Mylar, tinfoil and flatpaint dilemma

[greenman882]

Ok don't flame me if this has been covered before.(I did look) I had a question on paint, mylar and tinfoil. Mylar would seem ideal for reflection but wouldn't that cause hotpots in your growroom and burn your plants? flat white paint and the dull side of tinfoil would lack in reflection but, would cause these problems. My question is would mylar or other highly reflective surfaces cause your plants to burn? if so how would you combat this? I use the dull side of tinfoil in my room but it lacks alot of reflection would i be better off painting the room flat white?

 

[snagglepuss]

i just made a grow box out of a large cardbord box and lined the inside wit foil. would this be a problem for my plants?

i plan on puttin computer fans on either sides for circulation as well, one for intake, the other outtake.
usin single cfl for now, once i move into the box ill be using 2 2' florecents. does this seem good or bad for a noob?

thanks,

(p.s. no trying to steal the thread, just have a similar question id like answered)

 

[sulldog]

flat paint. just use white primer

 

[Mother's Finest]

Textured reflective surfaces both reflect and disperse light, preventing reflective hot spots. Some people use white material to accomplish this but equally good dispersal & better reflection can be achieved using textured metal. Here's how we do it; bottom of the page: https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/380606-sensi-seeds-mothers-finest-indoor-2.html

 

[greenman882]

i don't think you should worry about your 2' florecent tubes they don't put off much heat and you can pretty much put them right on top of your plants.
I personally think that for vegging, florescents are the way to go they stay way cool and are cheap to run.

 

[Mother's Finest]

I personally think that for vegging, florescents are the way to go they stay way cool and are cheap to run.

Agreed. Plants would have to flower pretty fast to beat their vegging replacements. The only time HID's are any real help in veg is when the grower's already vegging the plants longer than they flower for and wants to speed things up.

 

[cruzer101]

Or when ya want height, I veg them up two or three feet then put them in a green house to flower with supplemental lighting. Just cant do it with the T5's I got so I use a hid, 400w ceramic metal halide.

If you are just using floros then the shiny side of the tin foil would be fine.

 

[captain chronizzle]

i used white semi-gloss, cuz thats what i had. seems to be doing the job.

 

[Wetdog]

Avoid tin foil, it will cause hot spots. It also absorbs heat. About the worst thing you can use.

Mylar is great, but not cheap and sort of a pain to get on right.

Flat bright white paint is the cheapest and easiest to go with. Works fine.

Wet

 

[Wolverine97]

Tin foil sucks, flat titanium white is the best for the money vs maintenance. Mylar works, but is nearly impossible to get it to stay flat, which does cause hot spots. Then again, that won't matter a single bit if your light source is fluorescent, it's impossible to burn a plant with reflected fluoro lighting. Impossible.