Situation/Restrictions:
I really want to grow one plant for my own personal use, but I have a few questions about my situation. I want to spend only about $100 on the total operation, including price of seeds. I want to harvest the plant (undecided) at about 3 feet or less, so take this into consideration for the lighting.

Wattage
Given this, how many watts do I need to grow it? I figured three 42 watts CFLs, so 126 watts. Is this enough for decent results?

Purchase lights online?
I live in the United States. Home depot sells 42 watt CFLs, similar to their website:
home depot
The bulb costs $10 a piece, and they only have the one spectrum type for that size. They have a 23 watt "day light" though for $7. The fixtures they go in cost $6 each and can only fit 1 bulb, so I would need 3+ minimum fixtures, so you can see the price is starting to go up (about $50 for lights+fixture alone)

Can anyone recommend an online website for ordering cheap CFLs and fixtutures? Any luck with Ebay? The lights around 2700K seem to be cheaper than higher 5000+K lights. Could I skimp on the 5000+K light and maybe just get 1 of them around 20 watts and the rest 2700K?


Feminized or not feminized?
Using about 120 watts of light, could I plant 2 seeds, wait till they sex, and then just gamble that one of them turns into a female and grow that one?
Because I am doing just a single plant, would you recommend I buy feminized seeds? They are almost doubled the price though. Are there any cheap, reliable websites for feminized seeds? I recently had my heart set on Cali Orange, but the price of feminized is more than what i want to spend... I found unfeminized in my price range though.

Thanks for helping a new guy out

i cant tell u that if ur only growing 1 or 2 plants then 1 - 2 CFL's at about 125watt each (1 veg, 1 flowerin) will do the trick. im not sure on ur american style CFL's. basicly the more light, the better. keep that in mind.

and feminised seeds. yes, well worth it. a place im gonna buy mine from, i can buy in single seeds. so i can just buy 3 - 4 for my 4 plants and i dont have to worry about them being male (hopefully) ppl say theres like a 99.9% change of a plant being male from a feminised seed.

so if u only want 1 or 2 plants then i would just buy normal seeds since there cheaper and some of them will be male / not sprout or something anyway.

if u dont wanna mess about with that then yeah, id defo go for fem seeds.

__________________
1st Grow: http://www.rollitup.org/grow-journal...ta-tundra.html
2nd Grow: http://www.rollitup.org/grow-journal...ml#post1403482

ok thanks. i saw one place for ordering single seeds, but they wont ship to the US. where are you ordering yours from?

Sorry to jack this thread but how the F do you start your own thread?

go with nl for your seed.....just look to the top of the page and click "Marijuana Seeds"....they will ship as few as 4 at a time. If you're just doin 1 plant make it a good one. Just harvested one of their White Widows and it is EXCELLENT........big dense bud covered with sticky trichs...

__________________
"Anyone who lives within their means.....suffers from a serious lack of imagination". Oscar Wilde