Barney’s Farm Gorilla Z NFT Grow Journal

Hello, hello, hello to everyone reading my grow journal! This time, I’ll be covering my experience growing Gorilla Z from Barney’s Farm. I’ve harvested some Gorilla strains before, and I’m also a huge Barney’s Farm fan, as they never disappoint in showing the best possible quality and consistency every time I grow their seeds. As you’ll see, Gorilla Z was no exception to the rule!

I had 5 seeds of Gorilla Z which I grew using a Nutrient Film Technique – a type of a hydroponic setup where the roots are submerged into a thin layer of nutrient solution (I change the water every 7 days). I like this method because:

1. Plants seem to grow bigger, faster, and stronger
2. I can observe the roots and spot problems with the root system really quickly
3. It’s one of the easiest hydroponic setups to have at home

As for the rest of the setup, for the vegetative stage, I used a single 250W FL light, while during flowering, I used a much more powerful 600W HID lamp.

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Gorilla Z From Seed To Harvest: Vegetative Stage

The first 4 weeks of this Gorilla Z grow report covers the vegetative stage – pretty short considering it’s a full-size photoperiod strain.

Week 1

As it has always been with Barney’s Farm seeds, all 5 of my Gorilla Z nuts popped! I germinated them in pre-soaked rockwool and marked every seedling, as I always do, to navigate my garden more easily. I didn’t want my seedlings to be leggy, so I gave them 20 hours of light daily. By the end of the first week, they were all looking healthy at around 5cm (2in) tall.

Week 2

Week 2 and the babies kept growing steadily. With my plants, I always start air pruning their roots early, so I did the same with Gorilla Z seedlings. In the second week, I saw roots coming out of the rockwool and pruned them to help the plants develop a stronger root system. The temperature in the grow room stayed at around 25C (77F), which together with my 20/4 light schedule makes the rockwool dry out pretty quickly. By the end of week 2, I didn’t hurry to water the plants, as I wanted the roots to show even more for pruning. The seedlings had almost doubled in size, with all being around 7-10cm (3-4in) tall.

Week 3

Now, I started dipping the cubes in a weak Formulex solution every couple of days, as I thought they were ready for feeding.

The seedlings were now around 15cm (6in) tall and looking healthy. However, I spotted a weird-looking guy in the bunch that almost looked like two plants in one, so I pinched the top of it. By the end of week 3, there was abundant root growth thanks to the pruning – just look at that beautiful young root system! I also changed the light schedule to 18/6.

Week 4

By week 4, the tallest guy had now reached 25cm (10in) in height, which I was happy with.

This week, I let the humidity go up from 50% to 65%, but kept the temperature at 25C (77F). Another big event of the week is that I FIMmed 4 plants that I hadn’t pinched yet.

I also started my main feeding schedule with:

• Canna Aqua Vega 1.5ml/l

This was the last week in veg – the following week, I switched my light schedule from 18/6 to 12/12.

Gorilla Z From Seed To Harvest: Flowering Stage

The flowering stage took around 9 weeks after the switch to 12/12. Here’s how Gorilla Z performed during flowering.

Weeks 5-6

I didn’t wait 7 days from fimming, as these plants were just growing too fast, so I had to do the switch 2 days afterward. However, the plants looked strong and the roots white and healthy, so I didn’t think there would be any problem with the earlier switch.

The thing that made keeping this Gorilla Z grow journal exciting was following the speedy growth of the plants in the flowering stage. In the first two weeks of flowering, Gorilla Z added 10-12cm to its height every 3 days, so after the second week of flowering, my plants doubled their veg size! By the end of week 6, the plants were 80cm (31in) tall – I had to place the lamp higher, which I luckily had enough space for.

The nutrient schedule during weeks 5 and 6 was as follows:

• Canna Aqua Flores A 1.5ml/l
• Canna Aqua Flores B 1.5ml/l

It’s still wasn’t a full-strength feed, but as soon as I saw signs of bud development, I planned to switch to nutrients for blooming.

Week 7

During week 7, I was still waiting for the flowers to appear. while growing Gorilla Z and keeping this grow journal, I noticed that these plants had a lot of internodal spaces. I honestly don’t know if that’s a trait of the strain itself or because my light was now so high.

Anyway, I also decided to give these plants more space, so I spread three out a 5ft tray and put the remaining two on a 4ft tray. That made maintenance much easier, and hopefully increased the light intake and aeration too.

The nutrient schedule during week 7 remained the same:

• Canna Aqua Flores A 1.5ml/l
• Canna Aqua Flores B 1.5ml/l

Week 8

These trees just wouldn’t stop growing! By week 8, they were already 144cm (5ft) tall! I was afraid it won’t stop, so I applied some HST techniques, pinching and bending the top parts.

I could now see the buds starting to form, so I added more nutrients to the solution:

• Canna Aqua Flores A 1.7ml/l
• Canna Aqua Flores B 1.7ml/l
• CANNAZYM 25ml/l

Week 9

This was getting ridiculous, because this Gorilla Z had now outgrown a real gorilla, which I didn’t expect when starting my grow diary! The plants were now 151cm (4’11in) tall, and again, I was glad I still had enough space to fit these giants. The room looked a mess, however. A good thing though is that these plants weren’t smelly at all, which I personally like.

They seemed to be taking the feed really well, so I upped the dose:

• Canna Aqua Flores A 2.4ml/l
• Canna Aqua Flores B 2.4ml/l
• CANNAZYM 25ml/l
• Canna Boost Accelerator 2ml/l

Weeks 10-11

As you can see, it was impossible to take a good picture of these monsters! It was really crowded in the room now, and I hoped that wouldn’t give me humidity/molding problems. Next time I’m growing Gorilla Z, I’m definitely going to start to train them earlier.

These weeks, I used the following nutrients:

• Canna Aqua Flores A 3ml/l
• Canna Aqua Flores B 3ml/l
• CANNAZYM 25ml/l
• Canna Boost Accelerator 1.5ml/l

Also, now that the buds were much better developed, Gorilla Z smelled a damn lot! However, the smell was pleasant and kind of sweet.

Weeks 12-13

For the last couple of weeks of flowering, I started flushing with pH-ed water (pH 6). I was in love with these plants! The buds were beautiful, frosty, and rock-hard! The smell was also irresistible – I couldn’t wait to try some,

Gorilla Z Grow Journal: Post-Harvest Update

I harvested my 5 Gorilla Z plants in several steps, because while some of them were ready, others still needed some more time to mature. So first, I took down 2 plants, then a couple of days later 2 more, and finally the last one. Each of them yielded around 150g (5oz) of dry bud, which I was really happy about! The total weight was 700g (25oz). This means the total of 600W of light converted to 700g, which makes more than a gram per watt – an excellent result!

As for the smoking experience, I still needed to finish drying and curing to get a full impression. Drying Gorilla Z takes around 2 weeks – that’s how dense the buds are! I’ve tried smoking some from different plants before, and to my surprise, they’re all a little different in flavor and effect, which I like, as it makes my stash more diverse. They’re all definitely fruity and very pungent, with a happy, giggly high. I’ve lab-tested some buds, and the results show 24.3% THC.

All in all, this is a great strain! It was a huge pleasure growing Gorilla Z and documenting my experience in this grow report – I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

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