Noob needs help with CFL grow box and setup.

Hi all,

I am a complete noob...I mean I have never grown anything ever. I have been reading quite a bit and have decided to start along the process of CFL growing. I don't have a lot of space or a huge budget and so thats why I have decided to go down the CFL route. Oh and Im from the UK.

My goals are to at first just try and gorw something that I can smoke and am not that worried about the yield.

I intend to build myself a grow box which will be 36in (3ft) tall x 32in (2.6ft) wide x 18in (1.5ft) deep. Will be using 120mm PC fans one for an intake at the bottom and one at the top for exhaust. Intend to use some kind of mylar type material for the inside of the box. The lghting is an issue as I am not exactly sure what strength lights I need but I was thinking along the lines of 250W.

I will be trying to keep the lights between 2-3in away from the plant and then if it gets to big for the box I will try LST/SCROG'ing. As a noob I will need to learn this technique obv and expect to mess it up first time.

I was intending on growing a Nirvana Northern Lights Autoflowering strain.

I have a couple of questions to ask if thats ok:
1) Is 250W an ok amount for this size of project?
2) I was thinking of having 4 bulbs, 2 on the top of the box and 1 either side of the box. Is this reasonable or would it be better to have just 2 at the top with a bigger individual wattage?
3)Is the Northrn Lights AF a good strain for my kind of setup and a easy enough/forgiving to the noobs?
4) How many plants do you think I would be able to grow within my box? My first thought was to germinate and plant 6 babies, lose 2 due to being male and lose another 2 because I cocked it up, leaving me with 2 healthy full grown plants in the box for flowering/harvest.

Sorry for all the questions guys but just need a little guidance before the start of my build.

hi mate im also from the uk, south east , if i were u, i would just get 2 high power bulbs on the top, but put the light inbetween both plants, but near the top of the plants, if u get what i mean i ordered 2 125w cfl's from ebay for like £50, and hung each one between 2 plants, growing 4 plants, worked fine. Also you could probably grow 6 plants tbh, because the light is there they will grow, but i would just grow 2 and get a better yield and save your seeds, because you can always grow the other 4 whilst your smoking what you have grown! Go down homebase you can just get 8l of soil for like £2.50 pretty cheap, get perlite as well. Also if you are worried about your lights not being powerful enough just lst the plants, this means alot of the plant is getting the light, not just the top. if you dont know how to lst just utube it there is a few videos. Also dont use tin foil in there, either just paint it white, pin up sheets of paper, or use mylar, but the best is to get a pack of those re writeable cd's from tesco and stick them up in the box, expensive, but sticking them up doesnt ruin them and they r like mirrors ggood luck

Also if you lst then you can keep it 3 foot tall, but if your not then probably give it a extra couple of feet, just bee on the safe side incase u put them into flower and they shoot up xxx

AND your lights need to be 250w of 6400k for vegative, and then buy another set of bulbs that are at 2400k or w.e is, 2700 2400 w.e but yea you need that spectrum because it has more red light

View attachment 1146083View attachment 1146073plant are only 4 weeks into flowering in pic,lol..funny stuff, i have 5 plants, 2 bulbs on each, simple setup,no nutes just water and molasses, max yields. Last harvest 5 plants 12 ounces, 40 bucks a month total to grow them, I use the same lights for veg and flowering-yes thats right the 2700k-3500k-- SAME LIGHTS" guess im one in a million.There are a few key elements needed when using cfl's,the one on the left is a 300w cfl 13.49 at the depot-, the other is the 150w 9.95$- Bro if you wanna know how to grow dank bud with cfl's email me and i'll give ya the run down. Too many know it all's on these threads for me.