Sweet Seeds: Spanish Feminised, XL Auto and F1 Fast Version Seeds

Start with the line, not the strain name. Every pack here falls into one of three camps, and picking the wrong camp is how people end up with a plant that flowers before it's big enough. Tropicanna Poison F1 Fast Version wraps flowering in 6-7 weeks indoors and still gives 450-600g/m², which tells you what "fast version" really means: a photoperiod on a diet, not an auto. If you would rather narrow the shelf down yourself, treat the Zamnesia Seedfinder as the filtering tool and set flowering time, height and yield before you start reading names.

Spanish Breeders With a Full Trophy Shelf

Sweet Seeds are Spanish breeders with a long habit of turning up at cups and leaving with something. S.A.D. S1 was picked in 1998 as the favourite plant of Valencia and took second at the Valencian cannabis cup. Cream Caramel Auto has been a serial winner on the Spanish cup circuit in its auto form, and the brand took first prize in the Best Indica category at the Spannabis Champions Cup 2017. The old guard is still here too, with S.A.D., Green Poison, Green Poison Auto, Big Devil XL Auto and Dark Devil Auto holding their own against anything else on our cannabis seeds shelf.

XL AUTO: Big Autos, Done in Eight Weeks

This is the line doing the heavy lifting these days. Sweet Mimosa XL Auto, Purple Punch OG XL Auto, Tropicanna Cherry XL Auto, Permanent Marker XL Auto, Super Boof XL Auto, Crystal Candy XL Auto, Sweet Zenzation XL Auto and Sweet Mandarine Zkittlez XL Auto all run the same brief: harvest around 8 weeks from sprouting, with yields you'd normally expect from a photoperiod. Orange Apricot Glue XL Auto is the one we'd hand a sceptic, 450-650g/m² indoors, up to 180g per plant outside, THC up to 25%, and a smell of sweet stone fruit with a spicy, citric edge under it. Watch out for the height spread though. That plant can finish anywhere from 55cm to 135cm depending on the pheno you get, so if you're growing in a cupboard, plan for the tall end. And autos don't give second chances: a rough first three weeks means a small plant that flowers anyway, no extra veg time to fix it. Mimosa Bruce Banner XL Auto sits in the same 50-130cm bracket with 18-26% THC if you want more of a head buzz. Each product page lists THC and CBD percentage ranges, and those figures are a far better guide to what you're buying than a flavour description is.

Fast Photoperiods, Full Photoperiods and the Mix Packs

F1 FAST VERSION covers Green Poison F1 Fast Version, Crystal Candy, Sweet Skunk, Gorilla Girl, Gorilla Sherbet, Pink Guava and Cream Caramel. Same control as any photoperiod, weeks knocked off the end. If you want the classic route with no shortcuts, the standard feminised photoperiods are Red Hot Muffin, Sweet Cherry Pie and Gelonade. And if you can't decide, Terp Explosion Mix, American Pie Mix and Delicious & Resinous Mix Auto put several genetics in one pack. Worth knowing: a fast version still won't out-yield a full-season monster outdoors, so if a 700g outdoor plant is the goal, a photoperiod like Super Skunk is the honest answer.

How These Genetics Handle a British Summer

Our summers are short and September is usually damp, which is exactly why the autos do so well here. Sweet Skunk Auto is ready 7 weeks from germination at 60-90cm, small enough for a balcony and quick enough to dodge the wet. Tropicanna Poison comes off outdoors from late August into early September, well ahead of the mould window. Dark Devil Auto takes about 8.5 weeks and finishes at 80-130cm, and roughly 80% of plants go dark reddish-purple with a fruity smell carrying incense and citrus, which is the main reason growers keep rating it. Germination and storage of dormant seeds is the unglamorous half of all this: keep spare packs cool, dark and dry, and give the ones you're starting steady warmth and moisture rather than fussing over them. If you want one recommendation to start with, make it Red Strawberry Banana Auto: 8 weeks, barely any maintenance, and a taste like the sweets you nicked from the corner shop as a kid.