scorpion diablo x in a 4x4 tent

Farmer87 · Oct 9, 2023

I have about 10 year expirence growing with about a 6 year break I thought I new something and the games completely changed. So I got a 4x4 tenet all set up a smaller led for veg and later a scorpion diablo x . The grow was going great until I put the X in the tent. I immediately had problems with it and it wouldn't dim down past 20% with out shutting off. So I ran the light at 20% and about 32-36" above the canopy, it burned a couple plants and turned the stems purple which I've read is from the UV light but any ways Im in veg and I've performed LST to get more hight which Ive gained a good 8 inches I just need to know what distance and percentage to raise or lower and dim to as flower comes on. others with the same units or similar 700w lights if you could tell me how this work for your grow id greatly appreicated it. I know every strain is different and there's variables such as co2 which I have but im not currently running.. doesn't seem like you need it in a this type of set up but I could be wrong. If you have any experience that you can relay to me I would be greatly appreciate it. I also have a par meter if we could compare readings that would be amazing im not totally sure might light isn't burning a little to high. 15% dimmed at 32"+ above the canopy on plants that have been vegged for 8 weeks seems off to me but like I said im completely new to this with LEDs

DR.PNW · Oct 12, 2023

A lot of info here.

700w of LED lighting is powerful but should be fine on plants this size at full power, if your climate conditions are balanced and the strain is able to photosynthesis quickly enough.
Overkill happens when the nutrient/co2/light triangle is thrown off, I.e. your not getting much out of your plants after 600w if you arent using supplemental CO2 and an adequate amount of food.
Note: Supplemental CO2 in a tent space is not common, as tents are rarely set in as a closed loop climate.
Having measurement tools is key.
Considering ambient CO2 levels; your vegging plants should be happy between 600-800 PPFD, and you would want to slowly ramp that up to get as close to 800-1000 PPFD for flower.
Destress plants with light air flow and Vitamin B additives.
8 Weeks of veg is long for an indoor grow. Standard for myself is 2-4 weeks.
Your canopy looks great, may benefit from a selective fan leaf removal.

Farmer87 · Oct 14, 2023

DR.PNW said:
A lot of info here.

700w of LED lighting is powerful but should be fine on plants this size at full power, if your climate conditions are balanced and the strain is able to photosynthesis quickly enough.
Overkill happens when the nutrient/co2/light triangle is thrown off, I.e. your not getting much out of your plants after 600w if you arent using supplemental CO2 and an adequate amount of food.
Note: Supplemental CO2 in a tent space is not common, as tents are rarely set in as a closed loop climate.
Having measurement tools is key.
Considering ambient CO2 levels; your vegging plants should be happy between 600-800 PPFD, and you would want to slowly ramp that up to get as close to 800-1000 PPFD for flower.
Destress plants with light air flow and Vitamin B additives.
8 Weeks of veg is long for an indoor grow. Standard for myself is 2-4 weeks.
Your canopy looks great, may benefit from a selective fan leaf removal.

thanks a lot I think there is a problem with my light I'm on my third dimmer which is coming in the mail now supposedly. Im at 36" above the canopy and @ 20% power. one strain is still burning and I only have 4 more inches of height my PPFD was at like 248 with the tent closed which I thought was really low for where im at in the life cycle. Things aren't adding up HLG doesn't seem to understand what im telling them and just keep sending dimmers. im pretty upset with them actually. This was not a cheap light but I wanted to do it right and I had they were a nice set up with a good warranty so I bought it and it came missing parts and im on my third dimmer.. looks like its lean to a mistake I think I over paid but only time will tell . Every time I try to power down past 20% the light shuts off if I pull the dimmer it runs on what looks like full power. Any insight into my light situation would be great thanks. And yea the veg was a little long had some issues outside of the garden and just couldn't flip when I wanted. Thanks again. And how much per week should I be increasing the power or PPFD I have a meter so its probably best to gauge it that way but I dont know.

Farmer87 · Oct 14, 2023

DR.PNW said:
A lot of info here.

700w of LED lighting is powerful but should be fine on plants this size at full power, if your climate conditions are balanced and the strain is able to photosynthesis quickly enough.
Overkill happens when the nutrient/co2/light triangle is thrown off, I.e. your not getting much out of your plants after 600w if you arent using supplemental CO2 and an adequate amount of food.
Note: Supplemental CO2 in a tent space is not common, as tents are rarely set in as a closed loop climate.
Having measurement tools is key.
Considering ambient CO2 levels; your vegging plants should be happy between 600-800 PPFD, and you would want to slowly ramp that up to get as close to 800-1000 PPFD for flower.
Destress plants with light air flow and Vitamin B additives.
8 Weeks of veg is long for an indoor grow. Standard for myself is 2-4 weeks.
Your canopy looks great, may benefit from a selective fan leaf removal.

Im also running my nutes pretty low alternating feeding ppm from 250 to 550 max. Generally closer to 350 -400 ppm, I like to experiment with things and im running the old dyna grow line which is super thrive and im also running the Sensi grow and Sensi bloom bases with the Aptus additives. I took a break for a decade and im just testing a lot of stuff right now... Trying to feel things back out. Which is making everything a lot more difficult in a tenet next time I'll stick to 2 strains instead of 6. So if I up my nutrients will I be able to increase their light absorption? I have Co2 but I haven't hooked it up yet I dont have a closed loop system so I didn't think it would help much or will it? I have a tank and regulator but no ppm meter for the co2 any recommendations on an cheap or middle of the road unit that is worth the money and accurate? is that over kill for a tent that's not a closes loop should I just use the boost buckets or bags?

watsongreenthumb · Oct 15, 2023

Welcome back, I took a couple years off myself and just got back into it 3 years ago. Making the switch from my trusty HPS and CMH lights was tough for me as well but once you get the hang of it you will see that they really do change the game especially in smaller spaces, tents, low ceilings etc. The plants under led's seem to be much more sensitive to environment, especially temperature, because the led's dont warm the leaves like HPS, MH, CMH do. Your off to a good start with getting a par meter though, that really helps a lot, the other thing your gonna want is an ir thermometer/ temperature gun so you can get the leaf surface temperature, your going to want that to be around 80 for fast growth, most of the consultations I do for people having problems with led's in tents are because its too cold/leaf surface temperature is too low. leaves under led run cooler than the air so if your room is 75 and your leaf surface temps are 70 or 71 the plants metabolism is going to be to slow to photosynthesize much light. You want your air temps to be at least low 80's through the first part of flower, humidity 70-72. Use a vpd calculator and target around a 1.0.

If your short on height I would go ahead and flip, your par is pretty low even for veg right now at 250ish, ideally you would be in the 4-500 range in late veg, maybe up to 600 right before flip, but what your going to want to do is start raising the par by 50 or so every day, if they look a little stressed dont raise it more for a couple of days. but usually when the light is shortened to 12 hours they can take it just fine. Your going to have to raise the strength of your feeding a lot since your raising the light level, maybe work your way up to 1000 ppm or a 2.0EC and see how they respond to that. The plants dont use as much water under led's so the feed strength has to be higher to compensate for that. Personally I never needed higher than a 1.6ec/800ppm in full flower under HPS with co2, but under led's I had to raise that up over 2.0. Happy to help however I can, I am a new member here but have been growing a long time, That Diablo x is a powerfull light that will work wonders for you if you can put all the pieces together.

DR.PNW · Oct 16, 2023

Farmer87 said:
Im also running my nutes pretty low alternating feeding ppm from 250 to 550 max. Generally closer to 350 -400 ppm, I like to experiment with things and im running the old dyna grow line which is super thrive and im also running the Sensi grow and Sensi bloom bases with the Aptus additives. I took a break for a decade and im just testing a lot of stuff right now... Trying to feel things back out. Which is making everything a lot more difficult in a tenet next time I'll stick to 2 strains instead of 6. So if I up my nutrients will I be able to increase their light absorption? I have Co2 but I haven't hooked it up yet I dont have a closed loop system so I didn't think it would help much or will it? I have a tank and regulator but no ppm meter for the co2 any recommendations on an cheap or middle of the road unit that is worth the money and accurate? is that over kill for a tent that's not a closes loop should I just use the boost buckets or bags?

Running CO2 with low PPM nutrient regimes doesnt balance out.
You may see a small benefit but ultimately a plants ability to use CO2 is directly dependent on light, and food levels.
If one value is low then the excess of the other 2 values are ineffective.

You are also risking toxifying whatever environment the tent is in if you are not venting to the outdoors.
CO2 poisoning is no joke; anything above 1800 you will have noticeable side effects, 5000ppm+ is lights out.
600-800 is ideal for most tent spaces and its on the safe side for humans.
I wouldnt run CO2 without a controller, or meter at the very least, and a CO2 sensor in your living area.

Farmer87 · Oct 19, 2023

watsongreenthumb said:
Welcome back, I took a couple years off myself and just got back into it 3 years ago. Making the switch from my trusty HPS and CMH lights was tough for me as well but once you get the hang of it you will see that they really do change the game especially in smaller spaces, tents, low ceilings etc. The plants under led's seem to be much more sensitive to environment, especially temperature, because the led's dont warm the leaves like HPS, MH, CMH do. Your off to a good start with getting a par meter though, that really helps a lot, the other thing your gonna want is an ir thermometer/ temperature gun so you can get the leaf surface temperature, your going to want that to be around 80 for fast growth, most of the consultations I do for people having problems with led's in tents are because its too cold/leaf surface temperature is too low. leaves under led run cooler than the air so if your room is 75 and your leaf surface temps are 70 or 71 the plants metabolism is going to be to slow to photosynthesize much light. You want your air temps to be at least low 80's through the first part of flower, humidity 70-72. Use a vpd calculator and target around a 1.0.

If your short on height I would go ahead and flip, your par is pretty low even for veg right now at 250ish, ideally you would be in the 4-500 range in late veg, maybe up to 600 right before flip, but what your going to want to do is start raising the par by 50 or so every day, if they look a little stressed dont raise it more for a couple of days. but usually when the light is shortened to 12 hours they can take it just fine. Your going to have to raise the strength of your feeding a lot since your raising the light level, maybe work your way up to 1000 ppm or a 2.0EC and see how they respond to that. The plants dont use as much water under led's so the feed strength has to be higher to compensate for that. Personally I never needed higher than a 1.6ec/800ppm in full flower under HPS with co2, but under led's I had to raise that up over 2.0. Happy to help however I can, I am a new member here but have been growing a long time, That Diablo x is a powerfull light that will work wonders for you if you can put all the pieces together.

I have been all over with the temp I didn't realize that the LEDs needs to be in a warmer climate which I've seen people say any thing from 78 to " just keep it below 90". At the time as of the photo I was closer to an 82 average during the day and in the mid to low 70's at night. Im not sure if the night time temp is quite as relivent as the day time but im still trying to dial that in. im trying to relearn everything it feels like tents are new to me, LED's, and dont get me started on genetics.. lol .. I went a little over board and got a lot of beans to try looking for keepers. It not the same when you go from a smaller production set up with proven strains already dialed in by people running them for a decade and knowing exactly what they want. I have a special mixture I made up with coco chunk , 50/50 coco perlite fox farm, Ocean forest, and Worm Casts equal parts everything. Works like coco have to water every 3 days and some of the bigger feeders really could use it after 2 days some times if I water a little lighter than normal but with the Ocean Forest in there I get no PH fluctuation or nutrient lock when I let them go a little to dry. Very forgiving and works for me but anyways with this and having to water more like when I was under HPSs would I still be ok keeping my ppm down around 400 in veg and under 800 in flower? I just hate over doing it a seeing burn. These are all different strains that are new and have little to no info out there on them and are completely new to me. Another big mistake on my part should have taken it a pack at time in stead of 2 of these and 2 of those..I knew better I just didn't plan on them getting this large but things happen....And to the humidity at 70% during the first week of flower ? This is also foreign to me that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen... but I realize I know nothing anymore and im wilingl to listen to anyone who wants to help and I greatly appreciate it. It amazes me still that there are so many good knowledgable people out there who will help someone like me just to help them. I remember when I first got into this and the culture has changed for the better for the most part.

scorpion diablo x in a 4x4 tent

scorpion diablo x in a 4x4 tent

Farmer87

DR.PNW

Farmer87

Farmer87

watsongreenthumb

DR.PNW

Farmer87

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