There Be Frost Here!
(Use Captain Ahab voice)
CJS Apple Blossom
Grow Day 83
Flower Day 23
This morning I took careful ppfd measurements with the Phototone app, being careful to get a nice steady hold on the phone for the readings. I measured in the exact middle beneath the light, then a small ring around the center dot, then expanded to the outer ring, and then took measurements on each of the most outer buds, either the ones one the walls or as close to the corner as they come.
Here's what I'm working with at the moment:
Center - 1260 ppfd
Center Ring - 1310 - 1290 ppfd
Outer Ring - 1120 to 1040 ppfd
Edges/Corners - every reading was at least 960 ppfd
The plant is loving it. The
@NextLight 420h just shreds a 3x3. Destroys it. It's amazing. To have my very lowest reading on a canopy almost at 1000 is stupendous. The only light I have that can provide a more consistent footprint than that is the big girl in the 5x5. Again, bravo NextLight.
So why would the very center spot in the canopy be slightly lower than the little ring directly around it? I believe it is due to the design of the light. There's a square, small plastic cap-type piece right in the middle of the light and there are no LEDs there. So it's a very small spot of less light - totally inconsequential but interesting. Also interesting is that when I say this light shreds a 3x3, I mean it SHREDS it. If I crank the light to 100% (it's at approximately 60%, lol) the ppfd in the center is 1960!!!!!! That's completely insane. This plant will never see numbers higher than she's at now, and even though it's an approximation, 60% is pretty crazy low. Guess I'm saving a few pennies on electricity. Heh.
For those of you who are cringing at the ppfd numbers thinking they're too high, I get it. But they're not. Just look at the plant and you can easily see. No leaf curling. No taco-ing. No tips curling up or down. Nothing but snow white pistils not burned or browned on top. And a 45 degree prayer angle constantly, sometimes even more depending on minor temperature and RH variations. By all observational assessments this plant is loving these ppfd numbers, and I've burned enough plants now that I *think* I have a handle on this at this point. If I lower the power on the light and the ppfd numbers from where they are I get this crazy prayer angle which clearly is the plant saying "more light please, now." So we'll go with it for now. Constant reassessment.
Anyway, other than that she looks good, smells more and more like sweet green apples every day, and is starting to frost up.
Here's our girl today:
EDIT: I looked a bit closer and we're gonna scale it back just a touch. Minor minor browning on a pistil or two I didn't notice the first time. Easy. Scaled it back about 100-150 points across the board.