

Durban Poison arrives in order. The first draw at 17% THC gives citrus with a bitter edge that lifts off the palate. The energetic, happy, uplifted character follows in minutes, as attention sharpening. Colour and sound both read busier, and conversation goes further afield than it otherwise would. It holds two to three hours without a spike. Pinene underneath contributes an alertness that keeps it crisp.

Primary: Limonene · Secondary: Pinene · Tertiary: Terpinolene. Temperature decides how much of this profile survives. Low vaporisation at 180-188°C keeps pinene and terpinolene audible over the limonene; run it hotter, or burn it, and all three collapse into one note that is pleasant enough and tells you nothing.

Who does well with Durban Poison? Back-garden and balcony growers in Dublin, Cork and Galway. Anyone who wants a crop dry and put away before the autumn closes in. Indoor growers short of headroom. The autoflowering genetics run to their own clock, so there is no schedule to manage and no anxiety about light leaks. Rated medium, which means a moderate learning curve that rewards attention without needing specialist kit.