| Summary: | It was shown that the magnitude of fluctuating asymmetry can be used to assess the plant development stability. The shortcomings of the plant physiological state assessment were pointed out, both the visual one and that using the previously created colorimeter. (Research purpose) The study aimed to develop a device for determining the plant development stability by measuring the leaf color. (Materials and methods) The device was tested on cucumber plants grown under different spectra. The surface color was measured on the second and third leaves in the order of their emergence on the plant, to the left and right of the central vein: at the top of the leaf, at the bifurcation of the second veins of the second order, at the base of the leaf. During measurements, the device was brought to the leaf. The principle of the microcontroller-based colorimeter operation was described. (Results and discussion) The asymmetry of the values of the color coordinates of the symmetrical points on the cucumber leaf surface was found to be fluctuating and can be used to assess the plant development stability. The differences in the light environment quality, affecting the plant biometric parameters, are manifested in the asymmetry of the color coordinates of the symmetrical points on the leaf surface and the higher values of growth parameters (in plants under better light environment conditions) correspond to lower values of fluctuating asymmetry. (Conclusions) The developed colorimeter was proved to be compact and ergonomic, easy to manufacture, inexpensive, easy to operate and applicable to the field usage. The device enables to identify differences in the development stability of the plants grown under different light sources. The experimental conditions revealed that the fluctuating asymmetry values were 0.0301 relative units under LEDs and 0.0471 relative units under sodium lamps in the red range. In the green range they were 0.0228 and 0.0305, in the blue one 0.0253 and 0.0416 relative units, respectively.
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