High elevations are definitely a killer, I find afs to be way to sensitive to cold weather and get stunted or stuck in veg until it warms up, not to mention they are absolute sunlight hogs if they don't get it they just don't grow. I wish I could get everything set up early enough so I could finish before august but so far earliest I got for harvest this year is mid august/early September, If I was running regular stuff Id do much better for yield with a sept 20-30th finish, and plant #'s would be 4-5x less. They are stealthy though, would be good for a more urban area not so much for mountains.
this cross that we're using this summer doesn't seem to mind the cold one bit. i think we lost 2 or 3 seedlings to frost this spring( not even 1% of what we planted). Not to mention that these little ladies are growing like its july. The non af strains that i've grown have never boomed like our auto flowers have. up in the mountains we'd normally transplant around may 20th and the girls wouldn't start to boom till mid - late june. this new cross has far surpassed our expectations. I still want to grow some monsters but that will have to wait till next summer. biggy and i are going to pick up 5-10 different early outdoor varietys from vancouver and see if any of them will work for us. bonkers, ss early bud, stuporsonic, haleys comet and mendocino madness are on the list for next year!