Pineapple Express strain: every version compared

Which Pineapple Express should you grow?

The Pineapple Express choice turns on room and timing.

Photoperiod or autoflower? Photoperiods give the full plant, the biggest listed yield (600–700 g/m²) and the higher listed THC, 18–25%, run on a timer across 60–65 days of bloom. Autoflowers finish on their own clock from seed, 60–70 days, at a gentler 14–20%, so they trade a little strength for simplicity. For a first grow, an auto takes the timing worry away.

How much headroom have you got? The versions stay manageable. The autos are listed at 110 cm, the photoperiods at 100–150 cm. Sort the table from the bottom up if space is tight.

Pineapple Express photoperiod (feminized)

The photoperiod versions are the full Pineapple Express: grown on a light schedule, 18 hours a day in veg and 12 to flower, and the reward is resinous, tropical-scented flower. Flowering runs 60–65 days, with listed THC 18–25%. Heights are listed at 100–150 cm.

Pineapple Express autoflower

Pineapple Express in autoflower form is the quick, low-fuss option: it finishes on age, with no light schedule to run alongside its tropical vigour. There are 3 autos here, and they keep the sweet, tropical character. Seed-to-harvest times run 60–70 days. They are listed at 110 cm. Listed THC on the autos is the gentler end of the family, 14–20% against 18–25% on the photoperiods, so they trade a little strength for the simplicity. Ruderalis sets the clock in G13's and Fast Buds' autos, both built on Trainwreck and Hawaiian lines; Barney's cross a Pineapple Chunk with a Super Auto line. For a first grower who wants the tropical nose without a light schedule, this is the section to read first.

How Pineapple Express grows

Pineapple Express is a vigorous, tropical hybrid, and the versions split between tidy and tall. G13 Labs say their auto performs notably well in small spaces, while Barney's feminized is listed at 140 cm and World Wide Cultivars' at 150. Fast Buds' auto is listed at 110 cm. The shortest, a feminized, is listed at 100 cm. Heights across the family run 100–150 cm, so match the version to your ceiling before anything else.

G13 advise adding about a third part coconut fibre to the soil to improve its ventilation. They pair it with a warning that the yield swings widely and depends heavily on the conditions you give her. So, on their account, the return follows the conditions you give her. They add that the vigour suggests a plant that rewards a little training.

Resin is the finish to prepare for. Fast Buds make much of how big and fast theirs grows for an auto and describe heavily resinous, trichome-covered flower. Barney's say the resin rewards clean tools, so keep your scissors clean through the trim. The photoperiods run from 60 to 65 days in flower and the autos from 60 to 70 days from seed, so every version is done within ten weeks. Give her a free-draining pot, a little training early and space for the taller cuts to stretch.

Where Pineapple Express comes from

Pineapple Express is a named cross with a looser pedigree than its fame implies, and the breeders do not fully agree on how it was built. Most tellings centre on Trainwreck crossed with Hawaiian genetics; Barney's Farm say the islands supply the tropical character and Trainwreck the potency and punch. G13 Labs' feminized departs from that, listed as Big Bud crossed with Hawaiian Skunk, and the autos have their own story, told in the autoflower section. The name is shared with the film and with the weather system that carries Hawaiian moisture to the American coast. Breeders split her both ways, from 40/60 to 70/30. Each version's page keeps its breeder's lineage, Big Bud or Trainwreck, as written.