Okay I realize that about half of the people here who reply to this post are more than likely to tell me to, read, read, and read some more.....but here's the thing....my budget is fairly limited...and when I am growing....I am growing cannabis for my physical disabilites (Hydrocephalus, and Cerebral Palsy)...and as such....I might be able to come up with about $450-500 (canadian) for my op (lighting, fertilizer, watering systems, etc.)....now for the space i'd be growing in....it's probably no bigger that 3ft x 3ft....I would like to be growing 2 plants at a time (cloning the females, whenever possible)....so actually for the watering i could just use a spray bottle right???....As for the lighting and Co2....I had read in a couple places that a regular cool-white flouresant bulb would work....but that I would need at least 2 or 3 of them at a 100 to 150 watts....and as for Co2 that I could simply use vinegar and baking soda (make a wet paste, and apply it to leaves...any left over i could dillute it with water and spray it lightly on the soil)...

Do I have the right idea??.....I am in no hurry to do this, I am trying to learn as much as I can...

Buddy

$$$ sound about right for a 3 x 3 space. Go with a 400 hps light and make sure you can intro fresh air into the space and exhaust the hot air out. Temp should never go above 80. You could grow plenty of pot in such a space.

Nix the Co2 ideas all the way around. If you wanna buy a CO2 tank and a regulator and go for it..yes. Fuckin with potions and crap mixes..NO. your time will be better spent working on ventilation/lights/your crop and all of those perfected will help your yields far more than the minimal Co2 you'll get from the yeast/sugar/whatever set up folks speak of here.

IMO..ya never wanna put stuff on yer leaves...not even sprayed water. All they need is cool air and a slight breeze and yer in biz. Misting is bullshit.

and yeah...read..read...read. Search the net. This isn't the only forum and some of the info here is a bit sketchy/will cause you more probs than it'll help. When you see something mentioned on 3 different sites you can bet it probably works. Hearing one guy say "I heard from as friend that..." is bad news. (me included)

good luck

bt dt

And remember to keep it simple the first time around. Like beenthere said no need to mess with co2 yet, although there is a great cheap homemade alternative in the growfaqs, all you need is sugar yeast water and a milk container. You should still water the plants, I mist but only if I think I have lock out....too easy to burn your plants. Here is a cheap HPS/MH 400watt light
High Tech Garden Supply

Light is the key between good bud and great bud. Good Luck and welcome. Remember if you have questions ask us.

One thing you have to realize when buying HPS or MH lighting systems is the cost per month, a normal system pulls almost 4 amps of constant power, Keeping it on 24/7 for the vegetative stage is going to cost you roughly 57$/month for just the light, however most people prefer the 16/8 method of ligthing (16 hours of light and 8 hours of darkness.) Your still looking at a pretty penny on electricity.. Co2 is really a more advanced technique and by no means is necessary for growing although it would help.. Personally I have seen crops grow very abundantly without it, Another thing you could look into if you wanna go cheap and try to save money is fluorescent bulbs, however this does depend a lot on how much you actually smoke, the cheaper you go with lighting, the less yield you're going to get from your plants.. It really depends on your type of situation :P

He's right, cost can be an issue.

i think 4-500 $ is plenty to start good fuctional grow setup.

__________________
Maturity equals quality

My Rule of thumb : Always when introducing something new to the grow example co2, more lighting, venting, ect. You must know the pros/cons about the outcome of it and be willing to cough up more money to fix the cons of it.

Basicly a good grow is just as good as you make it.

If your budget is small and don't have a lot of money to spend on higher-quality bulbs such as a HPS, I would go with CFL's because they're really pretty cheap to run depending on how many you have and they are initially quite a bit cheaper than buying a HPS lighting system... Although keep in mind that the higher quality of the light = a better grow..

CFL's aren't the best way to go but I can't bash them either because I have seen some pretty damn good plants produced by using them.

Personally I would highly recommend going with a 400-600W HPS bulb and starting off that way but as Destrukto said, cost per month can really bite you in the ass..

I wouldn't recommend that you make a paste out of baking soda and vinegar.
first of all the chemical reaction is immediate if you used enough baking soda to make a paste the co2 would be gone and you would be putting wet baking soda on your leaves. if you dilute it enough to spray you would be putting vinegar and salt water on your leaves or the soil. cheapest way to give your plants CO2 is to mix up bakers yeast in sugar water and let grow it wont give you as much as a tank of co2 but it would give you some but in my opinion it is a waste of time to do it. just use a fan to circulate the air so that the leaves are moving and keep the room well ventilated

u can go with the hps and just a few 23watt cfl's to veg the plants out if u go with 2 plants get like 2 cfl's per plant or if u want them to grow quicker more is better,look for the highest lumen out put on the cfl's like i think theres 30watt cfl's that do 2600lumens.good luck