Are Northern Lights and Silver Haze good strains to start out with? Yes, I'm a newb!

So I'm really, really new to learning about growing. I just started researching over the last week or so. Basically, I'm just tired of having to search high and low in my city, only to find some overpriced midgrade bullshit.

Still trying to learn what the best practices are for me and my environment. I'm thinking about setting up a grow tent in my garage. I don't mind spending a few bucks on the outset, as I think I will save in the long run. Would really appreciate it if you some of you could weigh in on a few questions I have:

1. Thinking about purchasing a 2x4 indoor tent (7 ft tall). How many plants will that accommodate? I'm hoping at least 4.
2. Are potted plants even the way to go? Or should I be looking at some sort of hyrdo set up?
3. What are good beginner strains to start off with? Something that is easy and that I can learn from, but will still give me good yield and quality. I'd like to try to grow both an Indica and a Sativa. Are Northern Lights (Indica) and Haze (Purple or Silver) (Sativa) descent options?
4. Can you even grow those two strains simultaneously? Or do they have different lighting/timing requirements?
5. My biggest question for now is lighting! What kind of lights should I consider? I've been reading that LED's are the way to go. But should I also consider HL or fluorescent Don't want to expend a lot of energy, but I want good yields and quality. Any advice/recommendations? Can someone give me a brief explanation in layman terms about the importance of light spectrum?

I guess that's enough questions for now. Any info will be appreciated!

Also, can anyone suggest any good books or manuals to read? Thanks!

-can do anywhere between 1 and like 8(maybe more) in the tent. depends on grow style and pot size.
-would suggest dirt to start. maybe hydro down the road. dirt is much more forgiving of most mistakes for a beginner.
-NL would not be a terrible choice. doing both indica, and sativa will require more training to keep the canopy even. if you are up for it, go for it.

-you could go either way with lighting. i love led and would run more of them if i had the budget. but with my area it would get expensive.
i would suggest a 600w air cooled. Metal Halide for veg (18/6), High Pressure Sodium for flower(12/12).

Agree with vilify. Your last statement - do you think doing both vegging and flowering under HPS and just switching your balast from 650 to 1000 would be proper?

1. Those are indica dominant think how big around each plant should be...roughly 2ft or more depending on method.
2.go with pots and organic soil with peat moss and perlite...2 gallon pot if you don't want to repot in flower.
3. Go with the ones you have, stay away from hazes until you perfect your method. very hard to grow but good.
4. All plants in the same cycle require the same light and dark time. 18/6 for veg and 12/12 in bloom.
5. To save energy use cfls bro...5000-6500k spectrum in veg and 2700k in bloom.
6. If you don't have nutes yet pick up a free sample of Veg+Bloom from this site...it'll make things simpler www.hydrponics-research.com

Hope i could help feel free to ask me any questions

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Mine right now in almost 3 weeks flower with v+b and a lil more p-k in flower

NL is indica dominant find a type of kush as another their not to difficult usually

vilify said:

-can do anywhere between 1 and like 8(maybe more) in the tent. depends on grow style and pot size.
-would suggest dirt to start. maybe hydro down the road. dirt is much more forgiving of most mistakes for a beginner.
-NL would not be a terrible choice. doing both indica, and sativa will require more training to keep the canopy even. if you are up for it, go for it.

-you could go either way with lighting. i love led and would run more of them if i had the budget. but with my area it would get expensive.
i would suggest a 600w air cooled. Metal Halide for veg (18/6), High Pressure Sodium for flower(12/12).

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Thanks, Vilify. I appreciate the feedback. Maybe I'll hold off on the Sativa then until I have a successful grow to learn from. As for lighting, I've heard a MH/HPS combo may provide greater yield over LED? What do you think? And can you suggest a good source/brand for lights? Thanks!

1000lights.com should have what you need go with led's if you can afford them, they save alot of energy and yield just as much average...just thought i'd throw my 2 cents in

Thanks man. Appreciate the tips. I'm def going with the organic soil. And I may hold off on the haze and opt for something else easier (and more forgiving). I've read that Kush isn't so bad for beginners. Would really love a nice Sativa though.

As for lights...I thought LED's used the least, and plus you don't have to worry about the heat from the bulbs. Why do you recommend cfls? And can you suggest a good source/brand for lights? There seem to be so many options when it comes to lighting.

Ahhh...just saw where you replied a few minutes ago about lights. I'll check out 1000lights. Thanks. And your plants look good. Would love to see them when their done. Thanks!

I only recomend cfls because they use significantly less energy than hps and mh...sun god is a good cfl some push 12,000 lumens but for standard base they go up to 7500 lumens....mogul pushes more but you can always buy a converter to use in standard socket. also no heat like LED's you can put lights 3 inches away from the plant the closer the better and side and top lighting. A good sativa would be chemdawg or AK47, not to difficult either. And thanks for the compliment

I'm on my 2nd grow of using a 4 foot 4 bulb t5 fluro veg and flower, decent results and cheap to run. But this will be my last time flowering with the t5s. I will continue to veg with t5s in one tent and flower in the other

robert030188 said:

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Mine right now in almost 3 weeks flower with v+b and a lil more p-k in flower

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those are stretched wicked

grorite said:

those are stretched wicked

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Told my cousin yesterday which is why the plant is on the bucket closer to the cfls...cousin is a first time cfl user. tried to tell him before it happened but he wouldn't listen.