Help me out here, I'm new to this.

Okay, so this will be my first time growing. I'm doing it indoors and I want to keep it cheap and organic. I have the time to maintain the plant the entire time its growing and I have done quite a bit of reading but don't feel like I am getting straight answers. I'm not trying to grow hydro I just want to grow some regular weed to smoke because I'm sick of getting fucking ripped off by these sucky ass weed sellers, so I'm growing my own. Let's not make this more complicated than it needs to be okay? Just help me out.
Supplies I have so far:
Feminized White Widow Seeds
Root Pouch
Plant Pot
Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Potting Mix
Miracle-Gro Perlite

I still need to get fluorescent lights and I'm also going to get a fan and an air filter. I am only growing ONE plant.
I am still deciding if I need to get fertilizer.

The organic choice potting mix has natural fertilizer in it. It's got 10% nitrogen, 0.05% available phosphate, and 0.05% soluble potash.
The perlite has percentages of NPK in it too.

Questions I need answered:
What else do I need?
Do I absolutely have to have fert or can I grow without it since there is already fert in my organic soil.
If I do need fert, what kind can I find at Home Depot. Don't give me some answer like 20-20-20. I have no fucking idea what that means. Give me a specific fertilizer. Can I use bone meal and blood meal mixed? Like I said this is my first time I'm completely lost when it comes to this but I have to learn at some point so please help me out.

Also, help me out with the lighting situation. Im confused I read some articles that say start 18 hours on/off others I read keep it in the light completely for the first two weeks, others say 12 hours on/off through out the whole plant's life. I want to grow in 3-4 months. So it would be greatly appreciated if someone could help me out with that too.

Thank You,
Stephanie.

Prefertilized soils can cause difficulty. A pot seedling is very sensitive to nutrient levels, and a soil that would be fine for a month-old plant can be too hot for a seedling.
You will almost certainly need to get supplemental nutes/fertilizer. Veg and bloom will have different needs and formulations. You can go all-organic, using blood meal and fish emulsion in veg, supplementing with bone meal for flowering (when the plant needs less N and more P).
For lights, a T5 panel would be excellent, say a 2-foot 8-tube unit. Alternatively a small MH discharge light in the 150-250-watt range. There's really no way to do lights cheap. CFLs are the classic cheap way, but it'll still cost some money and require some fabricating skill

Lighting schedules: in veg, a daily schedule of 18/6 to 24/0 is the norm ... long days signal "spring; growing time" to the plant. When it's time to flower, a 12/12 schedule is used, and ideally HPS lighting.
cn

Yea dont complicate thing keep it simple and your grow will turn out better one thing you do need is a ph meter dont even plant the seed if you not going to get one. if your growing only 1 plant then i wouldnt bother with a fan and clearly a hps would be to much for one plant so you gonna most likely be useing cfls during flowering and veg you could also get a 4 foot shop light from wallmart they are the perfect cheap light for veg but since you growing 1 plant i gusse you wouldnt need a 4 foot shop light so you gonna most likely end up useing cfls. i would highly reccomend growing more plant you said you never wanna buy anymore weed 1 plant isnt gonna give u enough weed to smoke till the next harvest it depend how long you veg even with long veg time you wouldnt have eno0ugh to smoke long term good luck man
much love
sticky

i didnt mean dont bother with a fan i ment dont bother with an inline fan and filter since your growing 1 plant you still need like a little fan for your plant

Yeah, you guys are being very helpful. This information is useful. I def will be using cfl's now that I know more about them.
But now I have another question. How do I keep my plant from getting too tall. The closet I am growing it in is kind of short.. How do I keep it at a good height, say... 4 ft? Is that even possible? I've researched topping and I can't do that because my closet is also pretty thin in width. What should I do?

I have also thought about getting a tomato cage, will that work? And I already planned on getting the pH meter.

srsraerae said:

I have also thought about getting a tomato cage, will that work? And I already planned on getting the pH meter.

Click to expand...

Save your money and forget the pH meter. The tomato cage is good. For that matter, being a newbie, forget the term "pH". Buy good soil, don't overwater, don't go nuts with fertilizers and KISS!

Agreed ... if you admix powdered dolomite lime to your soil (there are instructions onsite for how and how much. I don't know off the top of my head. Subcool's Supersoil recipe should help there; i believe it's a stickied thread in his Organics subforum.) you'll have Mg and Ca in place, and never a pH worry.
To keep your plants short, blue light is necessary. If you use one socket for an actinic reptile (or coral)-style blue light, or any CFL with a high (8000 to 12000 ºK), your internodes will be short as the plant will allow. Works best for Indicas ... Sativas are stretchy beasts regardless. cn

you can also lst you plant to keep it short and also increse yeild its verry simple you just bend you plant over and tie her down so she cant strech back up i do that every grow now also i recomend toping at the 4th node (set of leaves) since you only have one plant you want to try and increse yeild as much as you can this will also help to keep it short.
good luck man
much love sticky

yea they are right you only have 1 plant dont get ph meter my 1st grow i only grew 2 plants and they were fine without a ph meter but i probably got lucky because lately i have been haveing ph troubles its because this new place i live has shitty water i think