growing newbie

[9ski9]

In the past, my results have been very tall stalks with leaf.

It's all about the light, lady. As GK says, you need 18 to 24 hours of light for the first stage of their lives, which is called the vegitative state. The "veg" stage lasts about 60 days. At that point, you'll switch them to 12 hours of light, which will force them into a flowering state.

The light is the key to growing and how much money and effort you put into lights directly effects yield and quality.

Most people use compact fluorescent lights (CFL's), which are available at every hardware store and very inexpensive, for the veg stage.

Then, if you want quality bud, you'll need to spend at least $80 to $120 for an HPS or MH light to take your plants through their flowering stage.