Mylar is the best. The diffusion going on with mirrors causes hot spots, and lessens the lumens. You can get a couple of safety blankets made of Mylar for about 1 dollar per blanket. They work good. Edit: I'm not sure about the hot spots, someone chime in.
Awww. But you forget that light that passes through glass is turned into heat. In short its a bad idea that won't work. Keep'em burnin DirtyViperMan
Mylar is the best. Glass mirrors focus the light into one spot creating a "hot spot" that burns the tips of your plants. Many a fan leaf has shriveled up because of excess heat and light concentration. Be safe, buy Mylar and as an earlier poster said, you can pick up one of those survival blanket on ebay for about a buck. They make great lininers for small grow cabinets.
White paint, mylar, or you can use automotive windshield reflectors...I found them at our local WinCo for like $1.50
mirrors absorb the light, & refract it back at a much weaker & wider wavelength. it reflects at about 60%. flat white paint is over 80%. some mylar goes up to 95%. aluminum foil is a no no also. foil retains heat in the area, just as a car windshield screen will also do. the creases & folds can also cause hot spots on the plant. i would suggest focusing on the light reflectors a great deal. after money is spent there if need be, spend whats left on paint or mylar. the cheapest way to get mylar is like what they said above, at a camping store or walmarts camping section. the emergency mylar blankets are under 3 buxx for a few of em. ordering mylar rolls is much more expensive, however, you get what u pay for online. some online have varied thickness, which reaaaaaaallllllly helps. the thicker the better obviously. the mylar blankets are soo thin & fragile.....
I dunno about all this absorbing light business, I imagine a mirror is pretty dang reflective. When i see things in a mirror they dont seem 40 percent dimmer. However if you can imagine looking into a grow room with mirror walls, it would all look pretty green right? Plants are green because they reflect mostly the green spectrum of light. Plants reflect mostly green because green is useless to the life processes a plant has. So the big fields of green looking back at your plants in the mirror would be no good. But then I'm not all that experienced, and never measured the light coming from a mirror, or even heard anything about such info. And im pretty high. And i suppose by the same token, any reflective surface would be catching light reflected from the plants. Whatever, thats just my idea of why mirrors are bad. Smarter people, feel free to crap all over my ideas Long story short, dont use mirrors. Flat white paint is good and cheap if you have a small cab, and it stays still. I used emergency blankets when i was little, but i had a hell of a time keeping it on an untreated wood surface with scotch tape while it flapped in the fan breeze.
how the hell do you get those mylar blankets to stay nicely on the walls of your grow box? I had a tote lined in it but i spilt some shit in it. i rinsed it out and it got in the tape and came apart. My newest design is just that aluminum foil tape covering every inch of the inside. It doesn't seem nearly as reflective as the mylar.
A mirror will keep much more of your light before it gives it back to your plant. Mylar would be better than a mirror.
A mirror 'abosorbs' some of the essential lumens your plant needs. And although it will reflect some of the light it takes out some of the spectrum. I bought a mylar space foil blanket (the kind they give to runners after a race) and i basically sellotaped it around my box. With it being 1 big pice its very easy to do, and the difference to my plant since i started using it is unbeleivable. The space blankets are on ebay and cost like $3 dollars delivered (about 2quid). Defiantely the way to go Good luck dude
what about cd's? u think cd's with a very little blue tint to them would work for vegg.or would it "absorb" light like a mirror?jus through vegg cycle?would it work with the full color spectrum that a cd gives off other then the fact that there is more blue to these ones? anyone have any idea or theary on it?would it work
mirrors create hot spots, as mentioned before me, your best bet is going to be to pick up some mylar.
im new to the forums but i have an issue with this particular debate. judging by those chiming in and saying mirrors don't work well then recommending mylar which is one of the worst reflective surfaces to use im not convinced. has anyone actually used a light meter to test this theory. i personally thought mirrors would be very reflective. i agree with the hot spot theory but if you are using cfl's the light itself is 2"inches away from the plant anyways so whats a mirror hot spot going to do to the plant the bulb wouldnt? i have only done one test using a light around a corner in a dark room and several different surfaces to reflect against the wall i was facing and the brightest reflection by far came from my mirrors. someone with real knowledge should speak up on this because everyone who recommended mylar has lost all credibility in my opinion.
Plain and Simple Fact : Mirrors reflect an image not light . The light reflected from mirrors if the coating used to made the reflective surface for the mirror is some sort of metal will aim the light in an omnidirectional way rather than focus the light back UP or toward your plant . Plus the light is being filtered TWICE when it enters the glass ONCE and again when the light is refracted and directed back towards your plant TWICE . This in essence suggests the evidence of less light coming off .. I want you to take a cd from your music box ... Point a light at it .. and see where the reflection ends up ... That's an example of the pinpointing issue they talk about , though with a mirror the surface of reflection behind the glass coating doesn't always end up as smooth .. So with bumps come concentration spots for the light to bounce off just like with the CD u tried this with ... Thus the magnifying glass effect in the end ... For best results of vegging I suggest using a stand up shower ... Look at my number 1 and 2 grows ... While not as effective you will see that 3 walls surrounded my ladies I tried to grow ... I had better floral results than I do now ... Yet now I have achieved flowering ... Or if you have a garden tub , you can use it ... Don't worry about the light escaping just worry about the light from the sides of the tub ... A tub is usually the BEST way to get it done Then when you notice trichs forming just put the ladies next to a window and let the sun kiss them into bud stage and about 1 month later you should have some beautiful buds
wow. and here i thought an image was light. mirrors are more powerful than i originally anticipated. still waiting for someone with credibility to add something of merit to this quandry. i understand light must pass through glass twice and some types of lightwaves may be lost but which spectrums and has this actually been analyzed or just shot down by people with no logical explanation?
well have you not tried reflective white paint ? cheaper than mylar and goes further because' there is no detail cutting to be done which leaves more money for the building of the rest of your cabinet and it's easier to clean because dirt is noticeably present in white . Or you could try the big presentation pieces of thin cardboard with GLOSS coating which would be like reflection from a mirror YET with the white background the plant will receive more light off that surface rather than through a refracting surface such as glass ..
Mirror - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This should give you the info you need about mirrors since you seem to think I'm not backing up my info ... If you'd bother to read like some then you would known to search and see if I am lying instead of asking me to back up or anyone else to back up my story ... besides .. What your plants want to do ... Is grow ... And from that you learn ... you merely need someone to start ... each seed is different man ... not all will grow perfect in a white room or under mirrored hps systems or even in sunlight ... just find what works for yours to get you the most bud you can get from them etc ... good luck with finding what you need
Anything bright white! Hell, my first indoor grow I could not afford black/white poly (Panda Film) so I found these cheap heavy paper paint drop clothes. They were bright white on one side with some sort of coating to keep the paint from soaking through. Worked great! Now I use Poly for one wall and the rest of the walls in my room are painted white. Mylar is OK to use, it looses it's reflectiveness the more it get's crinkled. If you don't have it perfectly smooth, not only will you have hot spots, you'll quickly fall down the the reflectiveness of a mirror (which is shit for plants) the more messed up it gets.