first time grower, help!!!

go hydroponic. do it yourself

72-78 degrees

The less transplanting the better to avoid any root shock. Start big, stay big.

Success!!

 

Hey with that light that you're using I recommend one auto flowering plant at a time to maximize your harvest potential. Too many plants under too little light will leave you with an undesirable amount of foliage and little flowers.

As for the growing medium, soil is probably best for beginners, don't use miracle grow, the time release fertilizers while do far more harm than good to the plant. You'd do well buying a mild potting soil, some brands that are great for cannabis are: Fox Farms Ocean Forrest, Pro-Mix Organic soilless medium, happy frog, etc. Those mediums will provide your plant with all the nutritional needs for the first 3 weeks or so, hopefully throughout the entire vegetative period.

For a beginner I'd recommend bottled nutrients, simply because it's easier to set it up for success than mixing your own medium start to finish. Any kind of plant food with a high N to P-K ratio will do for veg, and low N high P-K ratio is what you want for budding.

Things you need to make sure everything is successful: PH pen (seriously PH is extremely important, often overlooked.)
Odor control: Carbon filter, charcoal scrubber, anything to make sure that your privacy is upheld.
Ventilation: You need to at least have an exhaust from your grow room, if you have air exchanging then your plant will have slow growth, and the room will heat up very fast. A small exhaust and a passive intake system would be fine for a CFL grow that size.
Patience: Most common mistakes with beginners, too much watering, too much 'babysitting' and just overall not letting the plant do what it does, grow. If you provide the right environment, you will have to do very little actual work during the growing process, mostly just maintaining feedings.

Right one last thing, about the watering, cannabis doesn't like to be constantly soaked, or overwatered, so water when the medium is dried out. When you have a dried out pot lift it up, get an idea of the weight, then water it until you see some run off, lift it up again to use as a comparison. Periodically lift the container to see how dry it is.

EDIT: You should definitely start in small pots first, because it's easy to let a seedling dry out in a container that's too big, or the opposite, can take too long to dry out, and drown the thing. I would at least start in a small container for seedling, transplant once it has a few nodes. With an autoflower you don't want to transplant after it's already flowering, so make sure to put it in the final container early.

 

I dont do, soil, but I'll answer what I can

What is the ideal temp to be in there?
-- Youre going to want your temps to basically be in the 70s with your RH (relative humidity) between 35% and 60% (depends on what stage of growth)

How often do i water them?
-- For soil, the best method is to water when they need it. It helps immensely to actually have a second pot filled the exact same way, completely dry. Then, what you do is compare the weight of the dry pot to the weight of your plants pot. When theyre almost the same weight, your soil is dry and you should water. Doing it 'by weight' is the most effective way, it seems, from what Ive read.

Is it better to start in small pots then transfer or just start in bigger pots and leave throughout?
-- Answered above.

The only other thing I'd note is your ventilation. You said you have 2 holes, one top one bottom and a fan on the bottom.

The fan will be much better served at the top directing the air OUT of the wardrobe. What this will do is create negative pressure in the chamber and new/fresh air will pull in through the bottom hole.

If you leave it as-is, with the fan in th ebottom pointing INTO the wardrobe, the intake air will be coming in faster than the old air can be exhausted out the top. By simply switching this around, you end up with a much more efficient ventilation setup.

Good luck!

 

Get yourself a good quality organic soil and nutrient range there are plenty to choose from.. No need to transplant autos they like going straight into there final pots.. With you only having half a sq meter i wouldn't go with any more than 2 in 3.5 gal pots.. Temps need to be between low to high 70s. Water once before you plant and then after when the pot feels light to pick up. I suggest you do lots of reading an searching for info on YouTube and the net first to gather at least the basics of growing it will pay off. Good luck

 

18/6 is good right through to harvest if your are growing autos.. If not you will need to switch it to 12/12 cycle to induce flowering