I would think that the reason these kinds of strains like northern lights, skunk, etc. (these are not usually autoflowering, unlike the lowryders and its crosses) are recommended is because they are forgiving. Its assumed that a first time grower doesn't know even half of what he should,and will likely have problems with temps and feeding schedules. Also, they finish fairly quickly (flower in 7 or 8 weeks) and have a better than average yield.

With that said, I chose a strain not recommended for a first time grower... And everything turned out great. The strain I chose does not yield a lot, but it's potency is narcotic:stoned:, and it finished in about 9 weeks of flowering.

Most likely you are getting some kind of hybrid now, so that might be what you want to go for. I would avoid any strain that takes more than 9 weeks to flower, these are sativa dominant, grow up very big, and sometimes hermie because of their long flowering times.

Good times:rasta:

P.S.- you have 6 feet of vertical space, don't waste it on a lowryder which grows up to be like 2 feet tall...