I will be getting my medical marijuana card here in Mi. soon. So I am reading as much as I can about growing my own medicine. I have a friend that grew a strain of pot for about 20years (wish he didn't have to quit) anyway I talked to him the other day on lighting and what he used when he was growing. This is what he told me. First of all he grew his plants in the basement on waterbed heaters to keep the roots warm. He also grew in soil. (which I want to go to hyrdroponics or areoponics) but for lighting he built a 3x4 foot frame out of 1x2s and took regular shop lite fixtures apart and took the light sockets and ballast out and glued them on the frame he used two fixtures per frame. He added 4 f40cw bulbs and hung them close to the young plants. He moved the first light frame up 12inch along with the vegitive growth of the plants. There he left the light frame. He then took another light frame and hung it above the first one as the plants grew past it. He claimed with the low heat of the bulbs it didn't hurt the plants at all. And as they grew above the bulb the fixture added needed light at the lower end of the plant. He did this with three fixtures in the vegetive stage and when they got 2/3 the heighth (sp) of the room he had, he added a 4th fixture and started the flowering stage all in the same space with just flourecents. Let me tell you we are both old time smokers and he grew some of the finest erb that I have had the pleasure of smoking. It was a sativa plant and he did tell me it took a long time to flower. Does this make sense to anyone else and is it wise to try this with flourecents? I want to try and grow a strain called white widow for my medicene and want to keep everything as cost effective as I can and yet be successful with it. Any advise sure would be appreceated. Thanks, Jim