Mystery Seed Outdoor Winter

This grow was an experiment to see how well I could grow during winter months in my climate outdoors, using the Kratky method of hydroponics, and my first experience with topping. First, the Kratky method of hydroponics is basically just plopping a plant in standing water with nutrients and leaving it out in the sun. It's the easiest and least time or maintenance intensive style of growing I have ever found. I don't even have to worry about watering each week, and the nutrients technically don't need to be added each week either. Although this grow I did maintain feedings each week. I have grown like this previously with great success, and I think this time was no different. I do not think the Kratky method will result in the best yields or quality of plant, but it is the cheapest and easiest method of growing as far as I can tell. These plants never received additional water (besides a water change) so the total volume of water actually used in the grow was something like a gallon per plant (winter means less water uptake/transpiration) I used the leftover water to water other plants in my garden after harvesting these (all buckets were still close to full). My only ongoing cost with growing the plants was the nutrient, which I would say is roughly $10-$20 per plant depending on how heavily I feed them. During this grow, I think I gave too much nutrient and the cost was a bit high for how low my yields were. I was able to successfully grow a decent crop through the winter, however, the plants remained incredibly small and compact. I also tried trimming my plants, and topping them. This was interesting to see the results, but I think the wrong techniques to use outdoors during winter. I believe I would have gotten overall better crop if I had not topped them. That way they would have capitalized on the limited light in the winter. I ended up with a rather disappointing quantity of bud at harvest. Across 3 compact plants only about 1.1 oz. But the quality of the crop was still excellent, so I call it a success. The experiment proves I can grow in my climate, outdoors through winter. A time when most climates would not be able to grow outdoors. What I learned though, during winter I need to monitor my plants very closely after flowering starts to ensure they don't develop budrot. I had to constantly move my plants around to keep them under cover during rain, and the one night I missed moving them, budrot developed. Growing these 3 mystery strains also helped teach me how to better identify what kind of high might come from a plant based on it's looks, like leaf shape, density, and color. I think I will continue to grow through winter outdoors, but during future grows I will probably use less nutrient in the winter. A winter crop should not be grown outdoors seeking a large yield, but a small yield that acts as a holdover until the full grow season starts. The winter temperatures in my area never dropped lower than 45, and that was only during a few rather cold nights. The average temperature through this grow was likely around 60 during the day, 50 during the nights. Thank you for everyone that liked/commented/ or followed along during this grow! I hope that my random experiments might help others figure out their best grow method or offer some kind of insight! Good luck all!