I bought the hydrofarm, and here’s whats going to happen. You’re going to use it a couple times and kick it off to the side. Wish I didnt buy it, I was like you, new to LED and thought I needed help understanding the light and looking for that “perfect” coverage. The only reason I think you need to buy an Apogee is if you plan on building a bunch of lights for different areas and need to test. If you want to know your area, you can rent an apogee for about what it cost, but you get your money back. What i’ve read and learned is, set the light at the height it needs to be for when they finish stretching and leave it there, adjust your intensity to where they are comfortable before flower and leave it there for the most part. That may or may not be the recommended height. They will grow into it and the intensity will get stronger as they get taller. Try not to get caught up in what professionals say your mols should be. You deal with your plants and let them tell you what the mols should be. You probably had larf right under the canopy because yes, the intensity wasnt strong enough, you might have always been moving the light, but you can fix all of these problems without buying a meter. I’m not trying to discourage you, but you’ll never have a perfect grow, the best you can strive for is consistently good grows. Ask anyone whose been growing longer than 5 years. If you can free yourself from the stress of “perfection” you’ll be able to relax a little and have more fun growing. But in regards to the meters, really, you dont need one. If you want to check your intensity, pick your height, go up one click on light intensity everyday or every few days until they look stressed and see where you are then. Hope that helped a little
