I'm pretty sure you can find a tent to meet your needs for less than $500 but I'm not proponent of spending money that doesn't need spending.

Expect plants to stretch by at least 1/3 but it is strain dependent - Stavias stretch more than Indicas. But you know that. And of course you know that there are methods for growing tall strains in small spaces. Have you considered doing a scrog? It increases your time to yield by a few weeks but allows for taller varieties in smaller spaces and yields will be larger overall.

I believer you are right about not being able to clone auto-flowering plants. There are lots of other short, stubby strains you might consider. I'm looking for a good website that provides full details on different strain growing characteristics - like you see at some seed distributor sites but more complete. If anyone has one please post it here. I wonder if wikipedia could do that... let's look... seems not. Anyone?

Our setups will be very similar. I have a bit more space to work with. I'm looking to buy a tent that is 2'w x 4'x 6' tall. I'll divide it in two with a set of shelves. Up top I'll do my cloning and vegging and down below I'll keep some mothers. I don't need to do a continuous grow so I'll keep the mom's on tap. I thought about building the tent myself but I can afford the tent and I need the time for other activities. I'm planning to do 4 - 6 plants in a scrog setup. I'm going to use straight up florescent tubes for the tent. Nothing fancy.
bigsby Reviewed by bigsby on . Noob's First Grow - Advice Needed Hey all, I've been around the forums for about a month now with research and such, but I finally registered because I figured I may as well share my plan and request advice to get it exact. Like I said, most of this plan is based solely upon research. I'm currently experimenting with some reg seeds to get the feel of it, but that's using a small aeroponics system. Now before I start, this is a system that will probably require some money to build, but from what I can put together, Rating: 5