Gelato strain: every version compared

Which Gelato should you grow?

Picking a Gelato is a question of room and timing: strength is high across every version, so choose on the rest.

Photoperiod or autoflower? Photoperiods give the full plant and the biggest listed yield (Kera Seeds, to 700 g/m²); they run on a timer across 56–65 days of bloom and list top THC of 23–27%. Autoflowers finish on their own clock from seed, from 56 days, and still list into the twenties. For a first grow, an auto takes the timing worry away.

How much headroom have you got? This is where the versions really split. The autos are listed at 100–120 cm; one photoperiod is listed at up to 330 cm. Read the height column before anything else and sort the table from the bottom up if space is tight.

Gelato photoperiod (feminized)

The photoperiod versions are the full Gelato: kept on 18/6 until you are ready, then switched to 12/12 to bloom, and the reward is dessert-scented flower. Flowering runs 56–65 days, with top listed THC 23–27%. Heights are listed at 100–330 cm and vary a lot between breeders.

Gelato autoflower

The Gelato autos keep the dessert character but take the calendar off your hands, finishing on their own clock with no switch to 12/12 to time. There are 4 autos here, and they keep the sweet, creamy Gelato character while trimming the plant down. Seed-to-harvest times run 56–70 days. Heights are listed at 100–120 cm, and listed THC on the autos still sits in the twenties, 20–26%. The autos cross in auto lines (Auto NL/Auto Critical, GSC Auto, Ruderalis) to set the clock without losing the flavour. If it is your first grow and you want Gelato's strength and dessert nose without a light schedule, start here.

How Gelato grows

Gelato is a dessert-line hybrid, and the versions differ most in how much plant you are taking on. Most sit in a manageable band (Fast Buds' auto is listed at 100 cm, Barney's feminized at 120), but Blimburn's Gelato Fast is the outlier, listed at 330 cm, with Kera Seeds' feminized next at 220 cm. Blimburn call it a genuinely tall plant and say so plainly: give it the height and manage it accordingly. Heights across the family run 100–330 cm, so this is a read-the-column-first strain. Blimburn also list airflow and steady conditions as part of the deal.

Female Seeds say their auto, listed at 60 days from seed and 120 cm, is a rewarding grow for one willing to feed the upper end of the range. They make the yield the headline, listed at 450 to 650 g/m², and say that attentive growing tells in the final weight: feed the upper end of the range and the plant meets the effort.

A few practical notes before you commit. Barney's call theirs a heavyweight producer given the space outdoors. And she finishes strong: Fast Buds rate their auto extremely potent and say to plan the cure accordingly. The whole family stays close to the sweet, creamy Gelato character. Give her height and air and keep that auto well fed. Fast Buds also note a top-three finish at Spannabis 2020 for theirs.

Where Gelato comes from

Gelato is a modern dessert-line name rather than an old landrace, and the catalogue is fairly consistent about its roots. The classic telling crosses Sunset Sherbet with Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies, the Sherbet lending the sweet, creamy character and the Cookies the depth, which makes Gelato a Cookies descendant through and through. Breeders vary the wording: Barney's name Blue Sunset Sherbert, and one version (Female Seeds) works from a Gelato #33 base, while the Fast versions and some autos start from Gelato itself. Breeders split her close to even. It is a young name, but a well-parented one. Each version's page shows the parentage in its breeder's own words.