Total noob questions..

Hi all.. yes I'm kinda new here and to growing also, but I've visited this site for a while reading up on growing, but I still have a few questions. I'm hoping you might be able to give your opinions on what I'm planning at present, and tell me if I've got things wrong.

I'm moving into my own place at the end of this month, and eventually I plan to convert the attic space, but given I've never grown anything from a seed before I wondered if you can just grow a plant in an ordinary pot by the window?

I planned to try this just to get my feet wet before the conversion in the attic, but will that method have any success?

I planned to germinate the seeds using the advice on this site, and plant them right into compost in a pot, and perhaps use a small lamp to provide light and generally just grow it in the spare room.

The missus is worried about converting the attic too, as she thinks the heat will be picked up by gov agents (lol, what has she been toking on?) Anyway, if I get one or two lights up there (perhaps fluorescent? These don't give off much heat right?) then that would be a good way to start.

No doubt I'll need to section the attic space off for different purposes, but since I intent to gather seeds from some of the plants for re-growing, what is the best set up other than the usual Veg/Flower lighting arrangement?

Thanks for any advice you can offer me, I'll no doubt be around here often in the next months.

First off... congrats on your new place.

Next... I'd skip the window grow. Once they get out of seedling stage and into veg stage I just don't see window light being enough to produce a worthwhile yield. I'm not saying it won't work... I'm saying I think you will be disappointed with the results. PLUS... anything in a window can be seen by others and I believe a cop could easily get a warrant if the plant is "in plain sight".

Better off getting some 100 watt CFLs, a couple of fans and growing your first attempt in a bedroom closet.

Regarding the attic..... I wouldn't worry so much about the heat from a small grow being spotted as I would worry about the heat killing the plants. Attics by nature are hotter then any other spot in the house...simply because heat rises. I doubt you could pull off an attic grow without an air conditioner running up there... and let's face it... attics aren't all that well insulated so a lot of that air would escape. Another thing about attics is that typically you have to crawl up a ladder to get there... plants need tending every day and I imagine you would burn out on lugging water up a ladder within the first few weeks.

If it's your place and you have a spare room then convert the spare room. You can use the main part of the room for flowering while using the closet for clones and vegging.

Anyway... that's my 2 cents worth.... good luck with whatever you decide on

I pretty much agree with everything the gentleman above wrote. Very sound advice, indeed.

i would say juss use a closet or build a small growbox because the attic does get pretty hot or how are the temps in ur area get a thermometer and take temps of the attic and see how it is it will pretty much let u know how it will be during ur whole grow and if its not to hot i would say do a 2 plant grow in ur attic so u have a 50/50 chance of getting a female wit some good 100 watt cfl's i would say 2 like florida girl said would be perfect i would say at least 2 100 watt cfls for the hole whole grow would be fine and check the humidity up there and u might have to clean the attic up to for mold/deise reasons n shit other wise if u need help lemme know

This is an addicting hobby. Sure the CFL's will work as will the fluorescents do yourself a favor if you can spare 100$ buy a real grow light. I bought a rebuilt 400W HPS + MH with both bulbs for 125$ with shipping off ebay and couldn't be happier. Your plants will grow so much better.

I was having amazing success with a nice fluorescent setup but they still didn't have the canopy penetrating power of a HID light I had 9 on the canopy and 7 on the sides. They all work of course, just by the time you have 6 or 8 cfl's in your experiment grow you will be close to the 100$ between cool and warm bulbs, sockets misc..

I would put your grow in a spare room, closet, or basement for heat etc... if you have room away from electrical disconnect / fuse box, water heater etc...

good luck enjoy

Cheers for all your responses, I got some good info and advice here. Much appreciated.

I noticed the closet tut on here, so perhaps that would be a better way to start off. I could put a good sized one in the spare room/office, and easily link up some lights.

Do you recon that for yeild per plant it is definitely better to go with lights other than Flourescents? I was looking to start with 5 seeds, kill off the males once I can tell them apart, but perhaps use two (male & female) to get seeds for future use. Hopfully, I would get at least 3 females, and thus have a decent yield between them. Perhaps with a better light set-up I'd only need one female.

thanks again folks
AK