Growing and Comparing 2 Heavyweights from Sweet Seeds®

I recently received two packets of autoflowering seeds from the Sweet Seeds®’ genetic collection. The 7th Generation autoflowering Skywalker OG Runtz XL Auto® (SWS97) and the delicious Purple Punch OG XL Auto® (SWS96), a strain that I already knew to some extent, as I had the opportunity to grow the photoperiod-dependent version last year with outstanding results.

Very excited with this new adventure, I prepared my small indoor tent (60x60x120 cm) and decided to do two runs this time. I had the 3+1 seed packets from Sweet Seeds®. So, with 4 seeds from each strain I preferred to have less plants but with more space to grow and spread roots, instead of having 8 plants in such small grow tent. Like this I could use bigger pots, in this case 4 round 18 litre pots.

In fact, I was told that both strains featured the same structure and harvest time (around 8 weeks from germination), so I actually suppose they would grow well together indoors. I even checked the Sweet Seeds®’ 2022 catalog to confirm this and they are also both mainly Indica, while the expected THC content is basically the same. So, they could grow well together, but this time I wanted something different and it seemed interesting to grow each strain at a time and compare them this way, because all the grow parameters were the same.

A Very Good Start

I started with Skywalker OG Runtz XL Auto®. The 4 seeds sprouted in less than 72 hours and were directly placed in the final pots. With careful waterings in the first few weeks, avoiding to get the soil mix too wet at all cost. It’s important to water with just a bit of water close to the stem in the beginning and then increase the amount of water little by little as the plant spreads the roots.

The vegetative stage was a joy to watch. The 4 plants developed with impressive vigor and compact structure, with many side branches. This was a winter experience and temperatures were really low, so I decided to use a 250w MH lamp for the first 15 days and after that I used 400w HPS. Which may seem too much for such a tiny grow space, but with low outdoor temperatures and a good RVK extractor, it turns out to be very easy to manage.

Between day 25 and day 30 from germination, all the plants started to produce pistils and one week later the pistils crowded all together to give shape to the flowers. Luckily the plants grew to the sides more then vertically, so I was able to leave them grow freely. They all ranged from 45 to 50 cm, which leaves me with another 20 cm for the pot, 20 cm for the bulb and reflector and about 30 cm of distance between the bulb and the top flowers.

It was only by the 37th day from germination that I started feeding them with flowering fertilizer. In this case, I added a small dose of vegetative fertilizer as two of the plants seemed to start yellowing some lower leaves too soon for my criteria. As the soil mix I used is rich in nutrients and I prepared the pots with different layers of soil (richer in the lower areas of the pot, where the roots reach a bit later), they enjoyed their first month of life with just pure water with a pH of 6,7.

Pure Resinous Dankness

About one week later, at day 45 from germination, the aromas of Skywalker OG Runtz XL Auto® started to invade the room. At this point they were given the third and last dose of flowering fertilizer, as harvest was expected no more than 10 to 15 days later. In the last two weeks the plants showed all their potential, turning the small flowers into large compact buds, totally covered in aromatic resin.

In my opinion, three of the four plants were ready to harvest at day 57 from germination. But as I prefer to harvest a few days later, to get a more physically relaxing effect, and as one of the plants actually needed some extra days, I ended up harvesting at day 62 from germination. Which is very good taking in consideration the end result in terms of yield and quality.

At the time of harvest the aromas and flavours were a combination of sweet, fruity tones, with earthy and spicy shades of blue cypress. Overall, truly reminiscent of the aromas we are used to find in the Diesel and OG Kush families, but with a sweeter undertone. The appearance and texture of the dried flowers, along with the presence of large headed trichomes, confirm what we can read in the Sweet Seeds®’ catalog: Skywalker OG Runtz XL Auto® is a perfect strain for the extraction of resin and concentrates.

As all the flowers were as close as possible to the light, which was potent for such a small area, while the pots were also quite big, the total harvest (dry) was of 233 grams, which is about 58 grams per plant. It’s more than enough for my personal use, so it fulfilled the expectations in production and totally satisfied me in regards of quality and type of effect. With Skywalker OG Runtz XL Auto® we get a relaxing sensation mixed with creativity and motivation to do things. Could it be any better? Well, keep reading to know how Purple Punch OG XL Auto® performed under the same conditions…

Time For Purple Punch OG XL Auto®

A few days before harvesting my four Skywalker OG Runtz XL Auto® plants, I threw the four seeds of Purple Punch OG XL Auto® into wet paper towels inside an hermetically closed plastic box, which I opened every 12 hours to air out. So, the day after harvest, the new plants arrived to the tent, with exactly the same conditions of the previous group of plants: same soil mix, pots, lights, extraction, air circulation and even approximately the same temperatures the other group had 2 months earlier.

The vegetative stage was quite similar to the previous group. They developed very well and reached to the 25th day from germination with basically the same size of the other plants. Maybe less bushy, which only became a problem between day 30 and day 40 from germination, as during stretch the four Purple Punch OG XL Auto® plants grew a bit more (vertically) than the four Skywalker OG Runtz XL Auto®.

It was just a bit, like 6-8 cm more, but in such a small tent it makes a big difference, so with this strain I had to intervene. To lower the structure of autoflowering plants, vertically, I prefer to do some Low Stress Training (LST). And it was solved in only one session of LST, by lowering the taller branches in about 10 cm. Luckily they stopped stretching a few days after and remained controlled in height.

Then, they were fed with the same doses of fertilizers and by the 59th day after germination the four plants presented ideal maturity for harvest. At this point they delivered a deliciously sweet, complex aroma, with strong, spicy tones of OG Kush. Two of the plants ended up with gorgeous reddish tones, from the Grand Daddy Purple ancestry. The effect is intense and relaxing. The final yield (dry) was 245 grams, just slightly more than the previous run.

Final Conclusion

Growing the two strains, one at a time, with exactly the same conditions, was a very interesting experience that I will probably repeat often. Although these two strains are very similar in structure, yield and harvest time, there were small differences that I could appreciate. But at the end of the day, any of the two is a perfect choice if you like it fast, productive and as sweet as it gets, from Sweet Seeds®.