The Making of the Black Goliath Auto

Dirty Bird Genetics Celebrates the Launch of their first Autoflower 

By: Beth Mathieu, owner of Dirty Bird Genetics

Dirty Bird Genetics Alpha Series - Black Goliath Auto Fem is available Friday, February 13th! This release is limited to 100 packs so don't miss out!

Black Goliath Alpha Series Cannabis Seeds by Dirty Bird Genetics

Dirty Bird’s release of the Black Goliath Auto marks a very special occasion for our team as the proud launch of our first-ever autoflower strain. At the time of this drop (Feb 2026), our autoflower program is 18 months in the making, and it’s still in its infancy all things considered. We anticipated that we would work most strains for several generations before achieving the stability we were looking for in order to release them. But out of the 100 auto breeding projects we’ve done over the past 18 months at Dirty Bird, the Black Goliath Auto (Anvil F7 x Sour Gorilla) genetics stood out enough to become not just a tester drop, but an elevated Alpha Series drop. In deciding to release these, we tested three cohorts of the F1 seeds, and we were able to observe about 75 plants total. We wanted to be sure of these genetics before letting them out into the wild, and at this time, we feel the strain has more than proven itself. 

The Black Goliath is one of those strains that will stand out in any garden due to its dark purple flower (the photos do not do it justice), incredible, dense yields, and a terpene profile that ranges from pine to skunk to cherry chapstick. For an F1, the stability and homogeneity of the Black Goliath is quite remarkable. We credit this, in large part, to the Anvil F7 powerhouse mother we selected to breed with (a heartfelt shout out to Gnome!). The Anvil F7, a wildly stable IBL by all accounts, is your classic indica: it’s short and stout with a strong central cola, solid purple flower, and bright green foliage. The Anvil definitely brought its A-game to this cross, lending to the low PVI, the dark purple (almost black) flowers, the high density, above-average yields, and the elongated central cola. 

Black Goliath Auto on day 31 looking super consistent
Anvil Auto - photo credit to Gnome 

The Sour Gorilla, on the other hand, brought the sugar and the terps to the cross, and it helped stretch out the otherwise super-compact structure of the Anvil. The Sour Gorilla mother that we used in this creation is our own cross of Humboldt’s Sour Apple Auto x Fastbud’s Strawberry Gorilla Auto. The Sour Gorilla Auto is wonderfully sugary and appley, and it grows like a typical hybrid of medium height and density. 

Sour Gorilla Auto (Sour Apple x Strawberry Gorilla) by Dirty Bird Genetics

Combined, the Black Goliath’s Anvil F7 x Sour Gorilla lineage came together wonderfully. In looking at the pictures below, you’ll see that this is strain with very strong central colas. In the spirit of experimentation, we topped 10 plants just to see, but the untopped plants definitely outshined them. I will note that we test all of our autos exclusively in three gallon pots, and I do expect that in a larger pot size, this strain would have done very well topped because the plants do create a very even canopy. Play around with topping if you’re into that, and if you’re not, this is going to be a great set-it-and-forget-it morphology. 

Overall, we are really proud of this creation and excited for you to grow it at home and give us your feedback. These seeds are very limited. We were only able to release 100 (3) packs. That said, we will be continuing to work these genetics forward,  and we are really looking forward to bringing you more in the near future as we continue to perfect this great cultivar. 

As always, Happy Growing! 

Beth + Team Dirty Bird 


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NASC Cast: Gnome Automatics

Beth and Caitlyn sit down with Dan to discuss the industry, autoflower genetics, and what's coming next for Gnome Automatics.

Highlights:

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And as always, Happy Growing!

NASC Classic Hoodie

Origin Story: Roof Boltz F2 by Gnome Automatics

Story from Dan, Owner and Breeder of Gnome Automatics

With this being my first true photoperiod line, I wanted something that was unique.  With the market full of options I wanted something that would stand out, especially from an auto focused breeder.  Over the years I have played and bred with photo period plants to add flavor and new profiles to the autos I create.  In doing so, I have been lucky enough to come across a few plants that have really left an impression on me.  Some of them from hunts and then selected by breeders to become clone only, to ones that have made an impact on the local legal market.  Needless to say, my options at times were overwhelming however, I was still able to find two that really stood out to me, and for very different reasons.


The mother of this line was MelvinZ from Seattle Chronic Seeds.  This plant was a selection that he made from a seed hunt and then became clone only.  He decided to share this with me, as a surprise when I purchased some of his Dr. Grinspoon IBL for my seed vault.  Knowing the history of this cultivar as well as the terp profile and resin production, I was excited to add it to my garden.  It checked most of the boxes for me, except one, and that was flower density.  The flavor and the effect of the flower were fantastic, but there wasn’t much to go around once harvested.

Then comes the father of the line, Candy Breath.  The male that was used in the original cross was selected for its strong candy aromas, resin coverage, and most importantly the dense flower sets it had.  The mother that was selected from the same seed stock, had nice dense flowers as well.  This showed potential for enhancing the flower sets in the offspring.  Stem rubs left your fingers smelling of hardtack candy, something that I have personally never experienced on a male.  Most of the time males tend to be “typical” when rubbing the stem, but this male was different. 

The idea was to blend the two and hope that they would enhance each other. The offspring were along the lines of what I was hoping for.  Searching through the F1 was really a treat.  There were a lot that leaned towards the pure MelvinZ profile, but had denser buds.  The whole F1 hunt that I did to make the F2 actually came out with better flower sets than the original MelvinZ. The Important part though, were the few that came out that really had a candy punch backed with the Z Gas that MelvinZ in known for.  These were the ones that I was after, they also left a little dark fade treat at the end of flower in both the leaves and the flower.

The mother that was selected for the release of the F2 was a beautiful blend of dense flowers, resin coverage, candy gas with some vanilla cream as a finish.   The male for the F2 was similar to his father with large flower clusters and sweet-smelling stem rubs.  I believe this pairing will only enhance what this new hybrid has to offer.  This was my attempt to bring an experience to people that I have had a few times over the years.  To grow something in your garden that you’ve read about or a friend has had before.  I wanted folks to find a keeper in a pack that meant something to them.


DROPPING 5/30/2025


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