Just bought seeds, have my grow closet set up, now what....

I'm new to all of this. New too this site, new to growing, just everything. My friend and I have just recently bought seeds because we wanted to start growing, now he has grown before. I don't know how successful he was but I want to make sure our chances are good. I know how to germinate properly and I have successfully done it already but I just need to know how to get things started for real.

The area that we are doing it in is closet size, about 5 feet high and about 2'5'' feet wide. We have covered it in aluminum foil seeing as it is an old wooden cabinet type thing. Im wondering what lights I should use, if I can grow AND flower in here ( not at the same time of course), how many plants I can have in here at the same time, how much water and air they need, type of fan or ventilation, and soil type, and if I should buy some kind of bottled water to water the plants with. I'm hoping that someone else has experience with these conditions and can help me.

I just purchased 5 seeds of chemdog so I really dont want to mess this up. We are also running on a fairly tight budget, so lights and everything else cant be super expensive.

Thanks! Hoping to get growing ASAP

What's your budget? Watch the Jorge Cervantes Ultimate Grow Series on YouTube to get you started on the basics.

So start by taking that foil down as foil is not good for reflection and can distribute light unevenly so your actually losing more light start by painting the inside of the closet a flat or glossy this will increase the reflection using foil you have a reflection percent 70%-75% with a flat white you have 85%-93% reflection percent so save yourself the light and just go with the white foil also builds up heat do being surrounded in foil you will also develop temperature problems the ideal temperature for growing is at 73f-81f cannabis requires 14 hours or more to stay at vegative less then this the plant will enter a flowering stage. Most people on here prefer using 18 hours of light on 6 hours off or just a plain 24 hour light cycle for growing medium I recommend starting with a premium soil mix I personally recommend Fox Farm's Ocean Forest it has added nutrients for up to a month so no additional feeding is needed for that period. You will also need basic nutrients for vegative and flowing stages. As for lights you will either want to invest in a HID lamp such as a MH or HPS I recommend starting with a 250w Hps Fixture as MH systems are used more vegative growth as they are closer to the sun intensity outdoors before flowering begins when buds are grown under a MH they can become airy and not dense well plant's that were used a HPS during vegative growth can become tall and lanky but with dense buds. As for water what is the PH of your local tab as dissolved solids in your tab water are far more beneficial then using distilled bottled water.

I'm not at my friends house at the moment so I don't know what the water is like but next time I go over I will try and see what the pH is. My budget is probably in the $200-300 range. Spending the least amount of money possible would be the best. Can you recommend a light to get and where to get it? Do i need to do anything else than paint the cabinet white? Also what kind of paint should I use? I will start watching the video series you mentioned.
Thanks for all the info!

I am not going to say how long i Have been growing.. But looks like you want to go stealth. Trust me when I say this.... First time grows in closets are a mother fucker. No air flow, lots of stink and all kinds of things like landlords or such looking in. In that kind of space, just one real sized plant? Call me crazy.. Just wait. You could do about 60 of these in that same space. This one is only 3 weeks old and is showing sex. Look for lowrider seeds. Oh, and I agree.. Take the tinfoil down.. You are much better off with really white paint.

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LOL 200-300 for the whole tent?? what do you have and what do you need? you could use the sun and get some dirt outside.. so the main thing you need is nutes.. with that budget at least find nutes you want to use and a ph tester.. thats the basic hopefully you have a room in full sun or a spot you can grow this outside and bring it in 12/12 when you want too flower..

Landlords and people finding it aren't an issue. That's just all the space we have. I would prefer to do it all inside though. Are nutrients a big concern? I figured that if I got the right soil I wouldn't need to load up on nutrients. I know this is a far stretch but I just want to successfully grow maybe 3 to 5 plants at a time and have them actually yield bud. I have done research but I just don't know where to start. It's hard to focus on something when you hear people throwing fancy phrases around like hydroponics and sea of green. I just want something that works, yields reasonably well and I don't have to pay an arm and a leg for. I'm sure my budget can be stretched so the more input I get from you guys the better.
Thanks for all the advice so far!

Everybody I'm tired and don't want to type another long post can someone explain to him about CFL lighting which is more in his budget range.

hey man add me to skype i will help u out with ur grow my skype is riffle666

[video=youtube;kO6GhtrgxJ8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO6GhtrgxJ8[/video]

just get going with growing men

Ok guys just bought 4x 55w cfl bulbs at Walmart. I think the lumens was 3860 per bulb. Will this be sufficient for a cfl vegetation stage right now? This seemed like a good way to go with limited space, cash, and it having a seemingly good success rate.
Thanks for all the help so far guys.

Yeah you can get a small Sea of Green type grow going with that remember though that plants require less lighting during vegative growth as compared to flowering were you will need to upgrade to either more CFLs or a HPS fixture what spectrum of light are those CFLs 6500k or 2700k

I couldn't find the kelvin's anywhere sadly. I know I might have to take them back but they were the last 4 so I wanted to snag them. I can look on the box in the morning but I was sure I didn't see anything about it. Although I was feeling quite euphoric. 2700k is for flowering correct? I was planning on getting those closer to when I needed them.

Yeah 2700k is more on the red spectrum which is closer to the natural sunlight during summer solstice (flowering) outdoors have you tryed these bulbs out yet is the bulb more yellow/red or a soft white.

I have yet to test them out yet. On the way to Walmart and home it was a pretty bad storm so I had to run in and run out. They are in the car. I will try them tomorrow and post the results.
Thanks Spider.

Seems I was right and it does not show the kelvins. All i know is it's a 55w bulb, 3860 lumens, it's also huge and takes time to heat up and get bright. Brand is GE.
Thanks

What's the color of the light is it a yellow or bright white?

Are they these bulbs?
http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-78965-Energy-Smart-55W-Bulb/16911751#Item+Description

Cus if they are then they are 2700k my friend

No psuedo they are not. Spider they are a very bright white, on the verge of being blue which I think is a good thing.