Small grow box for 1-2 plants, LST/Topping, should I line with mylar or paint with flat white. Which is better?
I live in London. I'm finding it impossible to find 'mylar' and have established that it's the brand name. I'd prefer not to buy online, does anyone know of any other brands/similar products that I can look for as so far I'm struggling to find any. I'd rather dish out the 20$ or so than go through the bother of painting.
Mylar isnt a brand name, it is a name of a meterial, it comes in 1 or 2 mil, 2 mil being a few pennies more and much more thicker which is a good thing since 1 mil rips almost as easy as tin foil. Mylar is much better then flat white paint, mylar actually does a great job reflecting light, flat white paint doesnt really reflect to well but at the same time is one of the very few colors that also dont absorb the light either. I would suggest going with mylar, my theory is why do something if you arnt going to do it right. Mylar is hard to locate at home improvement stores but can usualy be found localy around hydro shops and small plant nurseries. I usualy buy most of my grow supplies from high tech garden supply which can be found at HTGSupply.com They have everthing from mylar, bulbs, soil, nutes to even trimming scissors.
Try looking in camping supply stores for emergency blankets, they are often made of mylar (tho typicaly only 1 mil thickness). They are sometimes called space blankets as Mylar was developed by/for someones national space program (want to say U.S. but I'm not sure) originaly. Also, Satan is right, Mylar is not a brand name but a material name. If you can't find any via camping supply or survival/army surplus stores, you can always try online, I'm willing to bet you can get some from Holland/Asterdam (it is only about a 30 min commuter flight away), and the shipping shouldn't even be that bad for it. I mean unless that is the kind of thing that your Gov't looks for to bust people growing illegaly. I know how much the British Gov't likes to watch it's people...
I'll do a bit more hunting around in the advised shops before I resort to buying online, thanks for all the information and advice!
I'm not a fan of the shiny surfaces. My neighbor is a professional painter, and when I talked to him during the planning stages of my grow business, he told me about this stuff called Waterbased Tile Clad Epoxy from Sherwin Williams; http://www.paintdocs.com/webmsds/webPDF.jsp?SITEID=STORECAT&prodno=640348769&doctype=PDS&lang=E It is a glossy finish, but my surfaces are slightly textured, so it diffuses light well, and doesn't create any hot spots. The beauty of this stuff is that it is like spraying a plastic encapsulator in your entire room. I can spray my walls down with a hose, and the drywall stats completely dry. It is really easy to clean and maintain. I especially like the concrete floors that we did. SO easy to clean. I'm a big fan. Huge fan, actually.
Very interesting... i would like to try that product out simply for the reason you said about not haveing to worry about water and such getting on the walls. Water is always a problem along with soil, nutes and anything else that will leave marks or stain walls. It would be nice to be able to go in and spray down the walls after a grow. I do take a bug sprayer filled with a cleaning solution and spray down the room after each grow, this would be much nicer to use a hose though lol. Also, wile i respect your view on the topic, i still think you should try mylar if you havent ever used it. Not only does it look great in a room full of plants, but it reflects like no other AND its pretty damn crazy to look at when you are high, looking at your face then you can see behind you and to the side and 30 more faces... just walk into a room thats covered in mylar, you wont want to come out.