Hey PB welcome to cann.com :thumbsup:

Quote Originally Posted by PottyBear
but what about doing this as simply and basically and CHEAPLY as possible? I need to keep the power bill from going through the roof
Sure you can do this on the cheap, i'm sure there's some good grow logs on the subject if you have a look around, try using the search function.

Basically the more money you spend on your setup the best chance you're giving your plants to reach their potential (max yield and potency) so doing it on the cheap won't give you the best quality or biggest yield but you can still get good results if you do it right.

You're not very specific about your lights, you just say you've got a shop fluro, you need to understand that you need a certain amount of lumens (you don't need to worry about lumens really, most people talk about how many watts of light they've got and so long as you're using the correct type of light it's probably easier to use watts, you've just got to understand that some bulbs put out a lot more lumens per watt than others, the types of bulbs that put out the most lumens per watt are HID's (high intensity discharge, hps or mh) at the other end of the scale, incandesent (normal houselight bulbs are one of the least efficient and are unsuitable for growing) to properly light an area so that you'll get a decent harvest.

If you're using cfls or fluro's i'd say you want to be in the 60-90 watts per sq ft area, but check out these links and some growlogs and decide for yourself.

http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-li...-lighting.html

and

http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-li...uch-light.html


What kind of time frame will we be looking at before anything productive might come out the other end (the strain said "8-9 weeks", I assume that is from when you start to force flowering) if I manage to not kill the plants?
Veg for around 5 weeks, flower for 8-9 weeks, harvest. 13-14 weeks total.

Do people really just throw the stuff on a windowsill in a pot and get results?
Yeah, usually poor results tho. If you want good results you've got to spend time caring for your plants.

Is there anything else I can do (inexpensive/free) to improve my chances?
Yeah, read, read and read some more

Anyway - I really hope something comes of it. I still have 4 seeds in reserve if something goes wrong, but I'd like my chances to be as good as they can be under the circumstances. Any advice?
See above

Good luck!

edit to correct typo
hudson88 Reviewed by hudson88 on . Wow - A Little Overwhelmed Hi All, I'm completely new to this whole growing thing. Actually, I am pretty knew to the whole cannabis thing altogether. I have a chronic illness which results in pain and fatigue, and that is what got me to here. A couple of years ago, my wife convinced me to try using some pot to try and help with the problem. Now, it had taken her about 4 years to even convince me to TRY it as I had never taken any "illegal" drug before - I had only used prescription and OTC meds, and drank only Rating: 5