Okay basics; what I have learned:
- Room setup. Your room should be clean, very clean. Make sure the floor, walls and ceilings are spotless to start. If you can cover the walls with reflective Mylar, it makes a difference. I like to setup my lights at room development because often they should be mounted on the ceiling meaning you'll need some kind of mount. Plan on at least 3 SQ Ft per plant in flower for your room so a small room like mine which is 7x5 = 35 SQ Ft means I can comfortable fit 8-10 plants throughout flower. Biggest issue? Getting to your plants when they get big - Sativa's can double in size during flower. Last use a pallet or some spacers to get your plants up off the floor, air flow is critical.
- Power & Water. Below the waist water only above the waist power. Mount all your outlets above the waist and near to your doorway where you can access easily.
- Plant media is a personal choice and everyone is passionate about the choice they made. Educate yourself and do what you think is right, there are no wrong answers IMO on this one. I grow in soil with about 25% perlite.
- I use fabric pots because I like my roots to breath; again no wrong answers here but I do recommend a minimum 5 Gal pot size.
- Nutrients, same as the two above. I suspect they're all good. I myself focus on the ones made for Cannabis like Fox Farms. Everyone has an opinion about NUtes but I personally think everyone overuses them (I know I did when I started)
- Air movement and temp control. I use at least two hygrometers in the room to check for temp differences within the room. Depending on you lights they can add a lot of heat. Make sure you place at least one fan blowing directly onto your lights. They will run cooler and last a lot longer. I use a lot of air movement and instead of a humidifier I blow air over a towel placed in a bucket of water. Even in my dry climate my grow room stays between 50%-62% RH. Make sure your temps stay below 80 at the leaves and cooler 70 or so at the roots during your light cycle and lower when lights are off. Personally I shoot for a high of 80 during the day and high 60's into low 70's at night.
- Lighting: For me it's a budget issue so I bought a variety of LED lights - slightly used. It turns out a lot of people think they want to grow and yet never get to it. I found a tone of stuff out there. Personally I like lights with a red shift for flowering and I've had the best luck with my Mars Hydro - it runs cool enough to use in my clone tent and it has a dimmer on the lights which I love. In my room I have 4 lights 2 of which are Philzon 200W LED. These lights run hotter because they use real 10W LED's but they put out a ton of light! I get to see the difference between them and the other two lights in my flower room and I wish for two more! I always tend toward over-lighting but the be careful is heat management. Lighting in clones and seeds should be at 50%-60% with a 16 on 8 off photoperiod, and vegetative with red shift on (if available) and with a16 on 8 off photoperiod, Flower starts at 12/12 but you should move to a 8 on 16 off photoperiod late in bloom.
- Flushing, do yourself a favor and track down @Emilya if only to read her flushing tutorial - it is worth knowing that flushing will NOT remove anything from the plant - but it does help if you grow in soil. If you're going organic, you will not need to flush.
- If you are growing indoors set up to prevent pests as much as you can. This starts with a thorough cleaning and might include use of pesticides before you fill your room. Keep a weather eye out daily for pests, they are easier to control if you spot problems early. IMO once you get infestations indoors it can be difficult to get rid of them - be vigilant.
- Get help. There are a number of posts herein to tell you how to ask for help. I think the two most important are: include good photos in natural light. DO NOT post photos in your burple (the red light shift in your room), it just shows you're a beginner and nobody can see enough to help you. Second, be very specific. this came up when, photos, descriptive information, what nutes are you using, etc.
- DO NOT over-care for your plants. The most common mistakes (I made them all so I know them well) are: Overwatering, too many nutrients, too much of anything including attention, manipulation, and trimming. Use nutes sparingly and the every other watering. Many of the growers here claim they wait 5-7 days between robust deep watering. In my climate I water more often but not by a lot.
- Learn the stages of each step by keeping a journal and reading the journals on here - it is well worth your investment of time!
- Seeds: start, tap root, planting and watering. This is critical; I know because I am officially a seed killer and have spent a lot of time trying to make my $10+ feminized seeds actually sprout predictably. It's a lot harder and takes more care than you think.
- Initial growth. Learn to know when your plants are "working". You will be repotting at least twice, maybe three times. At each event you can start to see robust new growth and new root growth begins and takes hold. After watch a few you'll know what's happening by the way your plants look.
- Vegetative growth. I like to have my ladies in their final potting container when they go into veg. Part of this is my veg tent holds exactly 8 plants in 5 gal grow bags and part of it is this is where the growth happens. The firs time through you can experiment a little with SOG, Super cropping and other techniques you will find described herein and on YouTube. For my own part, until I grew a few I had to idea what to expect and I screwed up my initial efforts at all of these techniques. So, make a few mistakes, it is a good learning.
- Cloning. The time to clone your plants is when they have strong root growth and, for me, they are in their final pots. I like to take clones from topping - that is cutting the tip off the higher growth and keep more bud development happening. Sometimes I can even get several sets of clones off of a single plant in veg for a few months. It helps to even out the plant and my experience suggests there may be more rooting hormones in these growth areas. I think every grower needs to learn to clone if you want to preserve good genetics - your favorite plants can live forever! You can find cloning techniques here including in my own grow journal.
- Flowering: You will need a separate area for flowering unless you are growing one at a time because reducing the photoperiod from 18/6 to 12/12 is what causes your plant to flower. Flowers take a week or two to begin to develop and once they do you can watch your beauties turn into what you have been after all these months. In my experience (which does not include auto-flowering plants), Sativa's can stay in flower 10-12 weeks and Indica's tend to be lesser of a wait. Watch bud development and the trichomes. Before you harvest you'll want 80%+ of your pistils to be red not pink or white and your trichomes should be mostly cloudy but not yet amber. Once they start to go amber it is time to harvest.
- Harvest. Wait! You're not done yet, not even close. As with everything about growing cannabis there are a lot of opinions about the best way to harvest a plant. Read them all and choose what works for you. For me, I like to take the whole plant, rinse the root ball and hang it upside down (I personally do not thing it matters if it is hung up or down). I dry for 5-9 days (summers here are way hot and dry while winters are cold and wetter) in a room I try keep at < 75 degrees and 55%-62% RH. You will know your plants are ready when the sugar leaves are dry and crackly but the steps do not quite snap when bent.
- Curing. Wait, you're still not done. You've spent months growing, babying and thinking about this day, don't screw it up my moving too fast. Clip the leaves off all your buds and clip them into air tight glass jars. These will be where your cure happens. A few thoughts about what surprised me. At harvest the plant smells amazing but in the jar after drying the predominant smell is fresh cut grass. This smell fades over the first week or two and you will begin to smell the more trichome based MJ aroma we all love so much. Every day you will need to open every jar for an hour or so. If you begin to smell ammonia your plants were too wet - you've ruined them. It should smell like cut grass or candy in some strains. I think a cure of a few weeks is enough to begin to enjoy the taste of your new crop but they can stay months in the jar. I use 62% Boveda packs to control humidity and after a few weeks you'll no longer have to let in air.
- Gifting. Remember those you love and who helped you on this journey!
Hey!! 
