It does actually.
An empty tent will likely show better readings than a tent with a plant in it I would assume, as light reflection is even in an empty tent.
I did already play around a fair bit as you suggested, prior to the big "Lights Out" (that I am currently diagnosing with the manufacturer) and found that ppfd at the middle held fairly well at all 4 edges straight out from the centre at the walls, but dropped about 220 ppfd's in each corner. I also checked in concentric circles outwards from the center and the dropoff was very consistent in all 4 quadrants.
Would I be better to over ppfd the middle to get the desired ppfd in the corners, or better to live with the drop off in the corners?
I wonder if washing and then drying to a full buff of the tent walls would up overall ppfd distribution?
Any tips on how to bring the ppfd up in the corners?
Ha! Excellent question about the corners and one I have been asking myself. My best answer is, you can add a small light to augment corners - many companies make very small lights that work for this - but that is a terrible solution for several reasons. Side lights do it too and that’s a better solution but also not simply “improving corner coverage” but bringing all kinds of other stuff into play. Again, a slightly better than terrible solution. You can get a better light, that’s an obvious one, as the better the light the better it’ll be everywhere, but you know….money….
The best solution to me is to select a light from the beginning that does what you need. Often this is largely in part a function of the shape of the light. Bar lights are best imo. The better bar lights will fill the totality of the horizontal space wall to wall. Example: the perfect fit of the ViparSpectra KS3000 in a 3x3. In that case there’s a bar right along the wall almost. The sides and corners can’t lose. Or, you can see my big boy light doesn’t cover the space like that. But you also see how wide my bars are. This is big imo. Wider bars are an easier shape for these companies to get right in terms of their fields and dispersion, and they present light to the plant in a smoother way with wider bars. And working with high end diodes and drivers, a light that has the size of mine relative to the walls works great in the corners. Example: my light at 100% and veg wattage of 550 with full spectrum (no reds engaged) will get me to 1000 ppfd at almost 18” in my 5x5 (awesome), and when set that way, so the sweet spot is at 1000, my corners will be in the 700s and my edges about the same. That’s killer, killer numbers. You need 500 to make buds hold together. So any numbers under 500 in the corners and edges in any par chart on any light I check out and that light is off my list. It’s dead space. This is why I keep my plant in the sweet spot as much as possible.
The bar light beats a static center mount light by a good margin. They aren’t great on corners. When I set up the new NextLight MEGA Pro I’ll take some readings. It’s a huge center mount.
The other thing about testing is, we will always be off from the manufacturer for a couple simple reasons.
1. When they test they use the highest end Apogees that exist. We rarely do.
2. They test by using the sensor on a long wand that reaches down into a model of the tent and taking readings from under the light. We do the same, right? Nope. We have to test with one tent door open. Changes the reflectivity a lot. And they never use plants when they test. We can if we want. Also changes reflectivity including off the floor. Their test is perfect closed tent reflectivity with the same skin as exists inside the actual tent if they do it right. But empty. Point being that when doing comparisons to manufacturers numbers, it’s good to keep in mind that the numbers will never match. You want minimal variance though.
Is that helpful at all?
Edit: a fun and visually appealing solution that’s a bit radical would be to get a rope LED in full spectrum, and wrap a rope light around your entire tent. I’m going to do that sometime.
Sorry - yes, of course clean walls get you the best results but the variation is minimal. And with a light that gets you 220 in the corners is too far to bring up the sweet spot and get those to 500 at least. Your sweet spot would be way too hot. I would mess with height of light (which changes light field obviously as it changes and thus ppfd) to make your sweet spot as large as possible and stay off the edges and corners as much as possible. Focus on the sweet spot being right.