What to spend my money on...

So I'm going out tomorrow to buy the stuff for my little setup. I'm planning on growing 3 plants for myself for fun and experience.

I'm getting CFL lights and want to know if I should get cool, warm or a mix? Also, what is the difference between an "ES" bulb and a "BC"? Does it make a difference which one? The ones I want are 20W each so how many should I have for the plants?

Should I switch to metal halide lights in the vegetation stage and keep them running endlessly till I get the buds off?

I'm going to buy some fertilizer that is high in nitrogen for the grow cycle and also some fertilizer that is high in phosphorous and potassium for the flowering stage. I'll be getting a bottle of ph up and a bottle of ph down too.

I'm getting a cheap drop kit to test the levels of everything too.

Anything else I'm missing? Cheers for a the help for this first time grower

you got it down mate

Thanks buddy!

Any help with the lights?

Imo, if you can afford it get a 400 watt digital ballast and a hood. The digital ballasts are pretty cheap, I got my my old one off of ebay for $152.00 and it came with a MH and Hps starter bulb set and an air cooled hood. The bulbs were cheap but worked good for my first grow. My first round I did 3 plants, one of them was fim'd and I pulled a total weight of 6.56 oz's. A year later I switched to a 1000 watter tho and have 14 going now.

Sadly, I don't think I can afford that. I'm also growing in a clothes cupboard so I don't have that much room

JUST GET 20-20-20 you cant go wrong with that for veg, other then that be happy to be a proud daddy

I use warm cfl for veg and flower, cheaper that way or easier. I am using 27 watt btw. You want a minimum of 50 watts per plant and 100 or more would be better. Reflectors for the lights will help a lot. Clamp reflector is best, use y splitter and put 2 to a reflector. Beer can reflector is cheap and works. Have the cfl sideways to the plant with reflector, you will get a lot more out of the light.

I have alkaline water and just use lemon juice for ph down, with the cheap drop test to verify. Baking powder will work as ph up. Keep the plants short like a foot or foot and a half. The lights only penetrate 4 inches or about 8 inches if using clamp reflector and 2 lights in y splitter.

For smell ona gel is cheapest I know of. Good carbon air purifier is better and extraction fan with carbon filter is top of the line.

Thank you so much yesum!

I saw these in another thread, what is the fitting the lights go in called?

Also, what kind of potting mix should I buy? IE what minerals should be in their soil when the cuties start growing?

I have not used the ones in the photo so can not tell what to call them, but they are just like the y splitter I use with the reflector. If you use ones like in photo you can cut a aluminum can in half, fix it to the bulb, and add a lot of light to the bulb. There are how to guides for that here or google beer can reflector.

Over half the light from those bulbs in photos is not gonna hit the plant. Reflectors do add heat to the grow so a fan for the canopy is a good idea, just a weak or cheap one will do.

I use quality potting soil without time release nutes, and add perlite 30% to make it looser, and some earth worm castings. Veg them with that and up pot to flower mix when it is time to flower. That mix is same as the veg but add 2 tbsp bone meal and 1 tbsp blood meal to gallon of soil. I now use Rainbow Flower Mix but that might be hard to find. Just water them, no added nutes mostly. I topdress the soil with a little fertilizer on occasion and water it in.

You could veg and flower using the flower mix and just keep it in the same pot too. Mix the soil with added stuff just before planting. If you let it sit the amendments will activate within a week or two and the soil could get too 'hot'.

Or you can just add nutes as you water, most do that and do not amend the soil to provide everything.

I'm planning on getting liquid nitrogen nutes to water with in the growing stage and a phosphate & potassium liquid to water them with in the flowering stage, so does that mean I should just buy some simple basic quality soil?

I'll just get the Y splitters and do the can like you said, I really like the idea

Will I need a fan? I'm not sure if I can fit one in my cabinet but I could in theory just open it up and have one on when the lights are on too!

Thanks for all the help again!

Yea, some quality potting soil without timed release nutes as that would complicate things. Perlite if you can get it. I do not know about your cabinet, but I think you will need to have air flow through it or the lights will cause heat build up.

If you are not going to have an opening for air coming in and going out(sounds like it), you could just open the cab for lights on and a little fan on it if needed. Then close it all up for lights out, assuming you are in the flower stage.

I assume you are in UK so the laws are pretty good now, just take your 3 plants and set up to grow also? But anyways, be a drag to lose it, so really take care of the odor thing. They make pretty cheap,small carbon based air purifiers here in US and you can add extra carbon to boost them. And the ona gel. A regular air purifier will not work great for pot smell, you need the carbon ones.

Sweet, I'll get the Perlite too.

Yeah I'll just open up the cabinet and use a rotating fan.

I live in Australia, laws are alright. If I get caught it will just be personal use and a small fine. I'm not worried about the smell because my neighbors aren't very close to where I'm growing it. How far away could you smell it?

What ratio should my soil to Perlite be? 90% soil 10% perlite?

You should be fine with what you have on the list man.
CFL's are the way to go though, in my opinion, lower heat, so less of a detection rate, as well as a lower energy bill.

Happy growing.
Peace.

Thanks brother, everyone is so polite and nice on these forums, I might make a thread with constant updates of my growing progress!

Make that thread I'd like to see it I was just in a small cannery my self good luck on grow post some pics on setup n how they grow love to see it

I definitely will!

I've decided to buy distilled water because the water in town is heavily chlorinated.

Will it smell very strong with few plants? Will I really have to worry about the scent?

Are PH test strips crappy? Should I buy a kit where you take some water and put drops in?