Outdoor Strawberry Cough 8+ feet but Few Flowers

D

DCgardener

Member
I'm in DC. Outdoor grower. In past years I've grown several different strains of autoflower and gotten great harvests in August. This year I'm growing 2 photoperiod feminized Strawberry Coughs. Plants have been vibrant and healthy, vegging to 8+ feet tall. First flowers appeared on lower branch of one plant in mid-August, but here I am in early October with only 5 or 6 branches on one plant with buds that will be ready for harvest in the next couple of week, some more branches that have very immature flowers, and around 60-70% of the two plants' branches with no buds at all. No cola bud formation whatsoever. The bottom branches have been first to flower. It's looking like a pretty weak harvest. What did I do wrong? (By comparison, I gave my nearby cousin a young plant from the same seed pack. Her's has only grown about 4 feet tall, with very little added nutrients, but has buds on every branch likely to be harvestable this month.) Next year I'm going back to autoflower!
 
FirstCavApache64

FirstCavApache64

Well-Known Member
DCgardener said:
I'm in DC. Outdoor grower. In past years I've grown several different strains of autoflower and gotten great harvests in August. This year I'm growing 2 photoperiod feminized Strawberry Coughs. Plants have been vibrant and healthy, vegging to 8+ feet tall. First flowers appeared on lower branch of one plant in mid-August, but here I am in early October with only 5 or 6 branches on one plant with buds that will be ready for harvest in the next couple of week, some more branches that have very immature flowers, and around 60-70% of the two plants' branches with no buds at all. No cola bud formation whatsoever. The bottom branches have been first to flower. It's looking like a pretty weak harvest. What did I do wrong? (By comparison, I gave my nearby cousin a young plant from the same seed pack. Her's has only grown about 4 feet tall, with very little added nutrients, but has buds on every branch likely to be harvestable this month.) Next year I'm going back to autoflower!
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I'd be hard put to give you a definite answer but I'd bet it had to do with the amount of sunlight they were getting. Seeds can have a great deal of variance among siblings so your cousin could have just gotten a better phenotype than you did. I was born and grew up in DC, crazy to think it's legal to grow there after all the BS I had to deal with growing up. Check out DC Seed Exchange for some good genetics and deals. Photo period plants can be affected by light pollution from surrounding houses and street lights as well . That wouldn't have mattered to the auto flower plants. I still have an outdoor girl that's not ready yet and I'm in VA a couple hours away from you. I'm just going to try and take it as long as the weather allows. Best of luck to you.
 
D

DCgardener

Member
Thanks so much for your response. Your point about light pollution makes a lot of sense and I hadn't considered it. And thanks for the tip on the DC Seed Exchange. I hadn't heard of it and will definitely check it out. Back to auto flower for me next year! So long as we don't get a frost until January, I should be okay on this year's harvest. :mad:
 
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