i just found this and saw this thought id post it
Ganja_Greg
so ive read hundreds of post talking about how aluminum foil creates hot spots for grow rooms etc it can burn your leaves so on and so forth WHATEVER!, now i would like to clear up somthing on this "rumor" , Aluminum foil can only creates hot spots if your using a HOT light like an HPS or somthing else , ppl have been growing forest's of weed for years using basic aluminum foil all you have to do is use the dull side not the shiney side and its a pretty cheap reflective material. as we all know you can hold a match to aluminum for 5 min and then take it off and it will be cool again in about 15 sec. The best lighting for Aluminum foil is probably CFL's seeing how they put out like hardly any heat. so next time you hear somone say OH DONT USE THAT! get it out of there! think twice if your using CFL's or any kind of Cool growing light.
This info coming from numerous RL friends who have been growing for decades with some of the best buds ive ever seen/smoked and personal exp.
Wow, that post stands in pretty stark contrast to an earlier post of yours...
dude how long you grom for cause ask any expert your wrong wrong shudnt give advice if you dont really know tinfoil does almost nothing reflective wise it actually absorbes alot of light look it up
While the posting you quoted was partially correct, Ill quote myself just incase we missed it...
... If your hand will not burn at the same distance that your foil is from your lights, then there is no way for the foil to"concentrate" the light into a beam/hot spot that can burn your plants. You'll be fine with foil ... I wish someone with real experience would come forward and claim that they've had leaves burned by light that has been reflected off foil, light that has traveled further to hit the leaves than light straight from the bulb, light that has been scattered by the micro textured surface of the foil (it scatters light very well, try to see your reflection in foil) mylar would be more likely to create a hot spot from reflected light if the proposed theory were true. If you wrap your fixture in aluminum foil or put a bunch of foil near a hot bulb it can transfer the radiant heat... But plastic mylar and panda film would both melt in the same conditions, sooo...
I dont know how else I can put it to make it more clear. If you are making a tent out of aluminum foil or completely line your box and dont have sufficient ventilation, then it may be possible for heat to build up which could cause the heat stress (which would happen in
any environment with insufficient ventilation for the heat made by your lighting) Otherwise, if you have heat issues it will NOT be due to the foil.
I'd put money that in MJ Growing history long long ago, some know it all noob put up foil then suffered a deficiency soon after, and assuming the crispy leaves were heat stress concluded that it MUST have been from the aluminum foil making hot spots since they put the stuff in ovens and it can get really hot... I would not be the least bit supprised to find out that he then jumped online and posted all over the internet about how bad foil was and with a slight exageration of his growing experience, got a million other noobs to spread the myth based on his experience...
Foil is admittedly not the best, but will not hurt the plants in anyway. And when the amount of light that you can get onto your plants is directly related to the final quality/yield of your harvest, it would be unwise
not to use foil if you have no other form of reflective surface to help scavenge the light you provide. The average grower will never come close the the amount/intensity of light the sun can provide, and you need to do whatever you can to get as many of the photons emitted from your lights onto your foliage before their energy is dissipated...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law Distance from the lights to the foliage is key, and if the
lights arent burning your leaves at their given distance from the canopy, light that is reflected off foil (which will have traveled further than light directly from the bulb, as you have the distance from bulb to the foil then from the foil to the foliage, which I have to assume will be a longer distance traveled simply because I cannot picture a situation where it would be shorter for the light to hit the foil first then the leaves vs straight from the bulb... make sense?) that light will have substantially less energy after distance and refraction/reflection off the foil and will not be
more powerful or able to
scorch the foliage. Its nonsense.
ugh Im babbling, point is dont believe the hype, try it yourself and learn for yourself before believing illogical myths.
Oh btw, the reflector surfaces that come with most commercially available reflectors/cooltubes/batwings etc... highly polished and dimpled, ALUMINUM. the reflective surfaces inserted into air cooled hoods and HPS reflectors 1000w and UP... ALUMINUM, highly polished ALUMINUM. use the shiny side of your foil, and laugh at the idiots who will follow blindly without really thinking about what they're doing.
EmilyRose, sorry for hijacking your thread, I just didnt like when you asked for help doing something, and the haters popped in to tell you why their way is best. This myth has been perpetuated for too long, I want someone with real experience (documented so I can know you're not a big talking teenager growing under your bed in a shoe box) to show/explain to me how their leaves were scorched from light
reflected off
aluminum foil lined walls, and not from the bulb itself.