Magnifying Lenses To increase yeild

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youandiunderwater

Active Member
:idea:I was doing some thinking lately and couldn't find any research on the subject of using bigger magnifying lenses or screens to increase the focus point of a light.

I know the calculations behind light interactions and lenses, but have never seen or heard the principles being applied to increase light, to increase yield.


Say if you had a 1' tall plant (from the ground respectively), a strong lens above that, and a good light above those, say at 2', Could you place the lens(es) in a position to help focus the light, increasing photosynthesis ect...


Let me know. It may be time for some new experiments.
 
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thefarmer

Active Member
Hi m8,have u ever tried using a magnifying glass outside and concentrate it on the top of ur hand????? OUCH !!!
just imagine a 600w a coupkle feet away,there will b fires lol
thats wot i recon.im using mirrors in my room angling them slightly so the light reflects up from the bottom of the plant and is working gr8
 
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youandiunderwater

Active Member
I'm thinking about setting up something an experiment, with a control of course. But maybe, 2 clones, 2 100watt CFl (need a single small light source kinda like the sun) and 2 identical rooms,soil,nuits,ect. The only difference being the use of a lens of some sort on the test plant.

I don't want to smoke the plant under the light, i only intend on having the light focused slightly, catching maybe 75% of the plant in "concentrated" light. I have a huge projection screen, a very large Magni Lens and will probably do some research before i invest.
 
AeroKing

AeroKing

Well-Known Member
So, you are essentially trying to counteract the broadcasting of light from the reflector? "Hot Spots" are counteractive to general plant growth, multifaceted light is productive. Plants will perform best when light is spread throughout the entire plant, hitting it from many angles. Beaming a very intense light from directly above seems counterproductive to me.
 
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thefarmer

Active Member
i agree wiv areoking,but u may wana luk in2 convex and concave lenses,i remeber doin about these yrs ago at skool cant remember wihich 1 duz which but 1 points beam directly on 1 spot and other 1 concentrates the beam out think its concave.hope this helps
 
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TMB77

Well-Known Member
Man, this is oddly intriguing. I believe I get what you're lookin to do, but cant imagine the cumbersome apparatus necessary to supply EVEN concentrated light to an entire plant. But am looking forward to any results you might get. If you can find the 'sweet spot', where it isnt too intense, and it isnt too spread out...I wonder if that would do anything for growth. My intuition says...if so it would be slight, and you'd need a much larger sample size to be sure the difference was anything less than, ordinary differing phenotypes.
 
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serrated

Well-Known Member
Awesome Idea, I would like to know if the lens would turn 10,000 lumes into 15,000 or 20,000. I would like to see what this does to a plant
 
carcass91

carcass91

Well-Known Member
This experiment is directionless.

If you have a lens (big enough and with a low focal length), and try to concentrate the light intensity on any substance, it'll create hot spots. When i say hot i mean HOT!

In theory you could create enough concentration of heat that you could melt the surface of the Earth, but since you are only focusing one one point, you will only melt the absolute surface, and not the layer beneath (at least, not without moving the magnifying glass to shift the point of focus of the light, and continue moving is forward as you melt each level of the surface layer). You would ofcourse need a very very large magnifying glass to collect enough light to do this with.

Same goes with u. A magnifying glass wud create nothing but a very HOT POINT(of focus). It will kill ur plants, or worse, will catch fire(chances are less)


Do more research and apply some science... before conducting any experiment. Nice try though :)
I would love to see how the experiment progresses, i'll keep an eye :p
all the best
 
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youandiunderwater

Active Member
It's not about buying a light, any one can pawn a tv and slap up 500w ect. It's about innovation/accommodation, why ever make the light bulb(why not just use the Sun?!), you know? what seemed crazy one day (particles flying around unseen making up the universe), electricity is every where now, so some lenses positioned above some pot plants, crazy today(sure it works :) ) and widely used tomorrow. Open up, wake up

Why does it seem that i want the most concentrated point of the light to shine and fry one small spot on the plant...?(feeling a bit patronized) Not so;

I am thinking of a slight magnification/concentration. No more practical than placing several 100w lights together in a small box with foliage. (guilty :) )

Say a twin organic grow is going outside, you'r's has no modified lenses, mine has a slight mod with a lens or two increasing the light concentration, maybe increasing yield blah blah,

just saying, I'm not gonna start some wielding forest fires, i guess i would just like to prove a point at this time.

I WILL BE conducting this soon. So if someone would like to take this challenge up for me (hint,hint), some one with the time right now, I only have room for one project at a time (gives me plenty to think about to improve between grows) But will conduct myself one day for self gratification.
 
FLoJo

FLoJo

Well-Known Member
hate to burst the bubble but no sort of lens will do anything to increase your yield.. in fact just having glass in front of the bulbs in items such as cooltubes and hooded reflectors shows a very slight decrease in yield.

the thing is that a plant needs a certain amount of light.. now i dont know exactly what part of the spectrum it is exactly, but i can tell you it is not based on lumens or watts, rather the more lumens and/or watts the more light of that given frequency is included.

anyways, any kind of magnifying lens does not CREATE more light, which is what means increase of yield, it meerley concentrates the light in a specific area.. think about burning a leaf under a magnifying glass.. you are not increasing the power of the sun, you are just concentrating on all of that power into one specific area.

so in short, any kind of lens is not going to increase the amount of light, which is what is needed for greater yields, it is only going to take the light you have and concentrate it into one spot, which will most likely burn your plants, because the more you concentrate the light, the hotter that area will be.

FLo
 
DodgeDread

DodgeDread

Well-Known Member
FLoJo said:
hate to burst the bubble but no sort of lens will do anything to increase your yield.. in fact just having glass in front of the bulbs in items such as cooltubes and hooded reflectors shows a very slight decrease in yield.

the thing is that a plant needs a certain amount of light.. now i dont know exactly what part of the spectrum it is exactly, but i can tell you it is not based on lumens or watts, rather the more lumens and/or watts the more light of that given frequency is included.

anyways, any kind of magnifying lens does not CREATE more light, which is what means increase of yield, it meerley concentrates the light in a specific area.. think about burning a leaf under a magnifying glass.. you are not increasing the power of the sun, you are just concentrating on all of that power into one specific area.

so in short, any kind of lens is not going to increase the amount of light, which is what is needed for greater yields, it is only going to take the light you have and concentrate it into one spot, which will most likely burn your plants, because the more you concentrate the light, the hotter that area will be.

FLo
Click to expand...
good point, all a lens does is move light not create it
 
carcass91

carcass91

Well-Known Member
youandiunderwater said:
again... not trying to recreate energy, just learning a way to focus, instead of reflect or mirror light.
Click to expand...
dude, U CANNOT CREATE ENERGY!

Law of conservation of energy states that " Energy can neither be created nor destroyed"

Anyways, if u try to focus light... the intensity of the light would not reduce as much... so that implies, for example... u have 20 CFLs in an area of 5 sq foot. Now, if u focus all that light on say 1/2 square foot, where will all the energy go?
It will be converted to heat energy on THAT PARTICULAR POINT WHERE THE LIGHT IS FOCUSED.

Havnt u ever tried a magnifying glass on ur a piece of paper on a sunny day? :|
 
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Jobo

Well-Known Member
the trichomes act as little magnifying glases for the plant. Thats why they are shaped like they are. Nature beat you to it.
 
carcass91

carcass91

Well-Known Member
Jobo said:
the trichomes act as little magnifying glases for the plant. Thats why they are shaped like they are. Nature beat you to it.
Click to expand...
Intellectual i see... good info dude. I didnt know that... now the wierd ass shape makes sense
 
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born2killspam

Well-Known Member
Yea, you want to diffuse light, not focus it.. And any obstruction will eat up some energy.. The trichs aren't there to magnify anything, they're there to filter/absorb shorter wave radiation..
Lenses do focus light itself though, they don't convert it to heat, but heat is a byproduct of all that light energy whacking away at localized molecules..
I hate to be blunt and closed-minded, but absolutely no good can come of this.. (Unless you get lucky and fry a spider-mite just before it lays eggs..):)
 
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