Best strain under CFL system ? (No more bagseed experiments !)

Hi All,

Contemplating my 4th CFL grow but previous grows have always used bagseed with somewhat disappointing results. Grow #1 was a single female from a seed obtained from a bud purchased in Turkey, produced a small indica. Grow #2 was a seed from a local outdoor bud, produced a large, tall (5') sativa but with smallish buds and little resin. Grow #3 was a SOG of the same seed strain, better results but still only 3 oz dry from 5 female plants using topping, etc, and much less trichs than the source material. In all 3 cases, overall quality was significantly lower that that of the source material.

So, I'm contemplating a 4th grow but this time I want to start with known genetics, and with plants that will do well under indoor, CFL lighting and confined space. Unfortunately this is a closet grow with very limited space - 4 feet x 2 feet by 6 feet tall is all the room I have. It is however well ventilated and has whiteboard on all sides.

The lighting setup I have is a custom canopy (that raises and lowers) with two 2' square office fixtures attached together at a 135 degree angle which contains four U-shaped 40W tubes (for 160W @5000K) plus 13 sockets for CFL bulbs. The sockets can contain any size and type of CFL, so I typically veg with 23W 6500K's then flower with 23W to 26W 2700K's. Total wattage is scalable, but I've been using a total of about 400 to 500 watts over the 8 square feet.

So, the questions are:

1) What strains should I be considering to get the best overall yield and quality for the space and lighting system that I have ?
2) Would a hydro setup have the potential to improve the bud quality issue over that of a proper soil setup ? Or is trich and bud production more related to lighting than nutrition?
3) I've used all sorts of techniques for the soil grows I've done, from topping and LST to flushing and using molasses, etc. for bud formation. Generally the plants have looked really good, grown very well, and have thrived, but when it comes to buds Its been difficult to get any decent size or a lot of trich production. I've concluded it may be related to the issue of genetics (bagseed) and that sativa dominants are just not as well suited to the indoor environment, especially during flowering and when using CFL's. The lights have always been kept close, but buds have been small generally. I need some informed opinions, please and thanks.

1) Try autoflowers if your trying to get a good yield with little space. These grow 1-2 feet and harvest up to 2 ounces.
2) Hydroponics usually takes a little more time, your gonna need a PPM/pH meter on deck all the time, not to mention sometimes you have to add water and nutrients. Just buy a 400w HPS/MH, MH will work better for vegging cause of the 6500 K light temp while HPS will work better for flowering, because of it 2700 K light temp.
3) And dont use bagseeds, good genetics are well worth it. Your growing medium should be peat moss mixed with vermiculite or pearlite. Try Fox Farms.

Thanks crazyhazey, your suggestion for autoflowers is a good one (what strains of auto are there?) but I have to stick with CFL's for lighting. HPS or MH is just way too hot in that space.
I can't get Fox Farms here, or even seasoil, so I'll have to find something close to it. Last grows used a mix similar to MG but with vermiculite as suggested.

I'm interested to know if anyone has had better results with certain strains over others when growing strictly using CFL's.

ive grown low/short rider and white widow and wonderwoman under 6 100watt equivalent 26 watt actuall cfls 12/12 2 in soil and 6 in a tote in hydro and the 12/12 help keep them small and short so the cfls can penetrate the canopy better and thats a common problem if using cfls when growin tall sativas is ligh gets less penetration down low and cfl light is only good for about 8 to maybe 12 inches max unless mounting around plants. but the hydro 12/12 was experamental and turned out with only 3 fems out of the whole 6 and had around 3-3.5 ounces per plant dried and ready to smoke. in soil tokk a little longer to take off and are still flowering right now with 6 new ones in germination process to go back in hydro. ive also grown 2 2.5-3 footers in a fridge grow in hydro and had a small pest problem the one time but with 5 weeks veg and 10 weeks flower had a great yeild and harvested in october and smoked the last yesterday dont know exactly how much was yeilded from the 2 but it filled 2 mason jars and a small true brown paper value bag dry was about 3 small sandwich bags full. just got scales after moving grows indoors.