TIN FOIL ALUMINUM FOIL OR NOTHING???

[CanadianGrower]

He this is my first grow and i ran out and bought every thing i need with out reading up on it first. I made a huge mistake buying and putting tin foil for reflecting light off walls (saw it on trailer park boys lol). I am extremely low on cash and will be until i get some money from crops. I do plan on changing in future tho.
-Aluminum foil is one of the worst possible reflective surfaces. The foil always wrinkles up and reflects the light in wrong directions actually wasting light. It also reflects more ultraviolet rays than other surfaces, witch are harmful to chloroplasts in leaves. - pg 188 medical growers bible.

SO the main question in this forum will be TIN FOIL OR NOTHING? what you guys think?

walls are blue with 12 mm plastic poly for humidity

 

[guineapig]

Do not use aluminum-foil. period. flat white paint will be more reflective....

Feel free to pm me for all your questions, both big and small....

kind regards from guineapig

 

[tarzan of thc]

Aluminum foil dull side out would be better than nothing and blue walls. It's not as good as flat white paint (the best) or mylar. You can also use flat white notebook paper.

Throughout history there have been more great grows with aluminum foil than mylar and maybe all the other reflective surfaces combined. You will be fine the way you are CanadianGrower.

However, change to flat white paint when you are able.

Happy New Year!

 

[Guest]

Purchase "Extra White" wall paint, ask the paint salesman to give it some additional Titanium (makes it even brighter), this will work real good, and on the cheap too!

Ty-Stik

 

[bassmechanic27]

What color is the paint of your walls? If they are a flat white paint, ditch the tinfoil! The walls will reflect more light than the foil. Good luck!

 

[chubbynugs]

Yeah i tried the whole mylar thing but i noticed i got the same results as white paint gave me. No change or anything in yield using mylar for me at least

 

[BlindDate]

-Aluminum foil is one of the worst possible reflective surfaces. The foil always wrinkles up and reflects the light in wrong directions actually wasting light. It also reflects more ultraviolet rays than other surfaces, witch are harmful to chloroplasts in leaves. - pg 188 medical growers bible.

Bullshit!!! Half of the reflectors inside light hoods are pebbled surface aluminum.

Reflects more UV???? Lets see the data?

Aluminum foil is far better than nothing, but a pain in the ass to install. If you already have it up then just use it until it gets dirty, then paint the walls flat white like everyone said.

 

[Murphy]

Whoops, looks like I made a mistake on the paint I used. I figured the more gloss, the better and used Gloss White Enamel.

Why should I have used flat?

I'm not trying to jack your thread, I'm just looking for the right thing to use next time.

 

[darthvapor]

flat paint because you dont want shadows or light reflected at many angles. Gloss tends to reflect light at many angles to give it that sparkley apperance. flat paint reflects it just once at angle back to the plants. everytime light bounces or reflects it looses intensity. I use the white pvc from the hydro store got a 10x12 room did it for 30 dollars not to expensive and makes cleaning easy as a wipedown.

 

[BlindDate]

Note however that the white on Panda sheet is glossy!

 

[fatboycantpost]

hola.

i used mylar for years then switched to panda plastic. i now have just bare walls with a kinda flat white paint. frankly, if there is a difference in weight by more than a few grams if at all, i haven't noticed. the walls have been bare for 3 years or so.

just my experience.

by the way, i noticed a patch of mold (?maybe) in about a 6 inch patch of the lower flower room wall. it has showed up after MANY years of all year growing. i wonder if the mylar somehow made it less moist on the wall? i would think that it would probably make it more humid between the mylar and the wall.

the patch hasn't expanded in a couple months so i'm just kind of ignoring it.

later

 

[Anima]

fatboy-eww mold...I'd cut that part of the wall off and put up some more sheet rock...
That kinda thing can give you health problems..could be a water/ sewer pipe leaking in your wall..

And CG, as far as the foil...I have found that it's major drawback reflecting HEAT.
Your UV light quibble is drivel IMHO.. I suppliment with high UV output flouro bulbs..(reptile bulbs, NOT party black lights!!!)...do a google search for "reptisun 5.0"...

so my two cents: the foil is better than nothing if you can contend with the heat....
I use flat white paint like everyone else..

 

[Pompey_Monkey]

Unless by some really wierd fluke a virtual focussing reflector is created by the geometry of the foil (or any other material) surface, then it is absolutely impossibe for the growroom lining to reflect more "harmful" light onto the plants than is given by direct illumination from the light source.

No passive reflector has an omnidirectional gain of more than unity - "Ye cannae break the laws of physics, Jim!". Therefore, not withstanding the "focussing" phenomena, no material is intrinsically harmful to the plants by virtue of it's refelction properties.

Any solution that uses a material with a low absorpbtion will probably be pretty useful!

for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidirectional_reflectance_distribution_function

for reference, I use polythene...

 

[BlindDate]

Thank you Pompey Monkey, I've been trying to dispel that "hot spot" myth for years. Some people just never get it.

so my two cents: the foil is better than nothing if you can contend with the heat....

 

[Pompey_Monkey]

Thank you Pompey Monkey, I've been trying to dispel that "hot spot" myth for years. Some people just never get it.

Thanks BlindDate.

It is of course possible for different materials to trap heat in the grow room, but this would just raise the ambient temperature - certainly not creating hotspots. Think of it like an inside out greenhouse effect....

This works both ways too - as I grow in the roof, where extremes of temperature are the norm, an environment that's thermally isolated from the attic space is much easier to manage. I am currently thinking about lining my diy 'drobe with thermal lagging for just this purpose. The temps are them moderated by the airflow taken from the house - warm in winter and cool in summer...

 

[CanadianGrower]

Cool guys i only plan on growing in the room for 4 -5 months and im moving so ill keep it up and keep that mylar in mind for next grow.

 

[Grizzer]

High Canada
I go for the flat white paint as well. Good growing bro!

STAY HIGH!!
PEACE!

 

[Tony Aroma]

I wouldn't use Trailer Park Boys as a tutorial. If you'll notice, they grow plastic plants. Of course if that's what you have, then you can't go wrong with foil.