# Magnifying Lenses To increase yeild



## youandiunderwater (Jan 21, 2009)

I was doing some thinking lately and couldn't find any research on the subject of using bigger magnifying lenses or screens to increase the focus point of a light.

I know the calculations behind light interactions and lenses, but have never seen or heard the principles being applied to increase light, to increase yield. 


Say if you had a 1' tall plant (from the ground respectively), a strong lens above that, and a good light above those, say at 2', Could you place the lens(es) in a position to help focus the light, increasing photosynthesis ect...


Let me know. It may be time for some new experiments.


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## thefarmer (Jan 21, 2009)

Hi m8,have u ever tried using a magnifying glass outside and concentrate it on the top of ur hand????? OUCH !!!
just imagine a 600w a coupkle feet away,there will b fires lol
thats wot i recon.im using mirrors in my room angling them slightly so the light reflects up from the bottom of the plant and is working gr8


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## youandiunderwater (Jan 21, 2009)

I'm thinking about setting up something an experiment, with a control of course. But maybe, 2 clones, 2 100watt CFl (need a single small light source kinda like the sun) and 2 identical rooms,soil,nuits,ect. The only difference being the use of a lens of some sort on the test plant. 

I don't want to smoke the plant under the light, i only intend on having the light focused slightly, catching maybe 75% of the plant in "concentrated" light. I have a huge projection screen, a very large Magni Lens and will probably do some research before i invest.


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## AeroKing (Jan 21, 2009)

So, you are essentially trying to counteract the broadcasting of light from the reflector? "Hot Spots" are counteractive to general plant growth, multifaceted light is productive. Plants will perform best when light is spread throughout the entire plant, hitting it from many angles. Beaming a very intense light from directly above seems counterproductive to me.


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## thefarmer (Jan 21, 2009)

i agree wiv areoking,but u may wana luk in2 convex and concave lenses,i remeber doin about these yrs ago at skool cant remember wihich 1 duz which but 1 points beam directly on 1 spot and other 1 concentrates the beam out think its concave.hope this helps


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## TMB77 (Jan 21, 2009)

Man, this is oddly intriguing. I believe I get what you're lookin to do, but cant imagine the cumbersome apparatus necessary to supply EVEN concentrated light to an entire plant. But am looking forward to any results you might get. If you can find the 'sweet spot', where it isnt too intense, and it isnt too spread out...I wonder if that would do anything for growth. My intuition says...if so it would be slight, and you'd need a much larger sample size to be sure the difference was anything less than, ordinary differing phenotypes.


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## DodgeDread (Jan 21, 2009)

where would you get a big enough lens?


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## serrated (Jan 21, 2009)

Awesome Idea, I would like to know if the lens would turn 10,000 lumes into 15,000 or 20,000. I would like to see what this does to a plant


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## potheadsmoker (Jan 21, 2009)

just buy a real fuckin light man...


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## carcass91 (Jan 21, 2009)

This experiment is directionless.

If you have a lens (big enough and with a low focal length), and try to concentrate the light intensity on any substance, it'll create hot spots. When i say hot i mean HOT!

In theory you could create enough concentration of heat that you could melt the surface of the Earth, but since you are only focusing one one point, you will only melt the absolute surface, and not the layer beneath (at least, not without moving the magnifying glass to shift the *point* of focus of the light, and continue moving is forward as you melt each level of the surface layer). You would ofcourse need a very very large magnifying glass to collect enough light to do this with.

Same goes with u. A magnifying glass wud create nothing but a very HOT POINT(of focus). It will kill ur plants, or worse, will catch fire(chances are less)


Do more research and apply some science... before conducting any experiment. Nice try though 
I would love to see how the experiment progresses, i'll keep an eye 
all the best


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## youandiunderwater (Jan 21, 2009)

It's not about buying a light, any one can pawn a tv and slap up 500w ect. It's about innovation/accommodation, why ever make the light bulb(why not just use the Sun?!), you know? what seemed crazy one day (particles flying around unseen making up the universe), electricity is every where now, so some lenses positioned above some pot plants, crazy today(sure it works  ) and widely used tomorrow. Open up, wake up

Why does it seem that i want the most concentrated point of the light to shine and fry one small spot on the plant...?(feeling a bit patronized) Not so;

I am thinking of a slight magnification/concentration. No more practical than placing several 100w lights together in a small box with foliage. (guilty  ) 

Say a twin organic grow is going outside, you'r's has no modified lenses, mine has a slight mod with a lens or two increasing the light concentration, maybe increasing yield blah blah, 

just saying, I'm not gonna start some wielding forest fires, i guess i would just like to prove a point at this time. 

I WILL BE conducting this soon. So if someone would like to take this challenge up for me (hint,hint), some one with the time right now, I only have room for one project at a time (gives me plenty to think about to improve between grows) But will conduct myself one day for self gratification.


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## FLoJo (Jan 22, 2009)

hate to burst the bubble but no sort of lens will do anything to increase your yield.. in fact just having glass in front of the bulbs in items such as cooltubes and hooded reflectors shows a very slight decrease in yield.

the thing is that a plant needs a certain amount of light.. now i dont know exactly what part of the spectrum it is exactly, but i can tell you it is not based on lumens or watts, rather the more lumens and/or watts the more light of that given frequency is included.

anyways, any kind of magnifying lens does not CREATE more light, which is what means increase of yield, it meerley concentrates the light in a specific area.. think about burning a leaf under a magnifying glass.. you are not increasing the power of the sun, you are just concentrating on all of that power into one specific area.

so in short, any kind of lens is not going to increase the amount of light, which is what is needed for greater yields, it is only going to take the light you have and concentrate it into one spot, which will most likely burn your plants, because the more you concentrate the light, the hotter that area will be.

FLo


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## AeroKing (Jan 22, 2009)

Yep, that's why they sell diffusers for lights...


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## DodgeDread (Jan 22, 2009)

FLoJo said:


> hate to burst the bubble but no sort of lens will do anything to increase your yield.. in fact just having glass in front of the bulbs in items such as cooltubes and hooded reflectors shows a very slight decrease in yield.
> 
> the thing is that a plant needs a certain amount of light.. now i dont know exactly what part of the spectrum it is exactly, but i can tell you it is not based on lumens or watts, rather the more lumens and/or watts the more light of that given frequency is included.
> 
> ...


good point, all a lens does is move light not create it


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## youandiunderwater (Jan 22, 2009)

again... not trying to recreate energy, just learning a way to focus, instead of reflect or mirror light.


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## themink86 (Jan 24, 2009)

Do the experiment man


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## carcass91 (Jan 24, 2009)

youandiunderwater said:


> again... not trying to recreate energy, just learning a way to focus, instead of reflect or mirror light.


dude, U CANNOT CREATE ENERGY!

Law of conservation of energy states that _" Energy can neither be created nor destroyed"_

Anyways, if u try to focus light... the intensity of the light would not reduce as much... so that implies, for example... u have 20 CFLs in an area of 5 sq foot. Now, if u focus all that light on say 1/2 square foot, where will all the energy go? 
It will be converted to heat energy on THAT PARTICULAR POINT WHERE THE LIGHT IS FOCUSED.

Havnt u ever tried a magnifying glass on ur a piece of paper on a sunny day?


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## Jobo (Jan 24, 2009)

the trichomes act as little magnifying glases for the plant. Thats why they are shaped like they are. Nature beat you to it.


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## carcass91 (Jan 24, 2009)

Jobo said:


> the trichomes act as little magnifying glases for the plant. Thats why they are shaped like they are. Nature beat you to it.


Intellectual i see... good info dude. I didnt know that... now the wierd ass shape makes sense


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## born2killspam (Jan 24, 2009)

Yea, you want to diffuse light, not focus it.. And any obstruction will eat up some energy.. The trichs aren't there to magnify anything, they're there to filter/absorb shorter wave radiation..
Lenses do focus light itself though, they don't convert it to heat, but heat is a byproduct of all that light energy whacking away at localized molecules.. 
I hate to be blunt and closed-minded, but absolutely no good can come of this.. (Unless you get lucky and fry a spider-mite just before it lays eggs..)


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## dinkydigger (Jan 24, 2009)

i agree with carcass91....have you ever burned an ant with a magnifying glass and the sun?..it would be the same concept...i've seen a bead of water act as a magnifying glass on a leaf of a plant with low wattage cfls and it left a burn


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## born2killspam (Jan 24, 2009)

That is a perfect point, and the reason you shouldn't spray during light time..


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## pinkus (Jan 25, 2009)

Jobo said:


> the trichomes act as little magnifying glases for the plant. Thats why they are shaped like they are. Nature beat you to it.


 we don't KNOW why they are there, it's all thoery


carcass91 said:


> dude, U CANNOT CREATE ENERGY!
> 
> Law of conservation of energy states that _" Energy can neither be created nor destroyed"_


you said it yourself, he's trying to focus not creation

Archemedes focused light to burn enemy ships (maybe) and Natives in the americas used concave mirrors to start fires. In theory it would be possible to focus the light at the right intensity for growth.... The problems I see is little to no control of intensity, and the amount of distance you would need from the light to the lens to the plant works against the law of lumens....twice the distance equals half the lumens. you would probably have to do some major calculations to make sure you had it just right...like computer type calcs....you would also have to have this thing set up so that it could not move AT ALL (think on a track) or you would run the risk of A: loosing all the benefits you've worked and spent for or worse B: fry the plant, maybe literally BURN it.

All in all I can't see an upside to the work, risk, money, effort, time...but if you want to try I'd love to see the results


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## born2killspam (Jan 25, 2009)

Trichromes will absorb damaging shorter energy photons while passing longer ones, and fluorescing some lower energy photons at the plant in the process.. Pretty similar to how glass blocks far more UVC than it does visible light etc..
Given response to more intense UV, and the obvious theoretical bonus I think its safe to say they are there for that purpose..
Again though, they aren't lenses, more like filters.. Similar to cheapo 3D glasses in principle (passing primarily red/blue light), but occurring outside the visible spectrum..


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## atombomb (Jan 25, 2009)

thefarmer said:


> Hi m8,have u ever tried using a magnifying glass outside and concentrate it on the top of ur hand????? OUCH !!!
> just imagine a 600w a coupkle feet away,there will b fires lol
> thats wot i recon.im using mirrors in my room angling them slightly so the light reflects up from the bottom of the plant and is working gr8



Just so you know mirrors absorb as much light as they reflect, you might as well put a white piece of paper under your plants because it will be WAY WAY more effective than a mirror. 

Why do you think no one lines their growroom walls with mirrors, its hella easy to clean mirrors. no so much for the mylar


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## youandiunderwater (Jan 25, 2009)

well I did suggest the use of a projection lens i have. I have a HD lens and a floppy sort of over head lens.


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