i am kind of new at this too but i have a couple of grows under my belt,
first of all dont call it dirt, it is soil, i would use fox farms ocean forest soil, very good soil, and you will see alot of growers use it,, and also fox farms makes good nutrients, trio, grow big, big bloom, and tiger bloom, go to fox farms website look at there liquid fertilizers, and they will tell you how to use it,at first you will probably water every other day, good rule of thumb is give your plants good watering where it starts to come out the bottom, the pot will get heavy, because it has water in it, you will know when it is time to water again, because you will feel the pot get lighter, you could use 18 hours light and 6 hours dark, at first then when you plants go into flowering you can switch to 20 light 4 dark, i use 400 hps, all thru my grow, i hope i helped you a little,
good luck