First Grow: How Many Should I Start With...

My first grow is going to be in a tent, I've been told that I should start a few of the seeds, wait a bit, and then start more seeds (like 5 and 5).

I only have one tent and one light source. Would I still be able to flower both at the same time? it's White Widow if that makes a huge difference.

I can help you. Just home from work, gunna blaze and dish out the info.

Before I start, how big is your tent (dimentions)
What is your light source? HPS/MH/CFL? Wattage?
There is a stratagy for what you want to do with one light source. And the quick answer is yes, you can flower both at the same time, but it'll take good planning.

This is our tent
400W light. no idea what kind. The description doesn't say. I assume it's a CFL.

Holy monoly crow son, you need to know what kind. Why assume a cfl? that makes very little sense. I hope, for your sake, it's a 400W hps. Which in any case can provide light effectivly for a 3x3' area. If you want to only stick to one light source, you can use the 12/12 method from seed. That way it's always in flower, and you can add anything you want any time. What you can expect your plants to do is is grow up, and NOT really branch out. The final result looks primarilView attachment 1263003y like a fat cola on a stick. Some are exactly that, and some branch out a bit at the sides, giving u side nugs. like the ones in this picture.View attachment 1263000
The one on the left is Williams Wonder, the one on the right is Lemon White Widdow. Notice the difference in growth pattern. These were clones rooted in 12/12 light, and 12/12 right out the door, no veg. It's typically what you can expect from seeds, only seeds will be a little bit larger scale. The advantage to this method? You can fit many more of these under one light, Effectivly producing more net weight in dense colas, then on say 2 plants that take up the whole space. Think about it. Second is perpetual harvesting every 30-40 days can be achieved simply by timing out new additions to the grow tent.

Eventually we'll finish the basement and start a rotation. For now we just wanna get our feet wet.

so do nothing but 12/12. does this reduce yield at all?

and with a little more digging, it's 400W HPS.

so two of these. one of these

I don't need any kind of special equipment right? a basic lamp should work?

Yes, go to a thrift store, and find the most suitable and manuverable lamp or light socket, and make it a temporary rig you can remove. And get the specific lights i told you about. They also are named "daylight" Spiral bulbs. But the specific color spectrum you want is 6500k. most "daylight" bulbs will have this maked on them. Seedlings take off like mad under these things, and they produce so very little heat.

I built two 23 watt Sylvania 6500K spirals into a gutted computer case, with simple ventalation, and use that to grow every new up and comming plant to go into my 400W HPS Stealth cab.

awesome. I'm not very good at electrician stuff. as long as it's as simple as taking apart a lamp, I'm good.

I like you. You give me good info. I think I'll keep you.

Good info Sgt. Fly!!
You have a nice tent Victus, I set the same one up for the Mothers except it didn't come fully equiped like yours. I started with a tent and now moving on up to a 10x11 room, it's a greatway to start it just makes you want to grow more and more. Good luck!

well, we're doin it in the basement and we don't have the money for a full remodel down there right now. eventually I figure this will make a decent mother tent. for now it should make a decent grow tent.