Noobie Question

OK, so I've been smoking weed for a few years, but i've never ever ever grown a plant in my life, let alone grown a cannabis plant. But, i'm sick and tired of crap sizes, shady dealers, not being able to find any weed, that kinda thing, so i've been looking into growing a coupla plants in my closet.

I've been looking at Eroewid's grow guide, Kloset King, a few other sites. I'm trying to get a good idea of what I need and what to do, before I even start or before I start and then something goes horribly wrong. I'm also trying to find out what the best method is for a quick growth rate and high yield combined, that kinda thing..

Anyway, i'm thinking of going for a two stage (top and bottom) closet kinda thing. Fluerescants on for 24 hours in the top for three weeks, then transplatting to the bottom of the closet on a 12 hour cycle, lit with a 250 or 400 watt MH.

I'm not gonna start yet, obviously, I need to order some seeds, by the lamps, the fittings, all the stuff I need so it will be a while before i'm ready to plant, I was just wondering something.. what's the difference between male and female plants, and what are their characteristics? Anything you can tell me will be helpful.. cheers :)

Female plants are short and bushey and when matured will grow the buds that I'm sure you have seen & smoked before.

Male plants are tall with few leafs and grow pollen pods when matured and are virtualy fucking useless.

For a beginner I would advise getting feminised seeds of the skunk variety because they are hardy and fairly simple to grow. ;)

I wouldn't go with a 24 hour light cycle, even for vegative growth. My understanding is you should try to mimic the sun as much as possible so I'd put um under 18 hours light/6 hours dark. I would also just use the MH lamp for the enitre grow. Florescents can be used but I still believe that your plants will be kinda spidily and weak. As for male and female characteristics the females are usually shorter and flower later than males. the males have little sacs of pollen and the females have two white hairs in the shape of a V for their preflowers. Anyways good luck. And you should read http://www.sharprubberduck.com if you haven't already.

Here

Cheers for the info and links guys

I'm not gonna start growing (or trying to) until I know exactly what i'm doing :)
thanks again

Also have you thought about sea of greening your plants? This is where you veg your plants to about 14ins or so and then flower them. This is good for small spaces and gives you a quick yeild.

i read something that mentioned sea of greening, but skipped passed it.. what exactly is it!?!?!?

Sea of greening is where you grow a plant (or many) and flower it early(while still small) so to cut down on space.

I'm not sure if the sea of green is the same thing as the screen of green (SCrog) . SCrog method is where you train you plant(s) (make sure their female, probably use a clone from a mother) using a screen so you get many shoots from one plant that way you get many tops instead of just one to maximize your yeild. Look up SCrog on overgrow for more info it may be worth looking into.