well, you say you are broke, can you really afford to grow?...the buckets are fine...what kind of lights/ or outside?...they are a little stretched, but there is no reason to give up(i've grown a bigass tree with a plant that looked like that,it just might effect your yield...you need alot of light real close to tighten up the plant, you need reflective material all around it, so you don't waste light energy...get back with more info