Great first grow shocker!!! I live in the midwest and have had to deal with stunted growth due to heat. So........ went back and started over and after years of tring, I finally decided to listen. My next grow was amazing! The reason???? Temperature, humidity and water. This is a soil grow by the way. I kept the temperature "Tightly" between 70 and 80 F. The humidity was the next thing. I read that for lush growth you must keep the humidity around 60 - 70 percent. What a difference in plant growth. I had ten plants growing in a 4x6 grow room and though I would have plenty of room based on my previous grows. Let me tell you, by the end of the grow I thought the plants were going to blow the walls apart because they were so huge, nothing like I had seen before!!!!
I also lived in Maine at one time and I fully realize how cold a basement can get. Please make sure you get a thermostat and control that heat the best you can. Place a humidifier in that tent as well. Not a steam one either. I made that mistake early and the steam was flowing over the plants and burned a few of them. So I purchased another one at Wally Worlds, the one with the wic filter in it, OMG works perfect!!!!!!
On the water, I read where one guy felt the weight of the bucket when he knew they needed watering. He made sure the bucket felt relatively the same weight before watering again. Of course you will have to compensate for growing plants!!! I did this and it worked perfectly. After a few weeks, I worked off the vibes coming from the plants and have had no problems with watering.
Well, welcome to the club that you helped to start so many years ago!!!!!