lets see if this works

model a man 2/28/2011, 2:14 pm

I have 2 tomato plants that right now are not getting any sun. The sun is blocked by a wall right now until summer when the sun will be hitting the plants. I was outside today with my phone and I noticed the reflection of the screen was shinning the sun on the tomato plants. when I remolded my master bedroom and replaced my sliding mirror closet doors I never got around to throwing them away. I have set the mirror doors which are 4'x6' on their side about 10' away from the tomato plants and leaned them so they reflect the sun onto the tomato plants. I have made sure that it is not reflecting into the sky so as not to bother any aircraft which may happen to fly by. (I am not in any flight plath) so I will see if bringing the sun to the plants work the same as mother nature would.

quiltbea 2/28/2011, 2:55 pm

Let us know if it works. We all learn from the experiences and experiments of others on this forum.

model a man 2/28/2011, 3:32 pm

ok I took a couple of picture to show what I did. In one picture you can see how the sun was reflected onto to plants.
lets see if this works DSC04871

BackyardBirdGardner 2/28/2011, 3:37 pm

Very cool. However, don't you need to set up some form of control to make sure the plants receiving the reflected light outperform a plant without reflected light? Otherwise, how will you know if it worked?

Squat_Johnson 2/28/2011, 5:35 pm

That looks like a good plan for the shaded area.

It's hard to see what the path of the sun would be later in the day. Would there be a time (like high noon) when that box near the mirror gets extra crispy?

jumiclads 2/28/2011, 6:55 pm

It looks a good idea for reflecting the light but it will not reflect all the UV rays only the A ones and not the B which could be a good thing becasue the B rays are the ones that cause cancer etc. It will also not reflect the heat from the sun which is something you may need in a sheltered spot. I have read that the best thing to use for reflection is aluminum foil because this will reflect everything. It seems it is the glass layer on the mirror that blocks everything.

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