Cannabis Strain Comparison Tool
Put two to four cultivarsin one table β yield, THC, difficulty, flowering time, and where each one actually belongs. Every figure comes from the strainβs own listing.
Choose What to Line Up
The Quick Answers
Heaviest?
Amnesia Haze
600β650 g/mΒ² indoors, breeder figure
Easiest?
Northern Lights
Short, quick, hard to upset
Strongest?
Gorilla Glue #4 Auto
Listed at 28%
Quickest?
Wedding Cake
55β60 days in flower
What This Tool Puts Side by Side
Pick two to four out of the catalogue and the figures line up in one table: what each is listed to yield, its stated THC, how long it takes to finish, how demanding it is, and whether it suits a tent or open ground. Each column marks whichever plant leads it, so the trade-off you are actually making is visible rather than implied.
Every figure shown is the one on that strainβs own page β nothing is recalculated for the comparison, so the table cannot disagree with the listing it came from. It is most useful in the two situations where the answer is genuinely close: two photoperiod plants that look interchangeable, or an autoflower weighed against the photoperiod version of the same line.
Which Figures Actually Decide a Grow
Which column matters most changes with what you are trying to do. What each one is telling you:
π Yield
Grams per square metre under lights, or per plant in the ground. The heavy croppers we list β Amnesia Haze, Big Bud β carry breeder figures of 500 to 650 g/mΒ². Assume a well-run grow; the yield calculator adjusts for yours.
π₯ THC
A genetic ceiling, not a promise: 15 to 20 per cent is the comfortable middle of our catalogue and anything past 25 is the strong end. Higher is not automatically better, and harvest timing moves the real figure more than the listing does.
β±οΈ Flowering Time
First pistils to cut. Seven or eight weeks at the quick end, nine or ten as standard, twelve or more for a long sativa. Outdoors in New Zealand this is the column that decides whether the plant beats the autumn.
π± Difficulty
A rough measure of how much the plant forgives. Northern Lights and most autoflowers tolerate uneven watering and feeding; pure sativas and the exotic end do not. On a first grow this column outranks the rest.
π Where It Belongs
A compact indica is built for a tent; a tall sativa wants sky above it. Most hybrids will do either. Deciding this first eliminates more of the catalogue than any other question.
𧬠Seed Type
Autoflowers run on age and are done in eight to ten weeks. Photoperiod plants wait for shorter light, which hands you the timing and the size. Both give female plants only.
Weight, Potency or Speed β Pick One to Optimise
Nothing here is the metric; it depends what you are optimising, and you can only really optimise one. After weight, start from the heavy croppers and read the indoor yield column. After strength, start from the potent end. After a harvest before the weather turns, start from fast autoflowering indicas and read nothing but the flowering column.
On a first grow, difficulty outranks all of it. A forgiving plant brought to harvest beats a demanding one that stalls in week five, and the second outcome is far more common than the marketing suggests. Learn the room on something easy, then spend that knowledge on something that asks more of you.
Shortlists by What You Are After
Best for a first grow: Northern Lights, White Widow, Blue Dream
They absorb the things a first grow gets wrong β a missed watering, a feed that was too strong, a fortnight of the wrong temperature β and still finish.
Best for weight: Amnesia Haze, Big Bud, White Widow
Bred to carry, and they only show it when they are fed properly and the canopy has been trained flat. Listed at 450 to 650 grams a square metre indoors.
Best for strength: Gorilla Glue #4 Auto, White Widow, Bruce Banner
The listings put these at 25 to 28 per cent, which is the top of what we stock. Established tolerance assumed β this is not where a first grow should start.
Best for speed: Northern Lights Auto, White Widow Auto, Blue Dream Auto
Seventy to eighty-five days from germination, no light-cycle change involved. Sown in batches they turn one New Zealand season into two or three harvests.
Best for a tent: Northern Lights, OG Kush, Girl Scout Cookies
Short, predictable after the flip, and none of them will run out of headroom in week three. All finish inside ten weeks of bloom.
Autoflower or Photoperiod
β‘ Autoflower Seeds
- β’ Ten to twelve weeks, germination to cut
- β’ The timer never changes
- β’ Usually 60 to 120 cm tall
- β’ Three or four indoor rounds a year
- β’ Suits: first grows, short seasons, low ceilings
- β’ Costs you: weight on the individual plant
πΏ Feminised Photoperiod Seeds
- β’ Three to five months start to finish
- β’ Needs twelve hours of dark to bloom
- β’ Anything from 90 cm to three metres
- β’ Two indoor rounds a year
- β’ Suits: weight, timing control, taking cuttings
- β’ Costs you: decisions you have to make correctly
This is the first real decision, and in New Zealand it is mostly a question about your season. Autoflowers ignore daylight entirely, which is worth a great deal south of about Christchurch. Photoperiod plants hand you the timing and, with it, the size β provided the finish lands before your first frost. Plenty of people run both in the same season and let the weather decide which one was right.
Reading the Comparison Table
Each column answers a different question. Yield is grams per square metre under lights, or per plant outside, and it is a breeder figure for a well-run grow β the heaviest lines we list reach 600 grams a square metre on paper. THC is what the genetics can express, not what your jar will contain; anything in the high-THC group assumes a tolerance to match.
Flowering time is the column that decides whether an outdoor grow works at all: a fast autoflowering indica is done ten weeks after it went in the ground, while a long sativa can want twelve weeks of bloom alone. Difficulty runs from plants that survive genuine neglect β Northern Lights Auto among them β to pure sativas that expect you to know what you are doing. For the numbers behind your own space, the yield calculator and nutrient calculator take it further.
Where Growers Usually Land
Six starting points, depending on what you are optimising for:
π± First grow
Start on an autoflower β Northern Lights Auto or White Widow Auto. No light-cycle decision to get wrong, small enough to hide, and forgiving of a bad fortnight.
π Chasing weight
Line up the heavy croppers β Amnesia Haze, Big Bud, White Widow β then flatten the canopy across a screen. Genetics sets the ceiling; training decides how close you get.
π₯ After strength
Read the listings rather than the reputations: Gorilla Glue #4 Auto is at 28% on ours, with White Widow and Bruce Banner at 25 to 26. Plain Gorilla Glue sits at 21, despite the name.
β‘ Racing the season
An autoflowering indica, done 70 to 85 days after germination. Northern Lights Auto and Blue Dream Auto are the ones we are asked about most.
π Under lights
Anything short and predictable after the flip. Northern Lights, Girl Scout Cookies and OG Kush all stay under a normal ceiling and finish inside ten weeks.
βοΈ In the ground
Open structure and an early finish beat raw yield outside, because a wet March is what costs crops here. Blue Dream and Sour Diesel both suit the warmer north.
Head-to-Heads People Ask About
The Old Guard
Northern Lights vs Blue Dream
Northern Lights is the shorter, quicker, more forgiving plant, finishing in 55 to 60 days at a listed 19 per cent. Blue Dream takes 65 to 70 and is milder at 17, but goes considerably larger outdoors. First grow: Northern Lights. Room to let a plant run: Blue Dream.
OG Kush vs Girl Scout Cookies
Two American names that never went away. OG Kush brings the fuel-and-pine profile and finishes fast, in 50 to 60 days, listed at 19 to 25 per cent. Girl Scout Cookies runs sweeter and slower at 9 to 10 weeks, listed at 20. OG Kush if you want the original; GSC if you want the flavour.
White Widow vs AK-47
White Widow is the Amsterdam standard and the stronger of the two on paper — 26 per cent against AK-47’s 20 — while being no harder to grow. AK-47 leans more cerebral and finishes in a similar window. Widow for the safer bet, AK-47 for the head effect.
Jack Herer vs Sour Diesel
Both are long-season sativas, and in New Zealand that matters: Jack Herer wants 10 to 12 weeks of bloom, Sour Diesel 70 to 75 days. North of TaupΕ there is time for either. Jack Herer is the clearer, lighter of the two at 18 per cent; Sour Diesel is the harder hitting at 24, with the fuel nose it is named for.
When Weight Is the Point
Big Bud vs White Widow
Big Bud earns its name — 500 to 600 grams a square metre indoors, with colas that need support. White Widow is not far behind at 450 to 500 and comes in stronger, listed at 26 per cent against Big Bud’s 21. Big Bud if the scales are the point; White Widow if you want weight without giving up potency.
Blue Dream vs Super Silver Haze
Blue Dream is the easier of the two and the milder, at 17 per cent over 65 to 70 days. Super Silver Haze is a proper haze — 25 per cent, 10 to 11 weeks of flowering, and a plant that wants a long season or a greenhouse. In the lower South Island, Blue Dream is the realistic one.
Gorilla Glue vs White Widow
Worth checking the listings rather than the reputations here: our Gorilla Glue is listed at 21 per cent and White Widow at 26, so the Widow is the stronger of the two despite Glue’s name. What Gorilla Glue does deliver is resin, and plenty of it, over 8 to 9 weeks. Widow for potency, Glue for the sticky finish.
At the Strong End
Gorilla Glue vs Bruce Banner
Bruce Banner is the stronger on our figures at 25 per cent against 21, and finishes a little quicker at 65 to 70 days. Gorilla Glue is the more forgiving plant and the resinous one. Banner for the head, Glue for an easier ride.
Girl Scout Cookies vs Gelato
Close on paper — Girl Scout Cookies at 20 per cent, Gelato at 22 — with Gelato finishing sooner, 8 to 9 weeks against 9 to 10. The difference is in the nose: GSC is the established one, Gelato the sweeter and more layered.
Wedding Cake vs Gelato Cake
Not as close as the names suggest. Wedding Cake is listed at 25 per cent and finishes quickly, in 55 to 60 days. Gelato Cake sits well below it at 16, and reads as the gentler evening option. Both carry the sweet, heavy terpene profile the names imply.
For a First Grow
Northern Lights vs White Widow
The two we point first-time growers at. Northern Lights is the shorter and the more forgiving, at 19 per cent. White Widow carries a little more weight and is markedly stronger at 26, which is worth knowing before you plant it. Both finish inside 65 days.
Blue Dream vs Green Crack
Two mild, daytime-leaning plants — Blue Dream at 17 per cent, Green Crack at 18 — and neither is difficult. Green Crack is the quicker of the two at around 9 weeks. Blue Dream goes larger outdoors; Green Crack is the sharper effect.
Northern Lights Auto vs White Widow Auto
If you want the least demanding thing in the catalogue, it is one of these two. Northern Lights Auto is the gentler at 19 per cent; White Widow Auto is considerably stronger at 26 and takes a similar 70 to 85 days from germination. Both survive the mistakes a first grow makes.
The Same Line, Both Ways
Northern Lights Auto vs Northern Lights Feminised
Same genetics, different clock. The auto is done 70 to 85 days after germination and stays small. The photoperiod version wants four or five months and repays it with a much larger plant. In Southland the auto is often the only one of the two that finishes.
Gorilla Glue Auto vs Gorilla Glue Feminised
Both are listed at 21 per cent, so this is not a potency decision. The auto is done in 8 to 9 weeks and stays compact; the photoperiod version gets the vegetative stretch and the weight that comes with it. Time available is the only real variable.
Blue Dream Auto vs Blue Dream Feminised
Blue Dream Auto is done 70 to 75 days from germination, both versions listed at 17 per cent. The photoperiod one is the outlier in this catalogue for outdoor size — its breeder figure runs to several kilos a plant given a full northern season. Auto for certainty, photoperiod if you have the room and the months.