How much money would i need to grow 4 plants? (rough estimate) How much space will i need? Would i be able to use a 14in x 14in wooden box 25in height? How can i restrict plant height? What can i use to hide the smell? Any tips or stuff i need to know before growing would be appreciated
You're gonna want to give each plant at least 12"x12" to grow in. You'd be better of just growing one plant and training it. You can train the plant to stay shorter and have more secondary shoots by bending the apical shoot down and tethering it. This will force the plant to constantly have to face back up, so you can snake the stem along the surface of the soil as it grows. You can find all sorts of resources for low stress training if you google "LST." Money? Well, it costs as much as a few socket splitters, a 4 pack each of 26W CFL bulbs both 6500K and 2700K color temperature, soil (I highly recommend Fox Farms if you have access, it beats all competitors for its low price) and a pot. Scavenge your home for things that will help you save money if the budget is tight. You can also get a cheap ($5) timer for when you switch to 12/12. I would say it's easily possible to grow for under $50, maybe even $30 if you can scavenge for at least some of the things on the list.
Soil has less startup cost and is more forgiving. Some say smoother, more potent smoke. However, things like nutrient doses and watering schedule are more guesswork in my opinion. Hydro cost more to start up, but once you have your system you dont have to buy new soil every grow, just your media. Supposedly it is more difficult, but I havent tried yet. Hydro requires more work on the growers part in monitoring your ph and ppm levels. However this seems to me to take some guesswork from the feeding, and of coarse, watering schedules that so many new growers screw up with soil. Though ph monitoring is recomended in soil as well. In a hydro grow, plants have direct uptake of water and nutes. This can cause problems to occur faster should something go wrong, but at the same time allow for faster recovery as well. Hydro will reportedly grow faster and yield more, although in some opinion it does so at the sacrifice of over all quality. Your grow area is very small, so you have to take in to consideration that a hydro system will consume part of your grow chamber. 14 x 14 is a more adequate area for 1 plant than 4. You would have to keep them so small that one larger plant would probably yield just as much.