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Diary PCBuds mini-grow
- Thread starter PCBuds
- Start date
You can always judge a man's character from the way he treats animals. You are a super person PC, I can tell by looking at the photos above.
I have not looked at DLI for a few reasons. It's about total light input per day. As such, it's how bright x how long = DLI
The 'how long' part of that is a constant of 12 hours and so the only variable in that math is how bright.
We might as well just talk about how bright. That is what everyone outside of a lab is doing, and the people in the labs know this. Drawing us nice little graph of how bright things need to be, for what effect. In terms of instantaneous readings, not DLI
I have stuck in a thumbnail (I will edit it to a decent size by the time most read this) where there is a bar graph of brightness and effect.
I must apolagise for this image, that I put together and many have saved. The dark text is how the r-spec measured on a lux meter according to their website. I have since learned it's nonsense. The bar graph regarding PPFD should be good (again it's not my work) but the lux figures for the LEDs are way off. This is because, as we should know by now, all lux meters are not equal. When their meter said 37500 that yellow 881 meter says 25000 and your grey one says 20000. We can't exchange lux meter readings in conversation without intimate knowledge of the meters being used, and nobody is geeked out enough to know how all the different meters compare. Though I seem to be the worlds leading expert in such useless crap right now.
Your grey meter is fine. Take it's lux reading and divide it by 33 and you have PPFD. PPFD is the unit we should all be using now. It's the common ground. Between the $10 meter and the one in Bruce's lab.
Nobody is talking DLI yet, unless they are talking to themselves. An understanding of it is useful, such as growing with 1000 and blooming with 2000 like we did in the 80s. It's not the shared path we are all best to walk though.
Regarding your meter. While dividing by 33 is alright if you have a calc, I find I don't need to. I have it in my head that I times by 3, and let common sense move the decimal point. My main memory is that 20,000 is 600 and 2x3=6
If I measure 25 thousand, then times 3 is 75 and I know that's 750. Filling in the gaps becomes quite easy when you know what to expect anyway.
Perhaps some peoples heads are wired to take that 20,000 and divide by 100, then times by 3.
Remember there is no point being exact. A few percent off is expected on the production line, or over your grow space. The $5000 meter is a little pointless
The 'how long' part of that is a constant of 12 hours and so the only variable in that math is how bright.
We might as well just talk about how bright. That is what everyone outside of a lab is doing, and the people in the labs know this. Drawing us nice little graph of how bright things need to be, for what effect. In terms of instantaneous readings, not DLI
I have stuck in a thumbnail (I will edit it to a decent size by the time most read this) where there is a bar graph of brightness and effect.
I must apolagise for this image, that I put together and many have saved. The dark text is how the r-spec measured on a lux meter according to their website. I have since learned it's nonsense. The bar graph regarding PPFD should be good (again it's not my work) but the lux figures for the LEDs are way off. This is because, as we should know by now, all lux meters are not equal. When their meter said 37500 that yellow 881 meter says 25000 and your grey one says 20000. We can't exchange lux meter readings in conversation without intimate knowledge of the meters being used, and nobody is geeked out enough to know how all the different meters compare. Though I seem to be the worlds leading expert in such useless crap right now.
Your grey meter is fine. Take it's lux reading and divide it by 33 and you have PPFD. PPFD is the unit we should all be using now. It's the common ground. Between the $10 meter and the one in Bruce's lab.
Nobody is talking DLI yet, unless they are talking to themselves. An understanding of it is useful, such as growing with 1000 and blooming with 2000 like we did in the 80s. It's not the shared path we are all best to walk though.
Regarding your meter. While dividing by 33 is alright if you have a calc, I find I don't need to. I have it in my head that I times by 3, and let common sense move the decimal point. My main memory is that 20,000 is 600 and 2x3=6
If I measure 25 thousand, then times 3 is 75 and I know that's 750. Filling in the gaps becomes quite easy when you know what to expect anyway.
Perhaps some peoples heads are wired to take that 20,000 and divide by 100, then times by 3.
Remember there is no point being exact. A few percent off is expected on the production line, or over your grow space. The $5000 meter is a little pointless
Attachments
Bruce is funded by people that grow a lot of plants. Perhaps outdoors where RH isn't usually controlled, but mostly indoors. When you start putting a few plants together, there is very little chance of a low RH occurring naturally. Very little of his work reflects a low RH environment. Controlling a large grow is more about getting the RH down, and that's just some extract during grow. That is very easy, with the only complication keeping the temperature up perhaps. In flower, many leave the VPD idea alone as not rotting the produce is more important. RH targets are defined by bud formations. This makes the right RH for a grow room very hard to define, as the plants are what drives our choice, and they are all different and constantly changing. There is no right RH for a room.
Bruce is a lighting guy. Everything else is a supporting topic. He has a team doing trials, but VPD requirements are not a science he can share. It's not solid like light and heat. It's not something you could plot against light and heat as feed might be. RH is so in flux, week after week, with big changes between crops. People chase the numbers like it's set in stone, but the truth is, chasing the charts will probably rot your crop, if working a warm room.
Bruce is wise to put something way down the list of importance, knowing his customers, like yourself, would rather do something else. We can't deny the importance of it though, even if the road isn't clear. Look at the dome work you just did. The number one thing that plant needs is it's dome back. Or, for you to back off on the light, so it can preserve what moisture it contains. Or.. back off on the heat. It's not happy in that environment as it can't hold it's moisture.
Bruce is a lighting guy. Everything else is a supporting topic. He has a team doing trials, but VPD requirements are not a science he can share. It's not solid like light and heat. It's not something you could plot against light and heat as feed might be. RH is so in flux, week after week, with big changes between crops. People chase the numbers like it's set in stone, but the truth is, chasing the charts will probably rot your crop, if working a warm room.
Bruce is wise to put something way down the list of importance, knowing his customers, like yourself, would rather do something else. We can't deny the importance of it though, even if the road isn't clear. Look at the dome work you just did. The number one thing that plant needs is it's dome back. Or, for you to back off on the light, so it can preserve what moisture it contains. Or.. back off on the heat. It's not happy in that environment as it can't hold it's moisture.
PCBuds
Well-known member
You can always judge a man's character from the way he treats animals. You are a super person PC, I can tell by looking at the photos above.
Thanks Creeper
She's a good
She doesn't get into too much trouble.
PCBuds
Well-known member
I'll just use my meter with the numbers you gave me.
My problem is that I have my lights all around the plant, so I don't really know how to effectively take a reading?
If I use my meter and get say, 13000 lux from above, you would say that the plant is seeing 13000 lux.
But I'm getting 13000 lux from above and all four sides as well and I don't know how to judge that?
That's why I was hoping to use the luminous Flux number to calculate the total amount of light going into my closet.
I guess it really doesn't matter.
It all boils down to just watching the plant to see how it reacts.
I end up with my lights turned up to maximum anyway (the test current) so I don't really need to know what the numbers are, except my current readings on my power supplies.
PCBuds
Well-known member
That's my main concern.
I find all the numbers frustrating.
I try to use them as just a bit of a reference but I don't want to concern myself with them too much.
I'm going to leave the window plant domeless now and just watch and see what happens.
She is looking pretty floppy at the moment. Lol
Oh well,.. I think that she'll be fine.
She's just an experiment.
I will keep the dome on the closet plant until she outgrows it and watch the numbers.
I guess that I shouldn't have to worry about mold at this stage, so I don't mind seeing the water droplets.
I want to give her an optimum environment at least at the start.
I'll keep spraying the top of the soil to help keep things moist.
PCBuds
Well-known member
Thanks exploziv
They are 1 US gallon jars.
This is my total wattage, including my two power supplies turned up to maximum (test current), two circulation fans, an exhaust fan, and an air pump.
Sampas92
Just newbin
Like always, bumps on the way but in the end, a good harvest nice one bro, i think i owe you a pack of ketchup 
Wainting to see what the new comer will bring to you with all that light again, good luck buds
Buds, you dont need to be scare of mold and mildew because of the rh, use the fogger just in the veg stage, if your weather is really dry how probably would you have problems? At least until she could raise the rh by herself? Than you could shut off the fogger and with that dry weather maybe shouldnt be even a problem even if she would be big?
Peace
Wainting to see what the new comer will bring to you with all that light again, good luck buds
Buds, you dont need to be scare of mold and mildew because of the rh, use the fogger just in the veg stage, if your weather is really dry how probably would you have problems? At least until she could raise the rh by herself? Than you could shut off the fogger and with that dry weather maybe shouldnt be even a problem even if she would be big?
Peace
PCBuds
Well-known member
Like always, bumps on the way but in the end, a good harvest nice one bro, i think i owe you a pack of ketchup
No, I owe you a half a bottle of Maple Syrup. Lol You were closest with 240 grams. I changed my bet to 454 grams.
Wainting to see what the new comer will bring to you with all that light again, good luck buds
I should do better this time.
I realized that I need to keep a close eye on my PH now because I don't have any PH lowering peat in my new mix.
Perhaps my old decomposing roots will affect the PH? I'll just keep checking it.
Buds, you dont need to be scare of mold and mildew because of the rh, use the fogger just in the veg stage, if your weather is really dry how probably would you have problems? At least until she could raise the rh by herself? Than you could shut off the fogger and with that dry weather maybe shouldnt be even a problem even if she would be big?
Peace
Yeah, I should be fine. I was just being stubborn.
I did manage to kill a seedling before with mold...
But she was damaged from me messing around with it.
I really have a big hate on for mold.
I've had problems with spider mites and fungus gnats and me doing dumb shit and killing stuff, but that fricken mold has always been my biggest enemy.
