Preferably early on you would use less intense lighting for 20-24 hrs lights on to encourage good strong growth.(seedling, germination, clone) For this phase i've had great success with 13 watt CFL bulbs I usually use 6 depending on the number and height of the plants.
As veg phase begins i'd switch to an 18-20 hrs of lighting a day, but still could use 24. You can still use CFL here but it gets more tricky as they really don't produce enough lumens, but with proper placement and a good eye you can still achieve good results.
Flowering you want no more than 12 hrs of light and be very sure that the night does not get interupted, this is a key factor. I use a 11 hour light and 13 hour darkness for my plants. This is where CFLS may not be strong enough unless you have atleast 300 watts available, and you would want to make sure they have as close to a 4000 kelvin rating (mostly red spectrum) to achieve best results.
For flower I would highly recommend a HPS light of atleast 400 watts.. you'd be surprised what you can find on Ebay as long as your carefull.. I got my brand new 1000 watt HPS on there for 250 bucks shipped to me with a 2 yr warranty on ballast and 1 yr on bulb.
For curing and drying you want complete darkness and low humidity with temps above 55 but below 85. Also make sure that its not in an area devoid of circulation as this is important as well. The high temps will dry to fast and the low to slow.. while the light degrades the potency of what you've worked for.
Use any soil you want the plants not picky just make sure that you flush the plant with nothing but water for 7-10 days before harvesting.
Just use some sort of top soil, potting soil, with perlite in it if you want to use soil. If you check out the picture of my one plant that I have up in one of my posts I used Schultz water retention blend that has vermiculite, perlite, and potting soil.
