Diary explo and his new mate, Cultimate 🦫

[Rocket Soul]

Promised some Beaver School and i Rocket Soul always pays his debts.

Par meter measures light in photon count, an absolute term, how many photons per square meter while a Lux meter measure how bright a light is to the human eye, sorta brightness/Lux per m2, 1lux/m2 is a lumen.
This means that a lux meter is very biased to green light (which is the main component in white light) when something has very high brightness the way our eyes tend to see it is white. Par meter is better for blues/violets and reds. Yellows are sorta in between. When leds were all blurple par meter was really the choice cause it was impossible to get a good reading, even the light from the room outside the tent could throw of your reading. Also comparing between 2 slightly different spectrums could be difficult.

Why would you need a light meter, of any sort?
- you could say to find out how hard i should push with the lights.

- In order to present my results to the forum and show of nice metrics.

For nr 2 you of course need a Parmeter cause you want to show off your nice metrics and you have money to splash on the respect and awe of your peers at the forum.
For nr1, you could argue that you dont even need a lux meter: the plant handles what it handles, not what it shoul handle. It might be light sensitive or light hungry in comparison to what it "should" want. But in the end the light levels needs to be assessed thru looking at the plant - is it happy or over pushed? Still its nice to have a meter, gives you an extra indication.
But if your spectrum is static, youre not adding extra reds for flower or similar, just the same spectrum all the time all you need are reference points, to be able to dial in how much to change; more light means more nutes and its nice to have an idea of how much more rather than just by eye "plant happy or no?"
Heres the around 400e apoogee response curve: View attachment 19049027

Very nice, but 400$? Id rather just wait a bit more and get a spectrometer which also handles ppfd for 1000$ but hey i play around a lot with spectrum and sciency stuff.

I looked for the same info for a lux meter or the eye but couldnt find it quickly. But basicly, under the hood, both meters are the same just with different filters and ways of presenting it. Think about it, theres no engineering reasons why it should be easier to make a lux meter, infact its an extra layer of complication since your trying to replicate how the eye work rather than just measuring light. I guess maybe cause you have to get those tight limits at 400 and 700 rather than just a sorta bell curve peaking around 550nm (green).

To me it smells like they are making us pay premium for parmeters just cause were growers. Its like a Gucci bag for women, made for 20 bucks and sold to foolish souls for thousands. Good brands would be apogee and licor but at Prada prices. Those guys that do the Pulse vpd meter also have a par meter that would be my go to if i bought one, it also has a very rudimentary spectrometer iirc and shouldnt be much pricier than the mid brands.

My experience of parmeter is that it helped convince my growbuddy that led would work. But the meter was broke after a year, it was low end somewhere between 100-200e. I wouldnt buy a new one, unless i went all in for spectrometer. We still use the same very durable lux meter as 10 years ago, and it still keeps up. From use and reading way too much old threads at riu ive worked out good enough adjustment factors for lights with lots of nonwhite light. Add 10-20%, sometimes even more. You can usually figure it outt after a while.

If your planning to in the near-mid future start adding in extra channels of red or something then go ahead with a parmeter. If youre sticking with the same type white based light then get a luxmeter and with the remaining 300-something euros get something real nice for yourself or your beaver. If youve had a few failed grows it can be nice to have as a sorta talisman but those grows can also be improved by just general growing better.



No man needs two meters, if you find it twice the fun you should really try two beavers. Yet no man really needs two beavers (nor can he handle it), its twice the hassle. Infact, its only when you realize and deeply understand that infact you need NO Beaver (or meter) that youll get two beavers wanting some fun with you.
Real men needs no meter he just grows with God in his heart and trust the divine Beaver to stand by his side.

Incidentally i posted this in another grow log by Ganja Queen by misstake. Here its all beaver talk and fun but in another llace its absurdly embarrassing and down right weird like Vance. Im now on a selfimposed time out in the naughty corner. Over at riu we have a smiley with a stupid hat for this kinda epic self-fails but i cant find it here. Sorry to Ganja queen.

 

[Absorber]

Incidentally i posted this in another grow log by Ganja Queen by misstake. Here its all beaver talk and fun but in another llace its absurdly embarrassing and down right weird like Vance. Im now on a selfimposed time out in the naughty corner. Over at riu we have a smiley with a stupid hat for this kinda epic self-fails but i cant find it here. Sorry to Ganja queen.

 

[Rocket Soul]

View attachment 19049049

Yep, thats the feeling, . So many smiley options here i couldnt find it. Nice cross posting aswell, i actually found GQ over there aswell

 

[Absorber]

Yep, thats the feeling, . So many smiley options here i couldnt find it. Nice cross posting aswell, i actually found GQ over there aswell

I used you as a tag over there ,hope you dont mind

 

[Rocket Soul]

I used you as a tag over there ,hope you dont mind

I know, no probs of course but id at least edit the post to tag someone else, ive already been tagged by someone else in that thread and i dont know if that would invalidate you for the competition. Much love
Lets get this out of this thread though, growlogs are more sacred than other threads and this one is is about Explozivs grow, not about silly shit i get myself into. Its all yours @exploziv back to you, apologize for any silliness but i blame your beaver Cultimate did it!

 

[exploziv]

The beaver name is Bobr, Cultimate is the Terra Aquatica 4 bucket system in which the plants are grown. In my home country we have a saying/tradition if you call someone by a diferent name you have to get him a lamb for your mistake. So I guess now you are indebted to Bobr.

 

[Rocket Soul]

A Rocket Soul always pays his debts, how about a dozen lambs? My sincere apologies to Bobr and all his family.

Edit i regret ever seeing this thing, it will follow me in nightmares. Along with Bobr the Beaver. Its Shutter Island meets Inception

 

[ganja.queen]

In4 Beaver

 

[exploziv]

Thank you @ganja.queen for joining in!

EC 1.48 mS, PH 5.5, 24.1C, 73% RH.
Been busy this morning so I didn't check or adjust PH/EC. They ate a lot, including a bunch of Ca, since the PH dropped. I added enaugh nutrients to go to about 1.7 EC after measuring. The PH should start correcting itself from the nutrients added. If needed I will adjust with some silicate powder later.

 

[Rocket Soul]

Bobr4eva

 

[exploziv]

Bobr4eva

who te fk is eva? is she good with beavers?

 

[Rocket Soul]

who te fk is eva? is she good with beavers?

Forever or 4Eva - its not up to us, its Bobr choice, he runs the show.

 

[WHIPEDMEAT]

 

[cellardwellar420]

View attachment 19048937
Have you ever tried using branch trainers like these .
I 3d pintened some similar i find theres no need to tie them down at all if you place the trainer in the right spot.
I used them last grow they work really well

I just started, pretty effectivr

 

[Absorber]

I just started, pretty effectivr

They are good, if i didnt use those in my tent i would have a scrog net in earlier and once thats in there it limits access to getting to the back plants for further training . I dont have to add a scrog net till the end to support the tops of the big cola's.

 

[exploziv]

EC 1.61 mS, PH 5.7, 24.4C, 74% RH.
All looking good, I need to do another round of cleaning the undersides for airflow, and continue training & supercropping the tops.

 

[PadawanWarrior]

EC 1.68 mS, PH 5.7, 25.2C, 72% RH.
All going good. I started supercropping (crushing the stems of the tallest tops) and also tieing them a bit to the sides so the canopy gets more even.

Supercropping kicks ass. That's about all I do as far as plant structure. It's too easy. I don't even top anymore. And If they pop back up I'll just bend them back over the next day. I still bust a stem once in awhile but I'm getting better about it. When I do I either leave it hanging or just chop it off.

Nice looking plants by the way.

 

[Rocket Soul]

Supercropping kicks ass. That's about all I do as far as plant structure. It's too easy. I don't even top anymore. And If they pop back up I'll just bend them back over the next day. I still bust a stem once in awhile but I'm getting better about it. When I do I either leave it hanging or just chop it off.

Nice looking plants by the way.

Paddy in the place!
Another thing we do together with bending is adding small weights, helps if you can put up scrog or similar.

 

[exploziv]

I supercropped all tall tops, and cleaned first 20 cm from the base for good airflow. Except the ones that caught some light, the roots are still white as snow!
Bonus root/stalk porn pics: (about 2 finger width thick stems)

 

[exploziv]

EC 1.56 mS, PH 5.6, 25.4C, 73% RH.
I added enaugh nutrients to go ~ 1.75 mS EC. Finished tieing some more tops. Looks like as soon as I tie a top to the side, one from lower on same branch tries to take it's place in the canopy.
Hopefully this crazy stretch stops soon, I swear I didn't expected this. I actually gone for autos thinking it will be smooth sailing for my first hydro, and by now I am barely managing to keep them fitting in the tent.. it's something else switching to hydro. In soil or coco I could have kept 4 plants in a much smaller tent with no problem.