Growing with Mr.Sparkle in 2022 : Spring/Summer

Wants/Needs whats the difference i know not when it comes to these.

Bridgelux F90 strips

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Day 78(50F) and Day 5

Well then completely dismantled my closet last night but more on that later as for the photo cab i defoliated a bit and tuned down the feed level about .2ec worth.

As for the bottom chambers i completely dismantled the entire closet last night and reskinned the two lower cabs with new shiny’s taking them apart to make them flat panels to make it easier, also changed up the watering timer placements and changing driver placement in anticipation of some new lights that will need a bit more space.

Turns out even though i was expecting an on par or slightly worse reflection with the cheap mylar i went with i actually got about 8% better light levels so bonus to that.

The waterstones are yellow for whatever reason and all the dragon hearts are showing some minor leaf growth mutations which may fade.

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Were you using aluminum foil before?

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yeah, though likely oxidized a decent amount when i replaced them last night, went with the cheap mylar just as i had some and its a bit more resilient to getting hit and easier removal when needed but not by much.

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Any noticible difference in temperature between the two linings?

Here I figured you’d have some sort of compact quick-swap easy-wipe modular reflective panel system for eighth of a second cab cleaning.

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only had it in since like 1am last night though i expect no difference temp wise, and in the past i did have some removable foiled thin cardboard sheets though ran into quite few issues with them warping due to heat differences or desticking from the wall to slight water soak age at times from water spills, honestly just easier to mount to the panels in the first place, but hey hindsight and learning and kinda comes back to the simpler methods typically are the better ones.

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I really, really love that you what has to be one of the cleanest, best looking “micro” grow spaces, inside and out, but have been running tinfoil walls. And I seriously mean that. :+1:
I hope the shiny new stuff works out for you. Certainly looks cool, the only hall of mirrors I would ever wanna be in haha.

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If you go into the science of it aluminum foil is a pretty good reflector in comparison to say alot of things as it produces specular reflection vs say a diffuse reflection that say flat white paint would do, not to mention light has to go through some paint binders and base materials before hitting your typical white “titanium dioxide” pigment to be reflected.

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I would never use white flat paint. I would use gloss for refection.

:green_heart: :seedling:

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When it comes to paint gloss is actually worse due to the amount of binders and flow additives and such as light is lost in some of that before it hits your pigment compounds and is reflected, and that all assuming flat or gloss or whatever you were able to put on enough coats for proper coverage.

Its deceptive but a Ultra Flat White will reflect better than say a Ultra Gloss White at least in a amount of light that hits the surface that will be reflected back.

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Well then got one in and will get the second in after i finish dinner, and will get to making the third one this week.

So numbers wise looks like ive netted a 22-25% increase in efficiency which is roughly where i was calculating on the upper end with the reskin of the walls and the New Bridgelux F90 Strips and to consider when maxed out on my old drivers to a set max of 100w the strips are being over driven by about 30% which lowers the efficiency a little.

So only thing to do now is grow away.

And actually the color is more yellow if i don’t over color correct but i liked the shot so posted it anyways.

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See, a day doesn’t go by I learn something new.

:green_heart: :seedling:

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Day 80(52F) and Day 7

Top im just throwing to straight water on the next fill which will be tomorrow most likely.

Had to increase the watering on the older autos as they were going a bit dry and consuming their lower leaves a little, plus basil and luffas moved over.

And the younger autos moved the one res over just as i don’t have a second timer setup yet in the other cab, a few plants show some genetic oddities or minor issues im not too pleased with but is what it is.

Times to start a bunch of more seeds though.

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A pleasure to peep in… Looks goood as always

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I’ve found on my spot meter platinum artist flat white paint has the highest reflective value out there incase you wanna try something different?

The gloss creates hotspots as an FYI. It’s easier to clean but not as efficient as reflecting the PAR values. :+1:

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Of course as I’m reading through other’s pointed this out already lol :man_facepalming:

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Food for thought think about the term “hotspots” that has traditionally been used and say today with spread out led setups and even in general the only way to create a “hotspot” would be to create a parabolic mirror with your walls that can condense that light into smaller areas than what the light originated from and also consider say inverse square law to degree within a closed space, plant light utilization and just losses due to surface reflections is “hotspots” and actual thing now adays… Maybe not.

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If i’m understanding you correctly I guess what I’m trying to articulate by using the term “hotspots” is that the light coming off of it is slightly un-even.

My incident meter moves around when I was testing light reflected off of a surface treated with the matte side out of aluminum foil. The same test with mottled-mylar in a tent showed a much more even spread, which makes sense to me as the mottling is breaking up the reflective paths in such a way that it turns out even.

I have these panels at work which can reflect up to 85% of light values, or diffuse it sooooooo much you need to pump 10:1+ (light intensity value: reflector panel) to have it throw the soft light back

image

This is the effect, reflected light in exact variations of softness.

Also works really well with miniatures!

image

It was working with this system that made me OCD into doing these tests for both image capture lighting and indoor gardening. With the above system I was able to bounce the sun into our building, then 90 degrees to another panel around a corner, and then 90 degrees into another panel around the corner and that final panel lit the room enough for exposure lol.

Apologies for the digression… I love lighting and reflective lighting which is why I ended up as a lighting/camera tech lol.

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Completely on point :+1:

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Grabbed this shot of the Waterstone’s to show either the possible virus issue they have or genetic oddities from selection ??? no other plants have issues apart from the Dragon hearts with their own odd leaf things but not like these, and all these being seeds that i pickup from sebring awhile back whether issues stemming from the starts they had and possible coco mold that cause some issues with some seedlings or something that came over with the seeds genetic and or virus wise i don’t know…

Doesn’t matter though have some more Dragon Hearts and Jlo’s ive planted tonight and still two more seeds left to plant in a bit.

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