Zittles Strain: Full Grow Guide for Zkittlez Cultivators

What Is the Zittles (Zkittlez) Strain?

If you're searching "zittles strain," you're almost certainly looking for Zkittlez — an indica-dominant hybrid created by crossing Grape Ape with Grapefruit, then backcrossed to an undisclosed third parent by the Dying Breed Seeds team. It won 1st place indica at the 2016 Emerald Cup and hasn't left the top shelf since. THC typically lands between 18–23%, with a terpene profile dominated by linalool, caryophyllene, and humulene — the combination that gives it that unmistakable candy-fruit nose. If you want to explore the full terpene breakdown, run it through the Terpene Explorer.

As a cultivator, what you need to know is this: Zkittlez grows compact and bushy, finishes fast, and rewards growers who nail environment and cure. It's not the most forgiving strain on feeding — but the payoff in bag appeal and aroma is substantial. On the Grow Guide platform, Zkittlez journals consistently show dense lateral branching that benefits enormously from early training.

Zkittlez Strain Grow Timeline Overview

Use the Grow Schedule Planner to map your exact flip date and harvest window — especially useful if you're running a perpetual cycle alongside Zkittlez.

Zittles Strain Environment: Temperature, VPD, and Humidity

Zkittlez doesn't tolerate sloppy environment management. Its dense bud structure — the thing that makes it look incredible in jars — is also what makes it a botrytis magnet if you're not dialled in.

• Veg temps: 21–26°C (70–79°F), day/night differential of 4–6°C
• Flower temps: Drop to 18–24°C. Cooler nights (18–20°C) in weeks 6–9 encourage anthocyanin expression and resin stacking
• VPD targets: 0.8–1.0 kPa in veg; 1.2–1.6 kPa in mid-flower; push to 1.6–1.8 kPa in the final two weeks
• RH: 55–65% in veg, 45–55% early flower, 40–45% from week 6 onward — non-negotiable with dense Zkittlez colas

Run oscillating fans at canopy level and an exhaust system sized for at least 1 full air exchange per minute. If your grow tent is 1.2m × 1.2m × 2m (2.88m³), you want a fan rated at minimum 300 m³/hour to account for duct resistance.

Lighting for Zkittlez: PPFD and Spectrum

Zkittlez is a medium-light strain — it won't dramatically outperform in extreme DLI setups the way some sativas do, but it absolutely responds to quality spectrum. Target these PPFD ranges:

• Seedling/early veg: 200–400 µmol/m²/s
• Mid-veg: 400–600 µmol/m²/s
• Flower: 700–900 µmol/m²/s (DLI target: 35–45 mol/m²/day at 12/12)
• Late flower (weeks 7–9): Some growers push to 1000 µmol/m²/s — watch leaf temp, keep below 28°C at canopy

A 600W HID or a quality LED in the 450–600W draw range covers a 1.2m × 1.2m footprint at the above numbers. Use the Grow Light Calculator to confirm your hanging height and coverage for your specific fixture.

Zkittlez Strain Nutrients and Feeding Schedule

This strain is legitimately sensitive to overfeeding. Start conservative and work up — you'll see a clean, dark green leaf in veg when the plant is happy. The moment tips start clawing or showing orange-bronze discolouration, you've already gone too far.

Vegetative Phase (Days 8–35)

• pH: 6.0–6.5 in soil, 5.8–6.2 in coco
• EC: Start at 0.8–1.0, build to 1.2–1.4 by end of veg
• Macro focus: High nitrogen (N-P-K ratio roughly 3-1-2)
• Feed every second watering in soil; daily in coco drain-to-waste

Flowering Phase (Days 36–98)

• Weeks 1–3 flower: Transition nutrients (reduce N, increase P/K). EC 1.4–1.6
• Weeks 4–6: Peak feeding. EC 1.6–1.8. Run a full PK boost at weeks 4–5
• Weeks 7–8: Begin taper. EC back to 1.0–1.2. Drop nitrogen to near zero
• Final 10–14 days: Plain pH'd water flush (or minimal base feed in coco)

If you spot yellowing, purpling leaf edges, or stunted growth and can't identify the cause, run your symptoms through the Nutrient Deficiency Identifier before reaching for a bottle. Zkittlez often shows magnesium deficiency mid-flower — supplement with 1–2 mL/L of Cal-Mag if you're running RO water or soft tap. For broader seedling nutrition strategy, see our guide on Best Nutrients for Cannabis Seedlings.

Zittles Strain Training: Getting the Most from the Canopy

Zkittlez's natural growth pattern is compact with strong apical dominance. Left untrained, you get one monster central cola surrounded by wispy popcorn — not ideal for yield or airflow.

Low-Stress Training (LST)

Start LST at day 14–18 of veg once you have 4–5 nodes. Tie the main stem down to 45° and secure lateral branches outward as they emerge. Re-tie every 3–4 days. By the time you flip to 12/12, you want a flat, even canopy with 6–10 equal-height bud sites. This alone can push yield 20–30% above an untrained plant of the same genetics.

Topping or FIMming

Topping at the 4th or 5th node in veg works well with Zkittlez — combine it with LST for maximum site count. Avoid topping after day 21 of flower (the stretch period). For a detailed comparison of these techniques, read the Fimming vs Topping Cannabis guide.

Defoliation

Run a moderate defoliation at day 1 of flower (remove large fan leaves blocking bud sites) and again at day 21. Don't strip the plant bare — Zkittlez uses those fan leaves as energy reserves in late flower. Remove no more than 25–30% of leaf mass per session.

Harvesting Zkittlez: Trichome Timing and Yield

Zkittlez typically finishes in 56–63 days of flower (8–9 weeks), though some phenos push to day 70. Don't go by pistil colour alone. Get a jeweller's loupe (30–60×) or a digital microscope and watch trichome heads directly:

• Clear trichomes: Too early. THC still building.
• Mostly cloudy/milky: Peak THC, energetic effect profile
• ~20% amber, 80% cloudy: Ideal harvest window for Zkittlez — full potency, relaxing body effect, terpenes fully developed
• >40% amber: Degraded THC, sedating, overripe terpene profile

Expected yield: 400–500g/m² indoors with a proper trained canopy and dialled environment. Outdoor plants in a full season can hit 500–600g per plant. Use the Yield Calculator to project your specific setup and work backwards to cost-per-gram with the Cost Per Gram Calculator.

Drying and Curing the Zittles Strain for Maximum Flavour

With Zkittlez, the cure is where you earn the strain's reputation. A rushed dry-and-jar produces adequate cannabis. A proper 5–6 week cure produces something you'd charge top shelf for.

Drying

Hang whole branches (or halved plants if space is tight) upside down in darkness. Conditions: 18–21°C, 45–55% RH, gentle indirect airflow. No fans blasting directly at buds. The drying period is 7–14 days — check daily from day 7. The "stem snap test" is your go/no-go: bend a small stem and it should snap cleanly rather than fold. If it bends, give it 2 more days.

Curing

• Trim and pack into wide-mouth glass mason jars, filled to about 75% capacity
• Store in a cool (18–20°C), dark location
• Weeks 1–2: Burp lids once daily for 5–10 minutes. If you smell ammonia, leave lids off for 2–3 hours and re-check humidity
• Weeks 3–8: Burp every 2–3 days. Terpene complexity develops substantially here — you'll notice the candy fruit notes intensify dramatically around week 4–5
• Zkittlez is worth a minimum 4-week cure. 6–8 weeks is better

Use the Dry & Cure Timer to track burping schedules and get alerts when milestones are due.

Troubleshooting Common Zkittlez Grow Problems

Botrytis (Bud Rot)

The #1 risk with this strain. Dense interior bud structure traps moisture. Prevention is the only real cure: keep RH below 45% from week 6, run a dehumidifier if needed, and inspect the inside of large colas weekly by gently parting them. If you find grey/brown fuzzy growth inside a cola, remove it immediately and discard — it spreads fast.

Nutrient Burn

Brownish, crispy leaf tips — usually nitrogen toxicity. Drop EC by 0.2–0.3 and flush with plain pH'd water for one feeding. Wait 3–4 days before resuming. Zkittlez will tell you it's unhappy with dark-clawed leaves before actual burn sets in — catch it early.

Magnesium Deficiency

Interveinal yellowing on mid-canopy leaves during weeks 4–6 of flower. Supplement with Epsom salt (magnesium sulphate) at 1g/L foliar spray or add Cal-Mag at 1–2 mL/L to your feed. This is especially common in coco and RO water setups.

Slow Flowering / Stretch

Zkittlez occasionally throws a sativa-leaning pheno that stretches hard in weeks 1–3 of flower. If you're seeing more than 60% height increase post-flip, supercrop (gently snap and bend) the tallest colas at week 2 to even the canopy. Avoid raising light height to compensate — you'll sacrifice PPFD at lower bud sites.

For those running a full grow journal on this strain, see our guide on how to keep a cannabis grow journal — documenting pheno variation across runs is the fastest way to dial in Zkittlez-specific quirks.

Growing Zkittlez: Soil vs. Coco

Based on Grow Guide platform data across 1,000 tracked grows, 63.2% of growers use soil as their primary medium — and for Zkittlez, that's a sensible choice for beginners to the strain. Soil provides a natural buffer against overfeeding, which matters given Zkittlez's nutrient sensitivity. Coco coir (used by about 14.9% of tracked growers) gives you faster growth rates and larger yields if you're experienced with daily watering and precise EC management, but there's less margin for error.

• Soil recommendation: A light, well-amended mix (30% perlite for drainage). Avoid hot soils with high pre-charged nutrient levels — Zkittlez doesn't need the extra N and will show toxicity symptoms early
• Coco recommendation: Run daily fertigations from week 2 onward, pH 5.8–6.0, and don't skip Cal-Mag supplementation from day one

References

1. Bedrocan & Hazekamp, A. (2016). Cannabis: From Cultivar to Chemovar II — A Metabolomics Approach to Cannabis Classification. Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research. Documents the role of terpene profiles (including linalool and caryophyllene) in cannabis strain differentiation. liebertpub.com
2. Chandra, S. et al. (2017). Cannabis cultivation: Methodological issues for obtaining medical-grade product. Epilepsy & Behavior. Covers environmental parameters including temperature, humidity, and light intensity for controlled indoor cannabis cultivation. sciencedirect.com
3. Hawley, D. et al. (2018). Nutrient Solution Concentration Affects Biomass, Anatomy, and Nutrient Content of Cannabis sativa. Journal of Horticultural Science & Biotechnology. Establishes EC and nutrient concentration effects on cannabis yield and quality — directly relevant to Zkittlez feeding protocols. tandfonline.com
4. Dosoky, N.S. & Setzer, W.N. (2018). Biological Activities and Safety of Citrus spp. Essential Oils. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. Referenced for limonene and linalool terpene activity, key components of the Zkittlez aroma profile. mdpi.com
5. Grow Guide Platform Data (2026). Internal analysis of 1,000 tracked grow journals. Findings cited: 73.3% indoor grows, 63.2% soil medium usage, 14.9% coco coir usage across all tracked cultivations. growguide.app