Why certain seeds for first grow?

[UVSunrise]

Right, finally soon a time will come where I have my own little cave with a lovely 6' tall 2'x4' wardrobe with a view to start growing in early July. From what I can gather this is enough space for two plants to grow with lots of room to breathe (if you think I could stick in another one or two please let me know haha as I'm not sure if I'm being over cautious here).
Lovely, fantastic, lets go, but a small problem remains . . . what do I grow?
I'll be following the basic n00bstyle guide to growing, keeping it simple basic nutrients keeping the pH balanced just following the basic first steps guide you see about the web as I have no experience with either plants or growing greenery at all but I'm not a daft one so I reckon I should be able to follow them well enough. Back to the point, what to grow! Everyone seems to say northern lights or lowryder for a first grow but no one seems to say why. As far as I can tell it's because they're cheap and autoflower but I've been smoking full time for a while now (unfortunately havn't found a gentleman dealer who can tell me what I'm smoking so still have no idea which strains I'm getting all the time . . . the main reason I'm growing, I just don't like going to see my dealer haha he's not the nicest of gents) and I'd like to grow something with a real punch to it. Manual flowering doesn't seem to hard, just a matter of changing the timer settings on the lamps which is easy as pie so that sounds ok and for a decent smoke I don't mind throwing money at my setup even if it evens out at about the same price as buying . . . hopefully not of course haha. I guess what I want to know is, why not if I don't mind putting down the cash for high class seeds, should I grow lowryder and the likes over some lovely cup winning lemon haze or chocolope or C13 or LA Woman? What is it about these strains that discourages people? What extra difficulty is there involved with growing world class strains and is it that great a difference that I'll end up with no weed and a bunch less cash?
Advise.
P.S. Hi, long time reader first time poster :thumbsup:

UVSunrise Reviewed by UVSunrise on 03-11-2009. Why certain seeds for first grow? Right, finally soon a time will come where I have my own little cave with a lovely 6' tall 2'x4' wardrobe with a view to start growing in early July. From what I can gather this is enough space for two plants to grow with lots of room to breathe (if you think I could stick in another one or two please let me know haha as I'm not sure if I'm being over cautious here). Lovely, fantastic, lets go, but a small problem remains . . . what do I grow? I'll be following the basic n00bstyle guide to Rating: 5

[bigtopsfinn]

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...

[UVSunrise]

Yikes. It's so tough to get a foothold on growing because there always seems to be two camps, the 'anyone can do it if you follow the recipie' camp and the 'oh god this is intense' camp and I don't know which to believe. Preferably I'd just like to grow a strain that's won something major like high times cup or high life mainly because I like the blitzed feeling of good weed. I don't need to yield a lot, maybe 4 ounces, preferably 8 if it's a 12 week cycle (3 weeks veg 9 weeks flowering?) then again by some estimates that's a lot for two plants. I'd just like to know my work is going towards some top quality crop for maybe an extra 10 minutes work a day just as a beginner I don't know what the problems that could occur with some of the 'better' strains could be. As long as it makes it to harvest with a couple ounces of quality buds I'd be happy. Are there really that many mistakes you can make to the point it jepordises your whole project if I stick to the basics?
Also on other parts of the forum I saw that if you grow more than two foot then you're likely to get reduced yield, weak plants and less potent buds? Ideally I'd like to grow them bigger but not really at the loss of the three most important factors haha. What would be a good size that wouldn't sacrifice quality?

[bigtopsfinn]

Well I think if you follow the recipe, then no problems, you can grow anything:thumbsup:

However, the chances of you screwing up your first grow are much higher than your second, third, and so one. So, it would suck to lose some $200 seeds because you pulled a major stoner move and managed to kill your plants (fan breaks, wrong soil, mold, light falls, etc.).

I've been to Amsterdam more times than I can count and smoked a lot of the HTCC winning strains. Honestly, for me, the only major difference was the taste. They all got me high, some more than others, but I've also purchased the same strain from the same coffeeshop on different occasions(Barney's G13xHaze), and the first time it was super dank, the second time it was just so-so. The quality of the weed you grow depends on how well you grow it, not just its genetics.

And finally, people can react differently to the same strain, so its really a matter of preference.

Best bet is to start with some bagseed, and see how that goes. But, if you are really into the genetics, you could try to get some kind of "seed-sampler" package, so you can try out some of the different strains. Greenhouse Seeds Co. in Amsterdam has this (many first prize winners), but they don't ship to the U.S.

[UVSunrise]

Ahh good sir you are a wise one! Lucky for me I'm well clear of the US and seeds can get to me from Amsterdam in a matter or days for not a whole lot. I can get any major seed company's top strains (DNA, Greenhouse, Barneys etc etc) for about $60 (that is the reserva privada seeds so to speak). LA Woman from DNA has caught my eye in particular and I can get 6 seeds to my door for $60 no problems. This is the issue I'm having. I'm lucky enough to live in a part of the world where I can get my hands on all the best seeds . . . but most of the grow info comes from the US so it's all about bagseed (which just does not happen here, I've honestly never once got bagseed in my many many years) so basically I have to buy seeds in and I only have room for two plants *sigh*
I guess if I could grow a lot I could just emulate the effect by just packing more haha.

Right so we've got an answer - If I try to grow top drawer strains, I will kill it . . . so for a six foot growspace, a big ole'bucket, some lovely 400Watt lamps, some quality hummus soil and whatever nutrients I need to throw at it to keep it alive what would you recommend I grow and how tall to?

P.S. Checked out your trainwreck grow, she's beautiful, congrats!

[bigtopsfinn]

Also on other parts of the forum I saw that if you grow more than two foot then you're likely to get reduced yield, weak plants and less potent buds? Ideally I'd like to grow them bigger but not really at the loss of the three most important factors haha. What would be a good size that wouldn't sacrifice quality?

Not true at all, it really depends on the strain and lighting. Sativa dominant will grow tall and skinny, with smaller buds than the the indica dominant, which are short have fat buds. Also if you use cfl's vs. a 1000w hps, obviously there will be differences in yield and potency. There are methods for "strengthening" (really its damaging, but in the end makes the plant stronger if you do it right) your plant also like LST, super-cropping, topping, fimming, and those will also help with height issues.

[bigtopsfinn]

so for a six foot growspace, a big ole'bucket, some lovely 400Watt lamps, some quality hummus soil and whatever nutrients I need to throw at it to keep it alive what would you recommend I grow and how tall to?

P.S. Checked out your trainwreck grow, she's beautiful, congrats!

Thanks:jointsmile:

The fun part of growing is that you have a ton of options, so you should be the one making the all the decisions. Personally, this Trainwreck is some of the best stuff I've ever smoked. :thumbsup:. I don't think there is that big of a difference growing the brand name strains compared to bagseed, but if you use the search function wisely, you can find a lot of info about these strains around here, and grow logs of them. Like I said in the previous post, the height can be easily controlled (LST, Scrog). Good luck in your search!

[UVSunrise]

Cool. The latter part sounds a bit daunting but I'm sure it's a lot less complicated than it sounds. Official stats are in on the size of the growspace:
6' tall 22" deep 32" wide

I may go for two plants of different sativa dominant strains if they're the taller. By the time this baby comes around I'll be vaping everything (when my Arizer Extreme finally gets here from the 'dam) so we're getting somewhere now Sherlock! So some tall relatively skinny plants that'll fit into 11"x16" of space and grow anywhere up to 6' (maybe a little less so they don't get too close to the lamp). I'm guessing as it's only two plants and not exactly a massive space a 400Watt lamp would be advised or would these badboys benefit from a little extra lumen?
In only 215 days I should be sitting down to a nice big nug of my yet to be concieved child and I will think of you sensei.