Advice Wanted: Planning Phase Of My Grow Room - AF Short Strains & Self-Made Nutes??

I'm brand new here. First time on the forum. I'm totally excited to be a part of this online community. I reckon I could find all the information I'm asking for here by combing through all the posts on this rich forum, but would really appreciate everybody's input and opinion of whether or not I have a good understanding of what I need! The purpose of this post is for me to visualize an image of everything and start a clean, smooth grow room from Day 1 of my first batch.

I know absolutely nothing about growing, but I am a master smoker and I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express once. All of my inquiries right now are based on my own common sense and I'm not trying to sound smart or act like I know what I'm doing. I have worked in a biochemistry lab before and I am scientifically inclined.

I plan to use Auto-Flowering Short Strains to save space, money, time, and just make the overall process a lot smoother and easier. If I have the wrong idea about these strains, please let me know. I would appreciate a lot of feedback about those type of strains. I haven't ever smoked one that I know of. The purpose of keeping a male plant would be to gather seeds for future plants, correct? Do I have to separate the male from my females? If I have more than one strain, do I need to separate the males of each strain?

I plan to mix my own batch of nutrients to cut costs. If this is more complicated than it sounds and might be a bad idea, please advise me.

They are going to be inside of an air tight tent built in a small room or maybe a closet. Anywhere from 3-12 plants. I'm not sure what kind of lighting I should use. I most want to use CFLs over high-power HPS bulbs to save electricity. Are there any drawbacks? Should I use a combination of a low power HPS with CFLs instead? Or should I just use a 1000w Hortilux & eat the bill for the sake of having the best possible buds? Will there actually be a noticeable difference depending on which light setup I use?

How much of the potency is dependent on lighting?

How much does the curing process have to do with potency? Will a longer cure time like 6 months up to 2 years increase the potency compared to a 1-2 month cure time?

I will discover the plant handling process on my own in time. Right now, I need to put together a list of all the supplies and equipment I will need.

alright, i'll help what i can.
Yes, the only reason to keep a male plant is to make pollen. Yes, you need to keep the males seperate. technically you could just let them go at it but then your whole plant will be seedy instead of just a few lower nugs. Males of multiple strains can be kept together. make sure to label which is which though. if you know what you are doing mixing you should be fine, personally i opt to just use fox farm grow big for veg and fox farm tiger bloom for flower. the difference between hps and cfl is HUGE. for a smaller personal grow they are alright but you sound like you are serious about this. how much space do you have? a 400w or 600w hps w/cooltube and high power fan for the cooltube will run you $200-$300 at most. an 1/8 of real good stuff like what you will be growing goes for $50-75 an 1/8 around here and most places, so all you need to do is get a bit more than 1/2 oz dry total to break even and will still have the light and all that stuff. with that said a 1/2 oz dry would mean something must of gone really bad with the grow.(not knocking anyone, i was no expert when i started and made my share of mistakes.) 4 oz+ would be a decent goal for the first time.

if you can learn to use hydro buddy and have a ppm and ph meter; then mix your nutes.

You can brew your own compost teas, really simple and work great