Silverback Gorilla Auto

Silverback Gorilla carries caryophyllene as its lead note: peppercorn and warm timber, dry rather than sweet, catching slightly at the back of the throat. Myrcene sits beneath it and shows up second, adding weight and body underneath. The plant tests at 20% THC across a 74/26 split, though what decides whether any of this reaches the jar is the cure, not the seed.

Growing Silverback Gorilla for terpene expression and growing it for weight are not the same project, and it is worth deciding which one you are on. The Caryophyllene/Myrcene/Bisabolol 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 caryophyllene comes forward, while a warmer finish protects the lighter bisabolol 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 myrcene layer arrives somewhere in weeks three and four, not before.

Flowering: 50-60 days. Indoor yield: up to 300 g/m2. Outdoor yield: up to 300 g/plant. Plant height: 90-120 cm. Medium. Rated easy difficulty.

Silverback Gorilla arrives in order. The first draw at 20% THC gives peppercorn heat that lands at the back of the throat. The relaxed, sleepy, happy character follows in minutes, as weight behind the eyes that works down through the shoulders. By a quarter of an hour it reads as physical stillness rather than sedation — a strong disinclination to stand up. Two to three hours at a sensible dose. Myrcene underneath contributes depth beneath the rest.

Primary: Caryophyllene · Secondary: Myrcene · Tertiary: Bisabolol. This is a combination that turns up repeatedly in cultivars people rate, and it is usually what gets commented on when a jar is opened for the first time after a proper cure. Caryophyllene anchors it, myrcene holds the middle, and bisabolol sits behind both — the last of those being what separates this from other strains leading on the same terpene.

Who does well with Silverback Gorilla? 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 easy, which means a moderate learning curve that rewards attention without needing specialist kit.