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Stereo Microscopes - See Your Plants Like Never Before · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hello there and welcome back to Hydroponics Daily, your daily dose of soilless horticulture.
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  I'm your host, Dr. Russell Sharp, the founder of Eutrema Limited.
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  Today I wanted to talk about if you wanted to have a closer look at your plants,
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  how should you go about it?
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  And specifically focused on hand lenses and microscopes.
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  Because this is something I do on a daily basis and I
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  really enjoy doing it and it's really useful because it stops
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  outbreaks of pest and disease early on
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  so i always say you know if you're growing in soil or
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  cocoa or peat don't water your plants daily but
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  do inspect them for pests and disease daily no matter.
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  What your growing media however you grow if you're
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  growing if your plants are growing then pests and diseases could be potentially
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  growing and so the obvious option is to look closely with
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  your eyes however hand lens is your next best
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  option and after a simple
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  hand lens for like you know five dollars five pounds you probably
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  want to get an illuminated one now at utreema we
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  sell an illuminated one that also has uv so if
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  the thing you're looking at also fluoresces then that's always good but
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  what you want to do if you get a bit beyond the
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  handle lens and you want something a bit more stable and you
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  want to potentially take pictures or video
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  now you can get attachments to your phone that
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  do really good macro really close-up
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  macro shots with the lens attachments or you
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  can get a digital SLR camera and get
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  a macro lens on there for close-ups but
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  for daily daily use I always recommend a
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  microscope now you want to avoid what's known
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  as a compound microscope that's the type of microscope you
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  will have used in school when you cut up
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  say the skin of an onion and put that
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  on a microscope slide and put a cover slip on top
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  and some water and things like that that give you times 10 times 14
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  times 100 option you don't want to be using that for anything
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  other than looking at the cells in
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  a plant for everything else looking at the structures external structures looking.
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  At pest and diseases you want something called a stereomicroscope or you might
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  refer to it as a dissecting microscope but the technical term is a stereomicroscope and you get what
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  you pay for when it comes to stereo microscopes so don't get a really cheap $30.
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  $50, £50 one.
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  If you're going to invest in a stereo microscope then you want to be spending
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  at least a couple of hundred, maybe $300, at least a couple of hundred pounds
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  on your stereo microscope.
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  The one I've got here has got an LED light illumination, really useful and then
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  a black layer or a white layer to give contrasting colors when you're looking
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  at them under the microscope and another top tip is.
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  Watch a video on how to use it it's not self-explanatory microscopes
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  if you get it wrong and you get gunk on the lenses
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  then you will you'll live
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  to regret it and it won't be as good and you won't get as good an experience you
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  want a good stand a good solid stand as well because
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  you don't want it wobbling around you don't want any movement and you
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  can also get them with attachments for digital videos
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  or still cameras that can connect to your laptop they're really
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  good for time lapses as well but they're really good for documenting taking
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  pictures and takes your growing to
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  the next level if you're producing a crop and you can get a close-up of
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  say the trichomes or the if you're
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  growing flowers you know the anthers and things like this it's only
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  really good for marketing material so definitely definitely
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  recommend a stereo microscope you can use them for dissecting up buds dissecting
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  up flowers fruits seeds and as well so you just need a scalpel and some forceps
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  and you can use them actively for dissecting if you get parasitic.
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  Predatory mites sorry predatory mites or parasitic wasps
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  any sort of biocontrol you can look at them under the microscope as
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  well as your pests you've got in the leaves just pick.
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  A leaf off your plant you don't need to take the microscope to your plant.
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  Sacrifice one leaf stick it under the under
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  the stereo microscope because you want the whole leaf
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  to be on the same plane and start always start with
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  a low magnification so you
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  get the picture of where you want to look and then zoom in after
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  that and having a very very flat on there means that you can
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  move the leaf around or whatever your tissue you've
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  got around really easily and you don't need to keep on refocusing so
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  there's some good tips there but this sort of microscope you
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  need don't need dyes you don't need thin layers you don't
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  need to produce a very thin you know like a slice
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  of garlic and put it on a on a slides you don't need any
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  microscope slides or cover slips which is really useful the
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  there's far more uses for them than there
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  is with the compound the traditional microscope that you
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  will have used in school they are still useful they
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  can be used for a number of things what can you use
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  those for that's useful in hydroponics ah yes one
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  of the key things i like to do under a normal compound
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  microscope is to look at if you ever get beneficial nematodes stick
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  them under a microscope and just get one little particle
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  of the beneficial nematodes from the if you
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  get in the post stick them in some water on a microscope slide stick a cover
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  slip under them illuminate them from behind and you'll see all the wriggling
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  nematodes and so it's a really good way to confirm that your biocontrol nematodes
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  are alive and working good working order so that's one really good use of them and then you know.
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  You can do cross sections of leaves and things like this but um they're
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  not really of use they're just more of general interest
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  so i don't tend to use that type of microscope very often
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  at all good for putting a bit of soil bit
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  of grow media bit of rock wall in there seeing what's
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  growing seeing what's alive seeing what's in there you might
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  be surprised what is in your what you thought was a sterile hydroponic system
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  and so yeah but yeah if you've got if you're a grow shop as well and customers
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  bring in produce they'll really love looking at under a microscope keep people
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  in the shop longer build rapport with them and they'll they'll buy more from you and you know.
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  And customers if you've got crops and you can show them
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  with a microscope then they'll always be useful.
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  I always take my microscopes to trade shows
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  because people are always interested in looking at a microscope and seeing what they can they
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  can look at and the problem is most people in the general public don't
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  know how to use them so definitely get on youtube and do a
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  tutorial when you when you've invested in one you don't
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  need the world's best camera to take good shots with a
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  microscope you need a good microscope to take good shots so
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  don't be too worried about the the the camera
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  that goes on the resolution just get a
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  good microscope and then all it will
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  be provided with the software when you buy the
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  camera and yeah always watch your youtube tutorial of
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  how to set that up properly but yeah you can get some really good
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  time lapses and yeah you shouldn't go wrong with
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  a compound sorry not a compound a stereo or
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  a dissecting microscope that's my top tip where you
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  want to step up your game after you use the hand lens short and
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  sweet episode today thank you very much for listening to hydroponics daily
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  if you thought this was useful if you garnered any sort
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  of value from it please do leave an apple podcast review because
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  that helps out the show tremendously tomorrow i'm
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  off to the world congress on vertical farming in amsterdam
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  which should be fun i'll report back from
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  my trip hopefully i will make it in time to get to the vertical farm my my plane
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  lives lands at two o'clock and the trip leaves from the hotel in Amsterdam at
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  half four so can i get to the coach in time we will see tomorrow thank you very
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  much for listening until then goodbye.