Hey there, everyone! I'm looking to grow a couple of (indoor) plants for personal use as cheap and easy as possible. It's all just in the planning stage right now and I've done a fair bit of research but I'd definitely appreciate some advice and tips from more experienced/knowledgeable growers. I live in Central Queensland, Australia so the climate is usually pretty warm and humid (though its cooler and drier now in Winter). I wanted to get a small, forgiving strain of autoflowering feminized beans - any specific recommendations for strains or seedbank? Stealth isn't really an issue; I was planning to grow in my bedroom, on my desk and under fluro and natural light from a window while my little seedlings are small enough. As she gets bigger, I'll just move her to a corner and rig up some lighting. If it needs absolute darkness or to be hidden at some point then I have a small closet with sliding doors which is available for occasional use. I can build a makeshift tent if necessary or advisable I know it's not ideal but is it possible to use florescent lights during all growth stages and have a successful harvest - I realise it will likely decrease harvest size but are there any other major downsides to using fluros from sprout to harvest? Can anyone recommend any other specific bulbs that are readily available, relative inexpensive, and better for the plant? I was going to use an old, tall, adjustable desk lamp with a downwards reflective dome to house the lighting so compatibility with regular light sockets is a must. I've read that some people even grow under regular house lights.. I'll do more research and select specific nutes but I'm thinking of going with an appropriate premixed liquid fertilizers whenever necessary. I've found some good basic soiless potting mix that is nice and light, holds enough water but drains well. Is there anything major I'm missing here; is this a decent recipe for a first grow? Keep in mind this is just a bit of fun and for personal use only. Thanks a bunch in advance!
Sometimes autos can be sensitive to stress. If you can go with a good organic base soil and organic nutes then PH will be less of a problem if you go with chemical based nutes then PH is more important for the over all health of the plant and will require a PH meter for liquids, some PH Up & Down buffer solutions and some calibration solutions. Also getting seeds shipped to Australia might be a bit of a problem as I read that some seed banks don't ship there but I imagine there are a few reputable seed banks that do. As for lighting 100 actual watts of cfl light for the first plant and an additional 50 watts of cfl light for each additional plant if you go the cfl route or if using floro tubes go with T5 HO lights. As for darkness you want total uninterrupted darkness during the dark period.