What % and distance would you have the light for reapers this size? 4×4 tent (SE5000 480w light). I currently have it on the minimum (11%) and raised as high as i can. they came from being under dodgy little grow lights so im scared of shocking or burning them, Also when would you move them to 5 gallon grow bags. thank you 🌱
by stifisnafu
6 Comments
You need to measure how much light the plants are getting at various grow light strengths and distances. I have been following the below graph (credit to ChilliChump on YouTube) for a couple of years with good results. Measurements are in Lux because PPFD meters are expensive.
https://preview.redd.it/4q5817cjh9le1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=94ddb71e5cf70c440d338def55b1b15756609e22
I used a Mars Hydro TS1000 cranked at max in a 50cmx50cm cupboard 1.2m above the plant running 24/7 and the plants were fine.
In a 4×4 tent you could stand to drop those lights right down to 1m above and monitor for leggy growth (meaning they need to be even closer to the light). If the plant grows short and sticky with dense green leaves then it’s at a good distance.
Chillies can grow without light breaks for weeks on end. They’re not day/night sensitive so you can literally just keep them growing all day and night under a lamp for weeks at a stretch.
i use a app called lux meter on the phone, it measures the lux of your light from a distance
measure from the top of the plant using the graph that @Kormazz has posted, i would go for 8-9k lux for those plants, as the plant grows taller the more light they will get so no need to adjust after
The real question is what are you going to do with 9 plants worth of reapers?
Whats the manufacturer of the light suggest?
Way better to pull the light a lot closer and turn it down. Six/12 inches away at a lower setting makes less heat and uses way less power. Remember light follows the inverse square law. Twice as far isn’t half the light it a quarter. When the light is closer the peppers LOVE the extra penetration of the canopy you can get with LED bars up close. Be careful though, LED’s can be deceptively bright in terms of what a plant needs. A 480 watt LED is equal to an old school 1000 watt grow light, roughly. I find most of the plants I grow under LED produce a lot of anthocyanin for sunscreen and get pretty dark or purple in the stems. I’ve done a few runs of peppers indoors under lights and I start em real close and when they start to get bushy I then pull the light away and turn it up which makes them stretch really well. I focus more on keeping the undersides clean and only leaving growth on the upper third of the branches. The light won’t penetrate the canopy when they are an appreciable size so all the stuff underneath is just a humidity trap.
You will find they get edema much easier in the tent than they would outside and keeping just a tabletop of growth goes a long long way in Keeping them healthy and strong. Also four plants will fill that tent in eight weeks and in six months one of them may don’t be afraid to pull some out as they get bigger and spread em out, they will end up bigger and prolly produce more peppers total than nine crammed in there. I honestly went without the tent my last couple runs and the increased air flow more than compensated any light decrease without the Mylar. If you keep them in the tent out fans under the canopy for sure.
I’ll edit this ina min with a link to one of my indoor runs. Good luck!