Amnesia Zkittlez Auto Cannabis Strain Week-by-Week Guide
- 1. Grow specifications
- 2. Grow set up
- 3. Germination and seedling stage | week 1
- 4. Early veg | week 2
- 5. Mid veg | weeks 3-4
- 6. Transition (pre-flower) | week 5
- 7. Early flower | weeks 6-7
- 8. Mid flower (bulk phase) | weeks 8-9
- 9. Ripening and harvest | weeks 10+
- 10. The outcome
- 10. a. Amnesia zkittlez auto yield
- 10. b. Amnesia zkittlez auto smoke report
- 11. In conclusion
Amnesia Zkittlez Auto is a must-have for Sativa enthusiasts as this weed offers the perfect smoke for daytime consumption. The high comes on quickly, just after a hit or two, and leaves you full of energy and creativity. At the same time, everything may seem a little unreal as the experience is bordering on psychedelic, and besides the cerebral stimulation, you'll also get body relaxation, and for a couple of hours, you'll be walking on clouds.
The Zkittlez part of this hybrid isn't to be ignored either as you're likely to be charmed by this weed's flavor almost as much as by her high. Expect an intense fruity cocktail with an old-school spicy background – a very bold terpene profile worthy of the state-of-the-art nature of this new Fast Buds strain.
Read our Amnesia Zkittlez Auto week-by-week guide to learn how to best proceed to growing this autoflower, what the timeline is, what to expect from her, and how to get the best result cultivating her.
1. Grow Specifications
Amnesia Zkittlez Auto shows her genetic composition – 75% Sativa / 25% Indica – right from the start as she grows fast and gets very bushy while her main cola still towers above the rest of the branches. She tends to grow tall but not too tall – to about 120 cm (4 feet) if left untrained. However, this cultivar takes well even to high-stress training, so you won't have any problems keeping her low if you need to.
The plants may take as little as 9-10 weeks from seed to harvest to produce perfectly mature buds, and, paradoxically, such a short period is perfectly compatible with high yields – 450-600 gr/m2 (1.5 – 2 oz/ft2) indoors. Outdoor cultivation can be even more generous for you – with yields of 50-200 gr (2-7 oz) per plant.
The buds are of the highest quality – they exude an intensely sweet aroma of tropical fruit, and the taste of the smoke is exactly the same plus a strong spicy finish. With 24% THC, this isn't an innocent treat – you won't be able to make more than a couple of puffs before your mind gets shot to the stratosphere and gets a totally new perspective on your earthly life.
2. Grow Set Up
There's no shortage of Amnesia Zkittlez grow diaries online despite the fact that this is a new strain in the Fast Buds autoflower collection. We’ve picked four grow reports in which the gardeners’ levels of expertise ranged from none to very high, but the strain performed great in every case.
The common theme to most of these grows was the use of relatively weak grow lights, but the yields were generous nevertheless and just short of the gram-per-watt mark. The mediums that the growers used were either soil or coco coir – and this is exactly what most of our readers would choose, making our guide especially instructive.
| Grow Space | Light | Medium | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1 m2 | 105W LED | Soil |
| B | 2.44 m2 | 200W LED | Soil/Perlite |
| C | 0.66 m2 | 150W LED | Coco/Perlite |
| D | 0.36 m2 | 150W LED | Coco |
We’ve looked through many other grows too and can say that Amnesia Zkittlez Auto proved a versatile variety that can perform like the best of autoflowers in various environments and setups.
3. Germination And Seedling Stage | Week 1
The grow cycle of an autoflower starts with germination, and although this stage makes beginners especially nervous, it needn't be difficult. Reputable seed banks, including Fast Buds, sell fresh viable seeds that usually germinate within 24-48 hours and come up in another day or two after you've put them into the medium.
There are many effective germination methods, and there are three things in common among all of them – they all call for darkness, moisture, and warm temps. Hands down, the most popular technique is the paper-towel method.
After you seed has popped and the taproot has grown to about half an inch, plant it into the medium of your choice. It can be as simple as a mix of potting soil and perlite. There are potting soils out there specifically designed to grow cannabis, but you can also achieve satisfactory results with a generic mix bought at your local gardening center.
Just make sure it's loose enough and further amend it with at least 15% perlite. Perlite increases the aeration of the root zone, meaning that your plants can breathe oxygen even when the pot is fully saturated with water. The same result can be achieved in a 70/30 coco/perlite mix. When the seedling gets enough of both water and oxygen, it looks as perky as the Amnesia Zkittlez girl in the pic below.
If you have only grown photoperiod-dependent plants before, you most likely prefer to start them in smaller pots and transplant them into bigger ones when they have grown a few pairs of true leaves. That's convenient in many ways, e.g. it makes watering so much easier.
However, with autoflowers, it's also a risky method – if you botch the re-potting and shock the plant, you may stunt her enough so that she stays small throughout the vegetative stage. Then she'll start flowering and be also small at harvest – with a puny yield. So, only if you know what you’re doing, use a starter pot, such as a solo cup, and later transplant the seedling into the final container.
4. Early Veg | Week 2
The seedlings like warm and humid conditions, but starting from the second week, they're not so vulnerable anymore, so you can lower the RH from 70-80% to around 60% and the temps from 27-28°C to 25-26°C. And, of course, we're only talking about ideal conditions here – the acceptable temperature and humidity range for cannabis plants are much wider.
In the second week from seed, the vegetative stage begins, albeit very slowly at first. Most growers leave the seedling alone at this stage, allowing her to get stronger before any high- or low-stress manipulation.
Some gardeners go a different route – they begin to train their plants, usually, because they don't have too much vertical space. In the pic below, you can see that this grower decided to top his Amnesia Zkittlez early on, right above the first node.
The general recommendation is to not expose autoflowers to such high-stress training, but if you have some experience and the young plant is healthy and strong, most of the time she can take the procedure in stride. It's debatable whether this helps achieve higher yields or not (probably not), but many users simply have a not-too-tall grow tent, so training is the lesser evil for them.
We shall presently see that in 3 grows out of 4, Amnesia Zkittlez Auto became a large plant, so heavy training for this strain is more than justified.
5. Mid Veg | Weeks 3-4
When you cultivate autoflowers, pay extra attention to this stage as it's very short and every day counts. You may decrease the relative humidity to something like 50-55% and the temperature to around 25°C. The plant is mature enough now and can take this change in her environment like an adult.
In the third and fourth week from seed, autoflowers begin (and usually end) the active growth that seems like an explosion after a relatively slow start and is known as the vegetative phase. It's the time when new fan leaves and new branches grow seemingly overnight.
In week 4, the growth gets so fast that you’ll probably need to train every day or even use such advanced canopy management techniques as ScrOG.
The simple and reliable tie-down method can also do the trick, but it’s probably less effective for such potentially tall strains as Amnesia Zkittlez Auto.
Of course, at this point in the life cycle, any plant grown in soil, including autoflowers, would require more fertilizers than had been in the medium from the start. Plants at this stage are especially hungry for nitrogen (N). Phosphorus and potassium – which are the other two macronutrients – are of less importance now.
Generally, you'll really need only one line of nutrients to cover all the needs of your indoor cannabis. There are probably hundreds of different products on the market that offer one formula for veg and another for the flowering stage. Besides the correct ratios of macronutrients, they have all the essential micronutrients and trace elements for your weed to stay healthy and happy.
However, as you gain experience, you may start adding other supplements, both organic and inorganic, that boost the performance of the plants. For example, it's a very good idea to inoculate the medium with beneficial bacteria and fungi right from the start (as Grower A did). Just remember that these things aren't obligatory, so you can successfully grow weed in a simpler way.
There's probably one exception. We suggest always having a bottle of some Cal-Mag supplement at hand. The deficiencies of these two nutrients happen indoors with a frightening regularity.
6. Transition (Pre-Flower) | Week 5
By the beginning of the second month from seed, most autoflowers will start to transition to flowering. This event doesn't require anything from you as a grower. You may keep the same light schedule as before – the default option is 18/6 – and the rest of the conditions can also stay the same.
You may miss the moment when the first hairs (pistils) appear at the nodes along the branches. They are tiny, and to see them, you need to take a very close look. This inconspicuous new growth signals to you that your plant is female. What you won't miss is the start of the flowering proper.
It manifests in a radical change of how the tops look. The new leaves here will be much thinner and more yellow than before, and soon there will be also more female hairs growing among them (see the pics above and below).
It's about this time that you should change your feeding regimen to one that is more suitable for budding plants as they will need much more phosphorus and potassium (P and K) than nitrogen (N). Usually, this change in diet is as easy as switching one bottle for another.
By the way, never forget to monitor pH (unless you grow your weed organically) as for every nutrient there's a certain limited pH range within which this nutrient can be absorbed by roots. For soil grows, the correct range is about 6.0-6.5.
While nutrients are important, light is even more so. Make sure you give every bud site on your plant enough lighting by keeping the canopy level and preventing excessive stretching (as you see in the pics above and below).
7. Early Flower | Weeks 6-7
The start of flowering marks the time when it's best to lower the temperature by a degree or two, let's say to 23-24°C in an ideal scenario. As you can see in the table below, the situation was exactly the reverse in one of the grows – the temperatures climbed well above the optimal. Try to avoid that.
The downside of heat in your grow room is that it interferes with THC production and makes terpenes evaporate too fast, and if things really get out of hand, you may face other issues. E.g. in our experience, heat worsens calcium deficiency. In the pic below, this issue is not yet visible, but some of the lower leaves look magnesium deficient.
What happens in early flower comes as a surprise to many beginners as they see their plants grow even more vigorously than before and sometimes double or even triple in size over a short few weeks. Fortunately, it's seldom an issue with autos as they start to transition early when the are still small so you're unlikely to run out of vertical space with them. In the picture below, you can see an exception.
You may remember how small this Amnesia Zkittlez Auto was in veg -- when the grower took such pains to keep her close to the ground with low-stress training. We bet he was glad now. Otherwise, this big lanky girl would just rip his tent apart. Most of the time though when you spend so much effort training your auto, it will stay short and have a flat canopy.
Another (low-tech) way to control the size of your autoflower is simply planting it in a smaller container. When the root system has no chance of growing big, the above-ground part isn't likely to get big either. With a 6-gallon container though (like in the photo below), it's a different story.
8. Mid Flower (Bulk Phase) | Weeks 8-9
The initial stretch of the first few weeks of the flowering stage soon comes to an end, and the plant switches more of its energy to flowering – as buds form and start to fill out. However, this process is slower in dominant Sativas, such as Amnesia Zkittlez Auto. Anyway, you'll see the colas slowly take shape, get a layer of resin, and start to smell a bit (or a lot – it depends on genetics).
The sheer number of colas on such a bushy strain as Amnesia Zkittlez Auto and their size can seriously restrict airflow, so be sure to keep the branches well-spaced with training and to remove those fan leaves that prevent light penetration or free air movement inside the canopy. Hopefully, you have done it a couple of weeks earlier as now is not the best time to stress the plant with defoliation.
Sativa strains, including Amnesia Zkittlez Auto, have a bud structure that isn't particularly dense, but – as a compensation – they may become very fat. They just need more time for that. And if you give them enough time to reach the peak maturity, the yields will be spectacular.
Of course, building all that flower mass requires more water and food than ever, and you'll notice that your pots dry out sooner than before and that you have to fertigate more often. Especially, if you have chosen a not so big pot to begin with.
The stretch of Sativas may continue even at this point in the timeline, and you'll probably have to keep raising the light as the colas grow into them. Every LED has the shortest distance at which the tops don't get burned. Try to keep that distance. Below, you can see the height chart for all 4 grows. Btw, neither of the plants got too tall, but of course, it was the training that helped keep the height in check.
Again, try to keep the day temps nice and cool. Grower A failed to keep them under 80 and he had quite a few issues as a result. With too high temperatures, you may find that many leaves in the middle become dry, yellow, spotted, and distorted. It's usually diagnosed as calcium deficiency, but heat plays its part here too.
While environmental conditons are important for your marijuana's health, feeding your plants the right amount of nutrients and of the right kind is essential too. At this point, weed requires all the phosphorus and potassium (P and K) it can get. There are even special PK-boosters formulated for the late stages of flowering, but in most cases a simple flowering nutrient is more than enough. In the nute chart below, it's the PH Perfect Sensi Bloom Parts A & B, and the rest is optional.
Try to not overfeed your autoflowers as this can seriously affect their health and rate of growth. The general symptom of overfeeding is burnt leaf tips while too much nitrogen can manifest as a too deep shade of green of the leaves.
9. Ripening And Harvest | Weeks 10+
Toward the end of the grow cycle, comes the time when the plant doesn't change visibly, and beginner growers start to wonder whether or not it's time to harvest them. However, the internal chemistry within the plants still goes full steam – THC and other cannabinoids as well as terpenes still get produced. On the other hand, cannabis doesn't need so many nutrients now, and your job is to choose the right moment to stop feeding it altogether and flush the medium with pure water.
While you flush your autoflower, monitor the color of the trichomes (crystals) covering the calyces and leaves growing next to them. The right moment to harvest comes when you notice that all of the trichomes have changed their color from clear to milky. Some growers who like a stronger, deeper, and more sedating effects wait till some of the trichs further change their color to amber.
In hydroponic and coco grows, flushing takes no more than 1 week. In soil, you’ll need up to two weeks to achieve the cleanest possible product. Don’t think that stopping to feed your autoflowers means their buds will stop growing. Even on nothing but internal resources, your Amnesia Zkittlez Auto can pack much more weight.
As you give your Amnesia Zkittlez Auto nothing but pure water, it’ll start to cannibalize its internal resources. The outer sign of this is the fading of the leaves which starts on the lowest branches and quickly moves up. What happens internally is that the plant consumes all available nutrients inside the leaves and flowers – and chlorophyll too – so you’ll get a much cleaner and tastier smoke after harvest.
When you think the plant is ready to be chopped, maybe trim it first, by removing at least the biggest leaves – trimming is a hard job, and it's easier to do it when the plant is still in her pot. This is what Grower D did with his Amnesia Zkittlez.
10. The Outcome
As you can see in the graphic below, the results of an Amnesia Zkittlez grow depend not so much on your level of experience and growing conditions but on the training techniques you employ and on how big (or small) you allow your plant to grow. For Grower C, Amnesia Zkittlez Auto was just a small part of a larger SOG grow, and he restricted the size of this auto by using a smaller pot. As a result, his final haul was the smallest. With bigger pots and more room for the sideways growth, the plants got much bigger.
Amnesia Zkittlez Auto Yield
For Grower A, though the buds weren't very dense, they were so huge that the yield of this Amnesia Zkittlez was quite respectable at 89 g (3.14 oz) from one plant in a 2x2 grow tent and under just 100W of light. We'd say it was a remarkable result, considering the unfavorable environmental conditions.
Grower B is our old acquaintance (meaning we have seen a lot of his Fast Buds grows). He trains all autoflowers the same way – keeping them extremely close to the ground in veg. In this grow cycle it was worth it as his Amnesia Zkittlez grew big and bushy, took a long time to finish flowering and brought an amazing harvest of 191 grams (6.74 ounces) from just one plant.
For a plant grown under a 150W LED, the yield of the third Amnesia Zkittlez Auto was unbelievable at 205 g (26.56 oz) of bud in 12 weeks.
Grower D's Amnesia Zkittlez Auto was without a doubt a Sativa-leaning pheno with huge, bloated buds that weighed 147g (5.19 oz) dry.
Amnesia Zkittlez Auto Smoke Report
The smoke reviews for Amnesia Zkittlez Auto reveal a common theme of potency and diverse flavors. Users describe the strain as having a strong aroma with fruity, sweet, and citrus undertones. The taste is often praised for its delicious flavors, ranging from fruit and spices to melon, mango, and grapefruit. In terms of effects, the strain is known for its powerful and uplifting high, stimulating creativity and providing an energetic yet relaxed experience.
11. In Conclusion
Another great Sativa from the Fast Buds team, Amnesia Zkittlez Auto combines the best features of her parent strains. She's tall, has good yield potential, and isn't afraid of even high-stress training.
Every grower that we've been following in our guide employed some form of height control or other, so none of Amnesia Zkittlez autoflowers reached their size potential. Grower C's plant was a bit taller as he only low-stress trained her in veg. The other three chose to train the hell out of their plants. Grower B kept the branches tied down close to the ground throughout veg, growers A and D topped the main stalk and then low-stress trained the side branches to keep the canopy level. Grower D even applied a ScrOG net for a while but later deinstalled it. All these efforts paid as none of the Amnesia Zkittlez plants grew inconveniently tall. And this despite their clear Sativa nature.
Amnesia Zkittlez Auto also proved to be a heat-resistant variety. Grower A failed to bring down the day and night temperatures to an acceptabe level in his small grow space, but the plant endured and performed very well.
To resume, as a cultivar this strain is everything you may expect from a stellar modern variety. The high is also a godsend for a Sativa enthusiast – it's so upbeat and functional – and you'll love the smoke's tropical fruity character. In short, this weed strain is something that you should try at least once. Happy growing!
