I'm looking for low key.

so ive been reading alot of topics on this insane site.. I LOVE IT.. neways me and my wife have hit hard times and are more or less unable to afford to buy our herb, we both use for medical purposes, myself for chronic back pain, and her for her extreme menstrual pains (I'm not saying that we don't enjoy it ). after quite some discussion between us we decided to start some plants. most of the seeds came from a pollinated bubblegum plant my mother-in-law had and a couple are Mystery seeds. i have 8 plants that are a week from seed and i think everything is going pretty good, this is my first time so i messed up starting them... had the light too far away so they stretched out a little bit but that problem has been fixed. my goal is to do this cheap, from what i understand i can get away with a bunch of 26w cfl, right now i have them under 4 20w floro tubes until i finish outfitting my waterheater closet.

what im really asking is what would be the least amount of those wonderful 26w cfl bulbs that i can get away with for say 3 or 4 plants(i hope i get 3 or 4 ladies)

i'm not really looking for incrediable yeild, just a bit from each plant, if we get an ounce or two in the end i'll be so happy i wouldnt be able to explain.

I don't plan on using nutes unless i have to to keep the plants alive, and what im hoping for is maybe 2 bulbs per plant. if i go with that should that be enough to keep the plants alive?

or in the end will i not yeild enough from a plant under 52w of cfl to make it worth my time or my electric bill?

i new to this too, but from what i have been told, you would be better off with like 2 42 watt cfl for each plant. it wont be that much more expensive either, just like a couple dollars more. and apparently using nutes correctly will boost your yeilds like crazy... to the point where it is rediculous to not use them. plus your plants will be healthier and happier.

u should have like3 maybe4 of the bigger cfl's for each plant, us the daylight bulbs for vegging and soft or warm white for flowering
and have some nutes just in case cuase u dont want something to go wrong with ur plants and have nothing to save them.
during a grow anything could happen.somthing could go wrong with tap water like the ph is bad so ur going to need ph testers just in case its always to be safe then sorry.have some nutes to make ur plants life go good.ull be happy later and glad u did it.

use good soil and change the soil with each grow and your nute needs won't be so bad at all... In a skinny closet like your water heater closet, 4 plants will crowd unless you flower them while still quite small - under a foot I'd say - or you will grow out of room in a hurry.
You may consider running floro tubes vertically up the walls. I don't think cfl's acting alone will do what you want. You'll be moving them all the time.

Note floro's may not deliver big tight nugs, but definately good smoking homie fo sho.

my intentions are to induce flowering somewhere between 12 and 16 inches depending on how nodes the plants have, i dont want them to be tiny but i do want to keep them rather small.

ive seen alot of talk about $20 150w hps lights, would that be a better way to go? and can anyone tell me where i might find a ~$20 150w hps if i should go down that road for flowering.

dense nugs are nice but in the end i dont care if its the consistency of cotton candy so long as it performs well

where i'm located there arent any grow shops, i dont mind using nutes but i'm not really sure where to get the right stuff from, and unfortunatly i'm lacking in the credit card department so i can't order off line. I see everyone discourages MG, but can regular MG plant food be dilluted or something to make it suitable for my situation?