Master kush vs northern lights

This will be my first grow. I will be growing with cfl bulbs. I'm looking for an easy to grow indica. So far I've narrowed it down to master kush and northern lights and need help deciding.

Northern Lights would be an EXCELLENT choice for you; easy to grow and great high. It was my first successful grow.

I don't know much about Master Kush.

How is the smell when growing northern lights and were the seeds from nirvana

masterlights420 said:

How is the smell when growing northern lights and were the seeds from nirvana

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Smell was not overpowering. Yes, seeds were fem from Nirvana.

Yes go with the northern lights but you might want to thinnk about upgrading your lighting. My first grow was with cfl's and everything went fine except, the size and density of the buds. They were still covered in trics and were funky and potent but had a major lack in size/overall yeild. My biggest cola looked like it would be about 8 or 10 g's and it was only 2.5 cured. But good luck with your grow! If you do flower with the cfl's hopefully you'll do better than what I did lol

You don't want to get northern lights if your only using cfi's . The reason I say that is I'm guessing you're limited on space and any real NL will get super fucking tall and stretchy. I use a hps but my tent is 2x2x5 so I'm limited on space to and that's the only reason I haven't did it is because the bitch get to tall. Now master kush sounds a lot better. You can keep everything nice and low, keep the lights close to the buds and get you some good short fat dence colas

Northern Lights but low CFL lights might be an issue. If you have 200+ watts then get NL it finishes quicker, low odor, all around nice strain. Very easy to grow

my very first grow of bought beans was with nl#5. great strain to start with easy to grow, smelled great, got u high for a little while. with that said, I have this MK that has withstood everything my dumbass could fuck up on and is still ticking like a champ. I say get both if possible, nirvana beans are cheap. aloha

Would led lights be better

Yes, HPS would be better, and sunlight even better yet. . .that's not the question. The question is, for a beginner with CFLs which is better, Master kush or Northern lights.

IMO, its Northern lights.

There are a bunch of different things out there called "Northern lights", but the real McCoy is a pure indica, that was specifically selected for indoor cultivation to remain short, squat, and relatively low odor. I've grown this and its a great choice for a beginner, one of the best.

Nirvana's version is reportedly excellent, that's a good choice.

My only suggestion is the following: CFLs are adequate for a grow, they're not optimal. CFLs work best in conjunction with parabolic-type reflectors and if you can add some you'll get a lot better efficiency (ie yield with the same wattage). Even improvised reflectors you make yourself would be helpful. Make sure you space the lights out so that they hit all different parts of the plant, and also watch temperatures.

People have a misconception about CFLs that they are "cooler" than HPS. This is both true and false. CFL bulbs themselves don't get as hot in terms of absolute temperature as HPS. So you can get your plants a bit closer to CFLs. But in terms of wattage, HPS and CFL both put out most of their energy as heat, and watt for watt, if you put equal watts of either in a closed space, the temps will get equally high.

The point is, don't overlook cooling. If you're running in a small cabinet or container, you'll need good ongoing ventilation, not just to give the plants air to breathe, but also to keep things cool.

masterlights420 said:

Would led lights be better

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Yes, a *good* LED panel would be better than some poor jury-rigged CFL panel, but that's not really a fair comparison because the LED panel will also cost roughly ten times as much.

If you know what you're doing, you can build something pretty awesome with CFLs for $50. Don't think you can touch ANYTHING LED of quality for that amount. Also, you can get a complete 250W HPS kit with reflector, bulb and digital ballast for under $120 now, and for a small grow, that will pretty much blow away anything else in its price range.

CFLs are fine for "microgrows" of 1-2 plants. Just make sure you use enough wattage, that you pick the correct spectrum CFLs, that you keep the garden ventilated and to the extent possible arrange the lights CLOSE to the plants with reflectors to optimize light yield.

master k all the way! way less stretch and way better bud

ace720 said:

You don't want to get northern lights if your only using cfi's . The reason I say that is I'm guessing you're limited on space and any real NL will get super fucking tall and stretchy. I use a hps but my tent is 2x2x5 so I'm limited on space to and that's the only reason I haven't did it is because the bitch get to tall. Now master kush sounds a lot better. You can keep everything nice and low, keep the lights close to the buds and get you some good short fat dence colas

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Northern lights are typically squat, not tall and lanky. Vegging with a hps will make any strain stretch.

The NL I grew from Nirvana and Classic Seeds was not squat, , more to the tall side. If they stretch, as my Humboldt Purple is, I just tie them down. They go at a 45 and hang over one side of the pot but it works.

The issue with Master Kush is that the original is an unstabilized 4 way hybrid, and it throws off different phenos. In other words you would expect to see different plants from the same pack, some taller, some shorter, some fatter, some slower-flowering, etc.

That's OK, and if you find a good pheno, it can be REALLY good, but a proper pack of Northern lights should be consistent. All plants from the same pack should look the same and finish at about the same time, and ALL of them should be good.

IMO, consistency is especially important if you're growing something in a small cabinet with CFLs, and doubly so for a new grower with no experience. That way they can work on the same strain a few times to learn about training, topping, effects of nutes, etc.

nirvana's NL is a hybrid don't know about classic seeds. True pure NL is supposed to be pure indica, and pure indica's are typically squat. That doesn't mean all phenos will be squat. cheers.

Northern Lights got contaminated with thai towards the end of its glory days and there is little left of the original lines .. I have grown out # 5 beans but even they were wild and unpredictable due to the genetic diversity but within it all and down the lines I have seen this Afi dom trait surface on occasion .. lol

Space isn't an issue and it will be with a blue and red led panel if this grow is successful I'm going to upgrade to dwc

The specs for the panel is 225 14 watt led's with 3:1 ratio of red to blue lights

Oh and I'll only be growing 1 or 2 plants at a time