refelecting light

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nilsuleion

Active Member
hi, i am working on my first grow on a very low budget and was wondering
what the best reflective material was to use. i have a 48inch 32 watt fluorescent bulb, its about a inch above my plants. i wanted to reflect as much light as possible, what would be best. aluminum foul or white paper.

this is a pic of one of my plants. she is two weeks old from the day i germinated.

does it look ok?
 
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nilsuleion

Active Member
well i dont have any paint. right now my grow is in a box, box is about 8inx4ftx8inch. its the box that tube lights are shiped in, i grabed it at lowes. it makes a perfect little grow enviroment, and i used white paper on all the walls and put paper over top of it. i was goin to switch all paper to aluminum foul. but if its bad idea i wont.
 
email468

email468

Well-Known Member
Be careful your white paper doesn't ignite! Foil (which you should use because of hot spots) would be better than that i think. Mylar is "the best reflective surface" but flat-white paint is better than poorly hung mylar.
 
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nilsuleion

Active Member
its a cool white fluorescent i have had the paper resting on the bulb for 5 days now it never heats up. so bottom line is do i use paper or aluminum fool?
 
tech9374

tech9374

Well-Known Member
use paper if u cant get paint, foil can create hot spots that can burn ur plants

but i doubt white paper will do a very good gob of reflecting

i use white gloss
 
Jcway5

Jcway5

Well-Known Member
if you can be extremely careful not to crinkle tin foil and keep it flat, then you can use it....but thats pretty hard to do so id probably go with suggestions from others
 
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nilsuleion

Active Member
i guess its not quite two weeks. and that time frame included my 4 days of germination. but anyway. they did stretch i had the light way to high, but its at a good lvl now. so hopfully it all works out. and i am growing from start to finish. maybe ill experiment growing half using white paper and half with foil and see which does better.
 
billybob88

billybob88

Well-Known Member
word, you know your ganna need a few more lights eh? if you start flowering your plant at 12 inches it will become 2-4 feet at least even if its an indica. if its a sativa it would become 6+. just think about the preperations your going to have to make to flower a plant.
 
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nilsuleion

Active Member
right now all i have is fluorescents. but when it comes to flower i have a friend that doesn't grow any more and said he would loan me his 250w hps. but im hoping my fluorescents will do the job on veging for the next month or so.
 
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Ecko

Active Member
hey man you can buy reflective wrapping paper that you use for wrapping presents and shit for a reflector they sell it at dollar stores and big lots. Shit is cheap only a dollar for like 8 sheets at big lots. Hope that helps, peace.
 
funnyguy

funnyguy

Cheese Head
dude if your broke like me goto Wal-mart and go into the section with the tents and camping gear and but the thermal blankets there in a little 2x4" bag and they are about $2.50 and it is pretty big and works alot better than aluminum foil or wrapping paper. Not the best but definatley not the worst. There is some pictures of it in my first grow journal.
 
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icabus

Active Member
Ya, i did the same. I had a couple emergency kits with a reflective blanket inside. I cut that up and lined my walls and behind my sliding door. I was later told i could go to a army surplus and get a mylar-type blanket for $1.50 ...

.... now if there was only a way to take out the creases. Ugh!
 
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