zerodown

Would using a few of these on a grow box give enough light for pot plants?

Its in Spanish, so I'll explain a bit, the bottles are filled with clean water and two caps full of Clorox, the black film bottle is to cover the bottle cap from the sun. When they were measuring the light output they said it was equivalent to a 40 to 60 watt bulb.

So, would installing a few of these allow plants to grow in a box?

Has this been tried before with no success?

Heres the video:

Here is with english caption:

Mydriasis

You'd have to know the light spectrum that comes from those lights. Really interesting idea! I've never seen that I'd be interested to know about this.

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zerodown

I put another video with english caption

It basically transfer the sun's light from outside to inside, clorox im guessing helps keep the water clear at all times, might have some other use too, what im wondering is how(if any) much heat it produces.

Mydriasis

well it's 50 watts of power but you really just need to know what spectrum of light comes out of them, that's what's most important for growing plants. I'd assume they'd be usable because it is just reflected and refracted sun-light but I'm just not sure.

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zerodown

What about heat? Do you have any guess at how much heat would it produce if any?

Assuming it had the right spectrum and produces very low or no heat, could a couple of these be put around a grow box and use the box as a sog system, like use the walls of the box itself to contain the plants?

What I mean is: Would I be able to put one or two of these on the top of a box and two or three on the sides and let the plant use all the growing space inside the box? would it hurt the plant if it had nowhere else to grow when flowering? I guess I could always use two boxes, one double the size for flowering, no?

Im very interested in this, it could safe energy, but it would use sun light, so I can't just flower when I want unless I also have a light setup on another box or something.

Any ideas on how to set up a grow box with these, assuming they work as growing lights?

Sugar420

wow thats really cool!

im doubtful it would work well for growing plants tho, because plants want direct sulight, and this is less than direct sunlight.
i understand the point of it is free light with stealth, but because plants also need wind/airflow to be healthy it seems like a very impractical way to grow.
also i noticed they are doing this in brazil where there is strong light all the time, but i would assume that away from the equator the only time youll get good light is in high summer -which may give you problems with heat unless your box is white/reflective.
a white box with bottle tops sticking out of it will not have good stealth value, it will be interesting to any curious person who sees it.

its an interesting idea but it doesnt seem sensible, because the most efficient way to grow with sunlight is direct from sun to leaf. maybe a greenhouse with lots and lots of bottles would work, but it seems like there are many challenges/practical problems to overcome.

zerodown

Well I live in Puerto Rico, its near the equator. What I was thinking was putting 5 or 6 bottles around the box(which of course would have ventilation holes as well). Instead of using timed lights, I would use these to mimic the sun's light hours, which would be the same as growing outdoors, no?

My main concerns(and im no expert grower or anything) would be heat, if the plants can get close or touch the bottles without burning issues, space, as in due to growing with sun's light I would not control the flowering stage of it, nature will do that, so will they outgrow the box before flowering and will I have to put them in a bigger box for flowering or could they flower in the same box? And for stealth, I was thinking about designing a PVC irrigation system where I would pour water from outside and it drips into the plants, so as to not open the thing daily and would put it somewhere hidden in the backyard which where i live no one looks at.

Mydriasis

I don't think heat will be an issue because the plastic on those bottles hasn't degraded for over two years(is what they said). But I think Veda is right your probably better off doing a gorilla grow.

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Sugar420

why not just plant your plants hidden in the backyard where no one looks at and forget the box? i guarantee you will get better results, and its got to be easier to hide some green plants in Puerto Rico than a crazy science fair project looking box.

zerodown

Cause my backyard is gray, its cement. But I guess you guys are right, its not practical enough...