My box has 2 x 48 cool watt cfl (true watts) plus another 48watt natural and one small 15 watt. I have 3 plants in a 2 x 2 foot wide 6 foot box. Do I need to have my cfl lights with shades behind them like in this image (not my pic) ?

reflectors help yes but they do the opposite of shade and are not really necessary

ok thanks for confirming that, yes reflectors is the name I was looking for.

i disagree. i used a 23 and 13 watt and made a reflector and it made a massive difference to the amount of light hitting the plant. the plant itself showed major improvment. check my pics on my profile.

truepothead, was your grow room open with no reflection from white walls or reflective material? I'm guessing they might not be needed if the light is bouncing of walls in a box but if they in in an open room then reflectors would make a big difference I think? What do others find works?

I can attest to the benefit of reflectors. Don't know what sort of setup you've got, but I just use clamp lights. Those come with shades when you buy them.

my grow room is a box 4 feet wide by 4 feet tall by 2 ft deep. a light bulb releases light in every direction, with reflectors u can control where the light goes.. so if the reflector sits above the light, all the light that would naturally go up goes down instead, i have tin foil on my walls and tinfoil on the inside of my reflectors. in my grow the reflectors did a lot. soon as i put them in my plants got bushy but i was also lsting

use that sheet metal in a roll. its cheap and its pre-bent in a parabola shape and you can cut it with a pocket knife or something else

ok thanks for the feedback. It might be worth experimenting with these reflectors. I have a new box been built which is flat white paint but I might get some of that mylar sheeting later.

is foil a good reflector material to use for a homemade one guys unable to buy one at the moment so trying to go about it DIY style... Someone help me out. Trying to intensify the heat a lil or at least get somemore to the plants. thanks

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