This is my first grow. Here is a current picture of my plants in Veg. What am I doing wrong or what should I be doing?

I feel I am missing something. I am planning to Scrog them into the trellis net.

Flip Day Humidity Battle – AC Infinity Hydrone 5 Not Cutting It (4x4 SCROG / Critical Mass)

Just flipped my Critical Mass run to 12/12 after ~55 days of veg in a 4x4 SCROG. Canopy is ~70% full, short and bushy under a strong light, tons of tops already pushing through the net.

Everything looked dialed… until humidity spiked hard.

Current issue:

• Temp: ~74–76°F
• RH: ~68–70%
• VPD: ~0.9 kPa

Right after flip, RH shot up and just stayed there. Plants are clearly transpiring like crazy.

AC Infinity Hydrone 5 – honest review
I’m running the AC Infinity Hydrone 5 inside the tent at full power.

It’s rated for a 4x4… but in real flower conditions:

• It cannot keep up with transpiration
• RH is still sitting around 61~70%
• Basically no meaningful drop under load

I’m not saying it does nothing—but for dense canopy + early flower, it’s just not enough.

In my experience:

• Might be fine for veg or light humidity control
• Not suitable for controlling RH in flower, especially with a SCROG

Honestly feels like a waste of money for what I needed it to do.

What I did to fix it
Didn’t wait around to lose control of the environment.

Just ordered a:

• 50-pint “4500 sq ft” compressor dehumidifier (Midea class unit)

Plan is:

• Run it in the lung room (150 sq ft)
• Let the tent pull in dry air via exhaust

Also going to:

• Increase exhaust fan speed
• Improve airflow under canopy

What I learned (important for anyone flipping soon)
When you flip:

• Transpiration spikes HARD
• Dense canopies trap moisture
• Small tent dehumidifiers get overwhelmed fast

A unit rated for a tent ≠ a unit that can handle flowering plants

Goal from here
Trying to bring environment to:

• ~75–77°F
• ~48–52% RH
• VPD ~1.2–1.3

Especially important with Critical Mass since buds get dense and mold risk is real.

Takeaway
If you’re running:

• SCROG
• Dense genetics
• Strong lighting

Don’t rely on small in-tent dehumidifiers for flower.

You’ll likely need:

• A real compressor dehumidifier
• And probably in the lung room, not the tent

I’ll update once the new unit is running and let you know how fast it brings RH down.

If anyone has experience dialing humidity during stretch in a dense SCROG, I’m all ears.

Day 14 since flip on my Critical Mass grow. The plants are transitioning into early flower now, and the stretch is still going strong.

The front plant has always been slower growing and bushier compared to the others. Early on I didn’t really like how it was developing. As you can see, it doesn’t have many tops and the bud sites are not pushing upward like the other plants.

I’m currently running an HLG Diablo X at 100%, about 27 inches above the canopy. I also introduced UVA lighting 5 days ago at 2 hours per day to slowly ease the plants into it. So far the canopy seems to be responding well.

The environment has been mostly stable, although I’m still fighting heat at times with a small 5,000 BTU window A/C unit. Humidity has actually been under control thanks to running two dehumidifiers:

• AC Infinity HYDRONE 5
• Midea 50-pint (MAD50PS1AWT-C)

The downside is both dehumidifiers together pull around 900 watts. Temps are usually in the low-to-mid 70s up to around 78°F, with RH around 50%.

Long story short, I have two 15-amp circuits in the room and I’m basically at the limit on both. I really need a bigger A/C unit to handle the heat better, but that also means I need to figure out how to get more power into the room somehow.

Since this is my first grow, I guess some problems are expected. I’m making the best of what I have.

Looking at the plants now, I think I let the bottoms get too dense and didn’t lollipop nearly enough. The lower foliage is extremely thick. I’m not expecting massive yields this run, but honestly I’ll just be happy to make it to harvest without killing them lol.

I’m also thinking about adding a second trellis net for support. How much more stretch do you guys think I should expect from here?

The mother plant is still alive and healthy, but one of my tent fans stopped oscillating, so I need to order a replacement soon.

Main focus going forward:

• keeping airflow strong
• managing humidity as flowers develop
• watching for light stress from the added UVA
• maintaining an even canopy during stretch

Flowering time for Critical Mass is supposed to be around 45–55 days indoors, so it’s still very early.

Curious how hard other growers have pushed the Diablo X in flower. Give me some feedback guys — how am I doing for my first grow?

Looks fantastic man.
Crazy how much power you use. 2 x 15 amp. That's like 7200 watt if 240 volt and 3600 watt if you got 120 volt.
But your plants looks really nice. Good job on that.
You will also get better yet. Like learn what to keep on the plant.
Right now i see some leafs that's not needed in the bottom.
I don't think you need those because you seem to have good feeding.
But it's no biggie. Just you know it can get a bit dense with net. And dense = less airflow.
And if you can make that good plants in first grow, i don't think it will take long for you to learn a lot more.
And i'm not the one to learn from. I've never used net.
If you really need help, try to ask shorter.
Many people dont have time to read all that you write. I don't either. Sorry but there are so many treads.

Grow Journal Update – Day 41 Flower (Critical Mass)

Started this run from regular Critical Mass seeds, so I wasn’t able to begin LST early on since I had to wait for the plants to mature and determine sex first. Because of that, canopy management wasn’t ideal this cycle. The front plant in particular ended up without any strong, well-formed colas—mostly dense foliage with smaller larfy bud sites underneath.

Now that I’ve got a confirmed female mother selected, I’m expecting my next run to be a lot more structured. I’ll be able to start LST much earlier, and the mother plant itself has already shown really vigorous, fast growth, so I’m optimistic about improving yield and structure next time around.

I’m currently at day 41 of flower. According to Mr. Nice Seeds, Critical Mass has a 45–55 day flowering window, so I’m likely getting fairly close to harvest.

Around day 30 I reduced both light intensity and UVA exposure because I started noticing some tip burn and slight tacoing. That adjustment seems to have helped stabilize things.

One of the bud sites flopped over recently, but I was able to gently support and reposition it so it’s standing upright again.

Overall things seem to be progressing okay for a first run, though I know there’s a lot of room for improvement. Would appreciate any feedback or advice from more experienced growers—especially on late flower management and dialing in structure for future runs.