It's my first relatively succesful grow, and i just had a question for the experienced growers about aluminum foil. Currently my grow room is lined with aluminum foil i did it as an "ughhh what the heck" kind of thing thinking it might do some good since im too cheap to buy mylar. Now currently my temp varies 34-38 degrees celcius, i know its way too hot but theres no signs of heat stress so im doing my own thing. However i would like to get more wattage into the mix and im wondering does the aluminum foil do any good towards recycling light and alll that. Also how much does aluminum foil affect heat. behind the aluminum foil i have a very pale flat pink paint, am i better off with just that? I dont want to paint the walls white or buy mylar im jus wondering if im better off with or without the aluminum foil and does it do more harm than good?
dude, be creative. you don't have to make the walls white. paint some cardboard white, or find somethnig that is already white. and yeah, a flat white surface works much better than aluminum foil. aluminum foil is also reflecting too much heat. you know those sun mats people put under the windshield of their cars to keep the dash from cracking? I'm using the inside (white side) of one of those. it works great. I would be using the shiny side, but it has been folded up so much that they are too many creases and it just refracts light in all directions, so I figured the white said would work better.
i thought them car thingies was for reflecting the heat just so your car didnt get hot and all..........................................i bought a chillem and i love it.
tis for heat and light, to keep your dashboard from cracking, but that's not the point. it doesn't matter what it was meant to be used for, because i'm using it for this. hehe.
Yes take it down it creates hot spots. Just go get come paint from home depot or where ever its not expensive at all.
If you can you should. There are some on this forum who say using the dull side of aluminum foil is OK, but most say not to. Flat bright white walls are supposed to reflect more white than foil, believe it or not. Plus foil is designed to reflect heat and can cause hot spots on your plants. Mylar reflects the best and is not optimized to reflect heat. Yeah, it costs a bit, but if you don't have white paint and a paintbrush laying around, by the time you buy those and undertake the chore of painting you probably would be better served to just buy mylar.
Absolutely. A portion of my grow room has foil. I had it put up before I knew anything about growing. It is shinny side out. I just finally bought a bunch of Mylar for very cheap. I need help putting it up so it will have to wait. Currently I have four clones going just into flower. The leaves on the two plants closest to the foil are getting burned. Can't wait to get up my Mylar, plants will look so much better cosmetically.
Aight im gonna take the shit down tommaro then, heres a plant pic and u can see the pink paint poking out around the foil, u think that will reflect better?
no, the pink will not reflect that well. but neither does your foil. Get some lightweight plywood and paint it. Slip it b/w your plants and the wall. Better yet - get some of that shiny white poster board that has the foam in the middle (foam core board?) and use that. It should do a helluva job reflecting and is easy to cut and move around and stuff. Shit, I think I'm going to go get some of that too!