Take Strawberry Cough, Kyle Kushman's cross of Strawberry Fields to an unknown Haze, and the plant that made strawberry a real cannabis note, and put it over Northern Lights #5, the plant most of the indoor era was quietly built on. That is Strawberry Cough x Northern Lites 5. These are held cuts, not recreations. CSI's entire catalogue works that way, and it is the reason their crosses are worth chasing.

The number in Strawberry Cough x Northern Lites 5 is a specific plant, not a decoration. Humboldt CSI grow a population out, keep the individuals worth keeping and number them, so Strawberry Cough x Northern Lites 5 is one identified selection rather than Strawberry Cough x Northern Lites in general. A pack naming a different number is a different mother.

Order matters in a cross name. In Strawberry Cough x Northern Lites 5 the Strawberry Cough side supplied the seed and Northern Lights #5 the pollen, and the reciprocal - the same two plants the other way round - is a separate breeding decision with its own results.

Genetic Lineage

• Mother: Strawberry Cough. Kyle Kushman's cross of Strawberry Fields to an unknown Haze, and the plant that made strawberry a real cannabis note. Given as Strawberry Fields x an unknown Haze.
• Father: Northern Lights #5. The plant most of the indoor era was quietly built on. Also listed as CI #5 F1; density this high is what mould looks for.
• How to read it. Everything below splits into what one parent gives and what the other does. Plants that take from both are the ones to keep.

Flavor and Aroma Profile

Expect the profile to move plant to plant rather than settle.

• The Aroma. Unmistakable strawberry over a haze backbone from the Strawberry Cough side, against old-fashioned sweet resin and earth, nothing fruity or chemical about it from the Northern Lights #5 side.
• The Taste. Sweet strawberry with a clean sativa finish up front, turning to sweet earth with resin behind it and a clean finish through the exhale.

What each side brings

• Two different harvest dates. Nine to ten weeks for Strawberry Cough, seven to eight weeks indoors for Northern Lights #5. Judge each plant on trichomes rather than pulling the room together.
• Two noses, one pack. Strawberry Cough contributes unmistakable strawberry over a haze backbone. Northern Lights #5 contributes sweet, earthy and resinous rather than fruity or chemical. Which dominates is the main thing that varies.
• Two frames in one pack. Strawberry Cough is smaller, denser buds than most sativas, strawberry-red pistils threaded through olive-green flower under a heavy glistening trichome coat. Northern Lights #5 is dense buds running golf-ball to soda-can size with calyxes stacking so tightly the nugs feel heavy for their size; minimal leaf to flower; heavily encrusted with milky trichomes by weeks six to eight. Decide which suits your room before you flip, because you get both.
• Opposite ends. Strawberry Cough is reported as sativa-leaning and lifting; Northern Lights #5 as settled and unhurried; heavy and physical. 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. Strawberry Cough is smaller, denser buds than most sativas, strawberry-red pistils threaded through olive-green flower under a heavy glistening trichome coat. Northern Lights #5 is dense buds running golf-ball to soda-can size with calyxes stacking so tightly the nugs feel heavy for their size; minimal leaf to flower; heavily encrusted with milky trichomes by weeks six to eight.
• Veg and stretch. Set the frame while it is cheap to do. Anything you fix after the flip costs you flower sites.
• Flowering Time. The parents are not on the same clock. Strawberry Cough runs nine to ten weeks, Northern Lights #5 seven to eight weeks indoors. Judge each plant on trichomes rather than pulling the room together.

Effects and Experience

• The Mind. Growers describe Strawberry Cough as sativa-leaning and lifting.
• The Body. Northern Lights #5 is reported as settled and unhurried; heavy and physical, and that is the side supplying the weight here.

In the pack

Feminized seeds from Humboldt CSI. Humboldt CSI are preservationists before they are breeders - most of what they release is a clone somebody has kept alive by hand for years, put into seed so it stops depending on one grower staying in the game. That is what you are buying into here. Genuine Humboldt CSI stock.