1st indoor grow

My summer is almost over which means i wont be able to grow outside anymore..so i decided to give the whole indoor growing thing a try..

As of right now i got the cabinet i will be using. it is 28.5" tall x 21" wide x 16" deep
I plan on starting off with 2 plants..then moving up to 4..now i have read a couple places on here where people start other plants in the middle of another grow. so could you potentially keep your plants on the same light cycle the whole grow? as in 12/12 from seed? any information or advice on a light cycle chart to follow would be greatly appreciated..

As for the lights I was planning on CFLs..maybe between 800 watt and 1000 watt, would this be sufficient for a maximum of 4 plants in the cabinet. I recently saw a guy using CFLs in a PC case and it looked like the bulbs plugged directly into a surge protector...how safe is this when it comes to overheating and fire hazards?

as for the fans i currently have 2 pc fans, but my question is would a simple cell phone charger power each fan? and if not a cell phone charger what would be the best means for powering my fans?

i plan to cover the whole inside of the cabinet one of those uv reflectors for a car..or any suggestions on something better to use?

also my grow space is kind of limited..so any information on how to make the plants grow out instead of up would be awesome...

This is my first indoor grow so im sure some of these questions might sound dumb, but any advice or tips about anything would be greatly appreciated..

Thanks for reading over this, let me know what you think..ill upload pics when i get a chance

well im definently no pro but i can give you my advice and other can correct me if im wrong

find the sqaure footage of your grow space 5000-7000 lumen per square foot is usually best
for vegging you will want to use a light that is high in the blue spectrum and red/orange light for flowering, but you can use either spectrum for the whole process

im not sure what lights you would use when it comes to florescent but anything in the 6000K+ is good for veg (higher number means more blue spectrum, but my words is not the law lol) and 3000K- for flowering (lower numbers mean more red spectrum)

most pc fans are 12v, meaning you can probably hard wire them to any 12v source (im not sure what you would use, im sure a car battery is too big to fit inside your op)

as far as the refectors go, im not sure, but if you can you can use mylar to paint the inside, very good refective surface as far as my research goes

and plant tallness can vary greatly, what strain you are using, if your plants stretch for light, if you LST your plants at all ect ect

if you can get an indica strain, they tend to stay on the more bushier side than the sativa, which are known to grow tall, a strain with a mix of both might be pwerfect for you, just have to look around

you can also low stress train (LST) you plants, making them grow how you see fit, you can probably find more information about that on google or this site.

Try LED for such a small grow. And most definitely read up on Low Stress Training. In a cabinet like that, you will be able to handle 2 small mature plants max. Using LED you can save on space, heat and energy.

thank you guys! that helped alot! but where would you suggest to buy the LED lights? could i pick these up at wally world or Low's or somethin? any advice or tips on this list would be greatly appreciated.

umm im not sure where you would buy LED lights locally, im sure some of the more known RIU members would know a good affordable and trustworthy site where you can order them from, if all else fails i would try ebay or amazon, thats where i found my HPS and MH lights

in that small space you cannot fit 1000watts of light, thats way too much cant be vented with a pc fan. cfl's give more heat per watt than HPS. LED's are ok for vegging but not for flowering. for such a space almost 2.5sqft 150watts HPS would be great and will give you the best buds. i would get a good exhaust fan though, not just a pc fan

ok so i hav decided to use CFL's. I have alittle over 2.5 square foot growing space. Now all of my associates have said different things about lighting. But the members on here should have more intelligent/logical opinions. So im asking people to comment and suggest the best lighting set up for this grow in a sense suggesting how many bulbs i should use and at what wattage..for example for more less powered lights, or less high powered lights. thank you for any information

in that small of a space it might be hard to get side lighting with cfl's i would go with a 150watt hps and a 4" inline fan fo exhust that would be perfect for that small of a space.

thanks man where would u suggest buying the lights and fan? could i get them at Lowe's or home depote? or should i order offline