L.E.D. 1st Grow

[Shrillmill]

I was thinking the same thing about the mirrors but with leds I dont know about hot spots..

[Petho1]

Not to worried about that since the led's don't put out any heat. More worried about the cali hash plant thats wilted a little but its not turning yellow and does have new growth just looks weak. Idk really yet. I did change to just straight water and no nutes. Thanks, I did not know to not add nutes yet but I hope all is ok and will prevail. Also getting some cfl's tomorrow to help those weak leds.
Thanks again everybody and anymore suggestions is well appreciated.

[Master_Kush]

I happen to own a glass & mirror co. Mirrors will not make hot spots. Their' backing is not tinfoil. Mirrors don't reflect heat, the glass on it does. However this only applies when a heat source is beating on the glass. If it is hot outside & your window is hot to the touch, is a mirror reflecting the hot window also hot ? No, it's not. I use mirrors in my bloom room on the floor. I just ordered my vegg tent 5x5x7. In my new veg tent the whole 5x5 floor will be a 1/4in thick sheet of mirror. In my bloom area I have a 2.5ft X 6ft peice of scrap from the wharehouse laid in the middle of my plants 3 on each side reflecting a 1000 watt SHPS hortlilux w/ an air cooled hood. That does not get hot or burn my plants. If the mirror had a fisheye aka dent, minor break mark. That could be a hot spot "depends". Growing with LEDs you want all the reflection you can get. When it's time for the buds get yaself a real light. If your creative home depot has everything you need. If I were you & you want this done cheap & well. Go get a shitload of T5 CFL strips. 1/2 white 1/2 warm to get you past veg & finish with a HPS mixed with flourecent.

[LoveBlunts]

Hey Kahn...


Does the layer of glass in front of the silver-backing of the mirror not absorb light? I'm pretty sure when i listened in physics, they said something about that. The light rays bend when going through the glass and hit the reflective surface and bend more on their way back through leading to less actual reflected light than you started with. flat white paint would be more beneficial. just my 2 cents.



-Lbs.

[Joe Luxon]

Yes, Mirrors are more effecient at reflecting Heat than light. That doesnt mean that theyre useless for your applicatio tho.

LEDs radiate very little towards the front, nearly all the heat is produced at the back of the LED, from the heatsink mounting ( i assume we're talking about star leds here, not low wattage 5mm leds from toys).

While your just using LEDs i cant see heat reflection being a problem, no matter how many Panels you use. Once you start putting in the CFLs tho, id reconsider the whole mirror idea, and go for mylar, or my faviorite, a flat white surface.

Deffiently use CFL to suppliment the light spectrum btw, I finished a CFL/LED grow 2 months ago, and although the Buds were considerably smaller than the exact same strain grown under HPS, the Pure LED grow that my mate is doing atm looks completely undernurished and the flowers are very 'light and fluffy'.

[mongrel]

i reckon this bloke's right, mirrors absorb more light than they reflect... wasted light. the light goes through the glass to the backing, some is reflected back, some is absorbed by the backing, wood frame etcetera. white is good! i'm interested in a led grow having considered it for years.
petho1. slow is good at first.

Originally Posted by LoveBlunts

Hey Kahn...


Does the layer of glass in front of the silver-backing of the mirror not absorb light? I'm pretty sure when i listened in physics, they said something about that. The light rays bend when going through the glass and hit the reflective surface and bend more on their way back through leading to less actual reflected light than you started with. flat white paint would be more beneficial. just my 2 cents.



-Lbs.

[Master_Kush]

Turn off the lights. Turn on a flashlight & point it at the mirror. What happens ? It reflects the light back towards you. Point your led at a mirror in a dark room & see if the room dont get brighter, see if you can't control where the light goes.The trick to this is how far the light is away from the mirror. It's all about enhancing coverage area. If you put the mirror or light @ an angle you can also control the direction of reflected light. Your light will not double in lumens but it will be highly effective at delivering light beneath the plant. Do you think 2 sided poly or mylar compares to the reflection of another light ? Your mirror won't get hot unless your light is hot & close to the mirror feeding it heat. Currently Im using a mirror with my flowering which isn't even a week in. You can see the diffrence in lighting when you add a mirror & you won't get any hot spots. Argue all you like but it's free & works for me. I think I would of had a hot spot by now reflecting a 1000 watt light off my mirror which was also was under the 1000 watt MH bulb since babies. "switchable ballast". I would love to see someone try to compare the reflection of a mirror w/ white poly or mylar lmao.

[mongrel]

hmmm, i didn't mention hot spots because i don't really know if a mirror causes them or not. though i seriously doubt that a beam of reflected mirror light unless deliberately focussed, could be intense enough to burn/harm a plant. of course every setup up is unique and thus different causes and outcomes may apply for differing conditions and other factors. in your case i certainly believe you have no hot spots. i mentioned the light absorption because it is a known scientific fact not a random guess by me or others here or elsewhere. google will bring back many reputable sources to expand on this for you. all this discussion is good as it will help clarify things for new growers. i think you should also do a search regarding the reflective capabilities of flat white vs mirrors. you may be surprised.

[Master_Kush]

Well 1st off did the teacher tell you exactly how much light is absorbed by a mirror ? It cannot absorb all light cause we all know it reflects it too. Yes they do absorb but you need ask how much. You cannot get hot spots w/out a damaged mirror. They are perfectly smooth. A mirror doesn't make heat. Heat does. No amount of light will heat your mirror up unless there is heat from the light beating on the mirror. Heat is no isuue unless you have heat. I shine 1000 watts into the mirror. Let's say mirrors keep 70% of the light. Id imagine thats a high guestimate. That means I have 30% of a 1000 watt light on the bottom of my grow. Im sorry but mylar & poly are not capable of producing that type of reflection. Anyone with a high powered light should atleast get a door mirror & place it in the center of your plants. You can find them as low as 15 bucks or you can find a scrap. I dare someone to try it & come back & tell me mylar or poly gave you better results. It is a next to nothing addition to your grow w/ results. I don't care what your teacher told you but I know it hurts my eyes to look into the mirror. Ever hurt your eyes looking at mylar of poly ? Try it, than tell me it's a bad idea or useless. This is useful for everyone.

[mongrel]

well first off the teacher didn't tell me i learned it independently from 25 years of growing and research. the teacher appears to have certainly not told you much. as for mylar and poly i am not going to comment on something i know nothing about and again regarding hot spots i do not disagree with you... i just don't know. i do know however, that a piece of wood or whatever painted flat white (and it does have to be a flat white, such as ceiling white) will give you at least equal and probably greater reflective capability than a mirror will. it will certainly give a more evenly and thus more efficient diffused light. i reiterate... i did not drag this fact out of my arse... i have read, learned and digested. education doesn't stop just because school is over! obtusity and hearsay never prove anything and never will prove anything. proveable, re-producible facts do. an easy way to research it would have one side mirrored and the other side a flat white painted board and watch the outcome. anybody got any comments about mylar and poly vs mirrors? a rational discussion on this would certainly be illuminating (pun intended) and helpful to growers. petho1 what's your take on this discussion? and how are your plants coming along? one of them looked very unhealthy... has it improved? what have you been doing with them?

[Petho1]

Wow ya'll really got into that one. I actually took an optics class in my laser studies in college and mirrors will have a slight absorption but very little mostly like 97% reflective and above. Now if u have a heat problem to begin with you're definetly going to increase that heat using mirrors. However the reflectivity I think would be superior. You should use what suits your need best. Back to my plants, the wilted one (chp) is still kinda wilted even though I put 4 23w cfl's 6500k on it about 2-4 inches away. It still doesn't have any yellowing and has its new growth still growing it seems, idk. The other one is still under the leds because it seems to like them and is doing good still. I'll post some new pics when they have some change on them. Thanks again all for the help. Oh yeah, it looks like I am going to get a 1000w HPS light system very soon, any suggestions? I've been looking at a ValuLine system for $200 from DH catalog, just have to get MH bulb added on and I'll be alright.

[Master_Kush]

You must be under some impression that im talking about a grow room entirely made of mirrors ? I already used flat white. I have mylar & poly right now in my setup. I'm telling you if you put a mirror on the floor you will have more light. Mirrors on walls of grow rooms are sensless. Im advising that it is a good idea to put a mirror directly underneath your light. You can see the results immediately. Just get a peice of scrap mirror or a cheap door style mirror & put it underneath your light. Than come back here & tell us how you didn't see an improvement. Im not coming in here telling people to put a mirror on the floor if it didn't help. Why would I do that ? Anyone with a light can do this & change nothing in your grow setup. What do you think will give off more light, white paint or a direct reflection of your light ? I prefer mylar walls but I currently use white poly on the walls of my bloom room. The white poly is also laid on the floor. Why is it there is much more light when I lay the mirror down on the poly ? When I remove the mirror it is not as bright. Isn't brighter better ? I challenge people to lay down a door mirror in their grow directly beneath their light / lights & come back here & tell everyone how it wasn't brighter. I will take pics tonight & let you all be the judge. 25 yrs & ya never thought to put a mirror under the light ? Never tried it ? Well Im thowing a challenge out there. "pun intended". You will see my pics by morning, they wake up in a few hours. They are less than a week out of veg.

[Petho1]

Mirrors reflect approximately 98% and above. Just look in the mirror at yourself and what is missing? You are going to get great reflection just use it wisely and it could be to your advantage.

[Master_Kush]

Here are some pics. Please excuse the mess as Im in the progress of setting up a veg room & a dark room in the same room in the back of my garage. I'd say it's about 700sf give or take so Im still setting up tents & lights & all that. I will give many pics next week when my other tent comes, the actual veg tent. Here is what I noticed right off the bat. Whenever you get close to any high power light it messes with the camera. Point the camera above your light & the camera will look ok, the light won't mess it up. You can see in one picture of my blower the light is messing with the camera above the light. The other picture it is not. Why is this ? It's because I flipped the mirror up & put it leaning on the buckets. The white poly alone was not reflecting enough light to mess up my camera. I believe this would mean I have light beaming upwards w/ the use of my mirror. You see the white poly beneath the mirror. How much light a mirror adds I do not know. I know it reflected enuff to mess my camera up and the white poly didn't. Im eager to show off my little operation when I finish it all up.

Casey Jones
Og Kush
Bubba Kush
Hindu Kush

After the setup is complete I will add atleast 3 more strains. Gotta love SoCal. I have another person legal in the house so I'm not above the limit. Im way under what the state permits. I must admit I have been slacking this round but Things will turn out good. These are new clones to me so I'm preying they have good genes. I also added 3 a little late. This is day 4 or 5 in flower.

[Master_Kush]

Originally Posted by Petho1

Wow ya'll really got into that one. I actually took an optics class in my laser studies in college and mirrors will have a slight absorption but very little mostly like 97% reflective and above. Now if u have a heat problem to begin with you're definetly going to increase that heat using mirrors. However the reflectivity I think would be superior. You should use what suits your need best. Back to my plants, the wilted one (chp) is still kinda wilted even though I put 4 23w cfl's 6500k on it about 2-4 inches away. It still doesn't have any yellowing and has its new growth still growing it seems, idk. The other one is still under the leds because it seems to like them and is doing good still. I'll post some new pics when they have some change on them. Thanks again all for the help. Oh yeah, it looks like I am going to get a 1000w HPS light system very soon, any suggestions? I've been looking at a ValuLine system for $200 from DH catalog, just have to get MH bulb added on and I'll be alright.

My Advice. Don't skimp on anything lighting. My buddy who owns a hydro store sold me a 1000 watt switchable hydrofarm ballast for $180 brand new. Do some hunting. Remember there is a diffrence in bulbs, Im on my last shine w/ my current SHPS Hortilux. 4th go. I change every 4 cycles. Im looking into the Hortilux Enhanced Spectrum SHPS vs the awesome Super Blue they have now. It's a 600 watt Hps & 400 wattt MH mixed. I dont know which would be bettter for flowering. Get a switchable ballst. Run MH on young ones & SHPS for flower. I'm waiting on someone who knows the diffrence of the models of bulbs to respond to my post.