Lil’ Red Riding Hood (zkittlez x Mendo Purps) crosses Zkittlez to Mendo Purps: Grape Ape crossed to Grapefruit, and the modern benchmark for candy terpenes against Mendo Purps - the source stock Purple Urkle was selected out of. Neither is a filler parent, which is why this pairing is worth a pack rather than a look. Every parent CSI use is a cut they keep alive themselves, so nothing in this pack is a reconstruction of a famous name.

Zkittlez sits on the seed side here, Mendo Purps on the pollen side. If you have seen these two names paired the other way round, that is a different pack and not this one.

Genetic Lineage

• Mother: Zkittlez. Grape Ape crossed to Grapefruit, and the modern benchmark for candy terpenes. That one comes from Grape Ape x Grapefruit.
• Father: Mendo Purps. The Mendocino purple that the whole Northern California purple catalogue leans on. The purple lines people can name mostly run back through it. Its own origin is a story rather than a pedigree - the usual account has it grown from the bagseed of a purple Afghani kept since 1977 and not planted until 1998, and no source gives a clean lineage for it. It circulated clone-only at first; BC Bud Depot later stabilised seed of it, and it took High Times Strain of the Year in 2007. It is not a heavy yielder and was never grown for that.
• The point of the pairing. Neither parent needed rescuing. Putting them together is about what sits between them, not about fixing either one.

Flavor and Aroma Profile

Two distinct smells, and a pack will give you both plus everything between.

• The Aroma. Sweet tropical fruit - the candy nose the name promises from the Zkittlez side, against dark grape with the colour to match from the Mendo Purps side.
• The Taste. Tropical candy and berry up front, turning to dark grape with berry behind it through the exhale.

How the two sides differ

• Timing splits the pack. One parent wants eight to nine weeks indoors, reported elsewhere at nine to ten, the other eight to nine weeks, with outdoor crops coming down in the middle of October. Expect the fast plants down well before the slow ones are ready.
• Two noses, one pack. Zkittlez contributes a sharp tropical medley of sweet citrus candy and sour berries with a soft herbal undertone. Mendo Purps contributes fruity and grape-like with deep colouration. Which dominates is the main thing that varies.
• Two frames in one pack. Zkittlez is compact with tight internodes and thick fan leaves; glassy buds under a wet-looking frost. Mendo Purps is slightly indica-dominant and not a big plant - three to four feet indoors, six to eight outdoors. It is not a beginner's plant: it wants training and trimming to yield properly. Decide which suits your room before you flip, because you get both.
• Opposite ends. Zkittlez is reported as even and settled; indica-leaning; Mendo Purps as settled rather than racy. The cross sits somewhere between and moves plant to plant.

Cultivation and Growth Traits

• Plant Structure. The two parents disagree here, so plan for range. Zkittlez is medium and bushy, easy enough to manage. Mendo Purps is small by modern standards and slightly indica-leaning; it needs stress training and a trim to give a worthwhile yield, which is why it is not recommended to first-time growers.
• Training. Worth the effort early - it is the difference between an even canopy and three colas and a lot of leaf.
• Flowering Time. The parents are not on the same clock. Zkittlez runs eight to nine weeks indoors, reported elsewhere at nine to ten, Mendo Purps eight to nine weeks, with outdoor crops coming down in the middle of October. Judge each plant on trichomes rather than pulling the room together.

Effects and Experience

• The Mind. Growers describe Zkittlez as even and settled; indica-leaning.
• The Body. Mendo Purps is reported as settled rather than racy, and that is the side supplying the weight here.

In the pack

7 feminized seeds per pack. Feminized seeds from Humboldt CSI. CSI work from clone stock they have kept for years and reverse it into seed, so what arrives in a pack is the real cut's genetics rather than a seed-line approximation of it. Real Humboldt CSI stock, not a copy.