i have 2 plants and was lax on labels, so i dont know which is which.
Both plants were in the ground, 4 feet apart, in the same very rich organic soil i make with my own horse manure and fish compost. long hot summer, they got daily irrigation. no other nutes other than organic fertilizer. both were topped once.
I just harvested, here are the details:
Plant 1) this plant was taller - top colas reaching right about 6’, up to 10" long colas, much bigger than plant 2. overall at least a lb when all is said and done. good aroma when pinching the buds, deep skunk essence
Plant 2) this plant was smaller, colas 75% as big as plant 1, and overall harvest about 75% as well. very low aroma when pinching a bud, no skunky essence, smells piney, almost like pine sol. probably 25% as aromatic as plant 1.
i tasted plant 2 - manicured a bud and let it sit out a few hours to dry - very mellow and mild smoke with very little harshness, mellow buzz with no paranoia - very nice overall.
It is unfortunately impossible to identify strain from visual appearance. The best you can do is learn of the terpine profiles of each of the strains and try to guess based on taste and smell.
i realize that but vis-a-vis i thought there could be a hint - i.e. one would naturally be bigger vs the other in the exact same growing conditions - or one is more apt to have bigger colas than the other as well as yield difference.
and such a distinct difference in smell too i hoped might be a hint.
It’s been said. Smell/taste is best bet. Which is not a guarantee. It’s also not about which has more it’s which smells like which description.
Look up the terpenes of the genetics and compare them to the plants at the end.
Pure indica and pure sativa strains would make identifying easier but not always.
Hybrids vary greatly.
There is no way to tell otherwise. A single strain can be tall, short, fat, thin. It doesn’t matter. There are no visual cues. 5 seeds from the same plant can be different. Trying to differentiate 2 separate strains visually is nearly impossible.
There are only a few strains that’ll throw obvious indicators to what it is. Like freakshow, or plants that have a high probability of throwing color.