Covering my soil with a reflective ring?

[Agoodpaddlin]

Hey guys. Just starting out and have been scouring the web for all aspects of opinions relating to growing.

 

One particular topic I can't seem to find alot on, is covering the soil around the base of the plant with a white or reflective ring.

 

Ive seen a few vids where it looks like the grower has done this. (not just in hydro)

What's everyone's opinion on it?

 

Would it help with light reflection?

Keep soil dry?

 

Or is it a farce?

 

Cheers!!

 

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[Frank Reynolds]

It can help keep moisture inside your medium, stop light etc. is it needed? not at all

[Agoodpaddlin]

Cheers! Thinking it could help with reflecting light to lower branches too?

 

I might speriment with a couple of plants. [emoji106][emoji106]

 

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[Frank Reynolds]

Yeh spose it may help a bit in that regard, but if you are growing in a tent the floors are reflective anyway

[midlifegardner]

If there is light reaching that low then you should be filling the canopy out more with topping and some lst. I struggle to see the pot through my canopy.

 

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[Agoodpaddlin]

Sure thing. That makes sense. But I've got a few weeks to go until I have a nice full canopy.

 

 

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[itchybromusic]

in nature , light comes from top down , generally not bottom up

could be a little bit of reflection from the bottom up but very little if any 

 

there is a reason stomata is on the underside of leaves , so they are protected from the suns rays  

 

Stomata play an important role in photosynthesis as they allow the plant to absorb carbon dioxide

from the environment. ... To reduce exposure, stomata are found on the underside of the leaves.

They are protected from the sun as excessive heat can increase the rate of water vapor leaving and

thus wither the plant.

[Veritas629]

I had a small tent with too much heat in the DWC bucket.  Until the canopy filled out, I put a light shield over the bucket to help keep it cool.  Used a cheap reflective windscreen sunshade and cut it to fit. It reduced the water temp by 2-3C.

[Agoodpaddlin]

Nice comment itchy. Science is where it's at. And that makes sense to me.

But, one thing I have learnt in recent times, is that the rules of nature can be broken or bent when working in controlled environments.

I'm not using sun, I'm using low heat leds. So the results could be less extreme.

There's alot of discussing around on the web's regarding training and topping your plants for better results. Also something that doesn't take place in nature.

 

The solution?! I'm Gunna strap down one or 2 of my babies and see how it goes.

Luckily the seeds are donated Durban poison so I'm not Gunna be slitting wrists if we have worse results.

 

Thanks for the courteous feedback peeps.

Learning every day!! [emoji106][emoji106]

 

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[itchybromusic]

yeah i think the modern vernacular is "hack" so not really a broken rule just a rule hack 

broken / hack , depends on how you look at things i guess whether a rule is broken or just hacked 

 

to be honest light is light whether it's the sun or led or hps it generally comes from above outdoors or in a tent

there's a few reasons to cover soil or growing media but i don't think to gain reflection is one of them 

 

there are all kinds of training outdoors, pruning grape vines , apples , lemons , oranges , olives 

grafting to diff root stock , espalier fruit trees , not the same training as your thinking but in

a round about way it's exactly the same cos it's all about increasing yield , mostly 

 

in the past i have topped & tied down plants to get better or more light penetration , def works 

turning a canna plant looking like a one top xmas tree to something that looks like a multiple top wine glass 

 

the main issue you could run into with training is snapping branches at the trunk from pulling a branch down to far

some plants are worse than others in this regard