Reflection wasted

I have noticed in a lot of the grow rooms pics, a lot of light is wasted by people using foil or nothing at all to reflect light.

I am just sprouting at the moment under CFL, I usually grow outdoors but it's autumn.

My plan is to go minimum light and maximum reflection. I am going to buy a couple of 130W fluros and a shit load of mylar or pandafilm. That should get me through vegetation, and I will buy probably just 1 more fluro for budding. So with 390W total and utilising all that light with good quality reflecting screens, I think I should do ok. I will post pics on progress once it get interesting.

But how important do you guys think it is to reflect as much light as possible, or is direct light more important?

direct would be more important I think, but reflective us very important too in order to get lower leaves light too.

I wold say use a light mover as well.

Light movers are mechanical devices that, as the name implies, move an HID in a fixed pattern over a garden. A light mover can increase the coverage of a light by 140%. The real advantage is MUCH more light is available to the plants when the light is in motion. With a stationary light all that is shaded will remain in the shade, but with a mover the light will hit from different angles giving better coverage.

Light movers are found in 2 configurations: spinning arms (kind of like a ceiling fan) and along a rail that moves back and forth. The rail version seems to be much more popular with Overgrowers, probably because it will accommodate an air cooled fixture.

Light rails come in a variety of lengths, but most can be cut to fit any application. Most growers prefer a "smart rail", that is, one that pauses at each end of the rail for a period.

The biggest problem with air cooling a light on a mover seems to be dealing with air duct slack. Apparently, if the light is close to the tops of the plants, the duct may be dragged through the plants, thereby damaging them. Overgrow poster Ferret devised a solution: Use a curtain track, not a rod but the track that has all the little hangers inside that slides very easily. I screwed this to the ceiling of room and used light weight string to attach the air pipe to the little hangers in the track.
As the light moved the track hangers moved along with the air pipe stopping the air ducting from dragging over your plant tops doing damage.
The track cost about $15-$20 at any hardware or store. Simple to set up and it works .

I have noticed that a lot of people that use cfl's don't put any reflectors on the bulb and lose sometimes over 50% of their light vertically, this is what I think the biggest problem that many cfl growers suffer from. Reflection is great but direct light is always the best. Though I have occasionally noticed parts of my plants growing towards mylar as opposed to growing towards the light, so who knows.

Very interesting.... Every little bit helps. True in many many aspects of life. Every little bit counts. It really really does.
How about strategically placed mirrors? I cant get mylar, but I am lacking in reflection myself....

I'm pretty much a first time grower but have taken a class on light and understand fairly well how it works. I think that if you utilized reflection right it could drastically affect the plants ( in a good way). i was thinking about putting a mirror on the bottom and top of a grow closet, I'm kind of talking out of my ass since its my first time, but i think its a good idea.

In.The.Basement said:

I'm pretty much a first time grower but have taken a class on light and understand fairly well how it works. I think that if you utilized reflection right it could drastically affect the plants ( in a good way). i was thinking about putting a mirror on the bottom and top of a grow closet, I'm kind of talking out of my ass since its my first time, but i think its a good idea.

Click to expand...

Are you sure mirrors are the way to go? Don't take my word for it but I heard that mirrors are not as good as the average reflective material out there. The stuff I got apparantly reflects 97% of light, and I'm gonna coat my cupboard with it so I should see minimum light loss.

I'm glad to hear other people are as conscious about utilising light as I am.

But let me know how the mirrors go, cause I have a couple lying around and could use them if they are worth it.