Anyone know a hardware store or something in Taipei where I’d be able to find largish pieces of acrylic/plastic sheeting? I don’t really care about the color or material as it will be covered, but it should be fairly rigid (say 1-2 mm thickness or so) and wide (1.2 meter minimum on one edge and 1-2 meters on the other, probably need about 6-8 meters in total).
The corrugated PP sheeting they sell in everything stores would be another option, but I think the stores near me don’t seem to have the dimensions I want.
Gongguan/Taipower Building/Guting areas would be preferred. Cheers.
I don’t know any in that area but here is one near main station on that hardware store street. 正輝行壓克力有限公司. I haven’t been here personally, but I pass it on every day coming from work. There’s also one in Banqiao that I have used that carry the huge sheets of it and can cut to whatever size you want. Can’t remember the name though.
What’s the application? If it’s for outdoor use make sure you get something that’s UV stable or it’ll fall to pieces within a matter of months (the cheap corrugated PP disintegrates in weeks).
It’s for indoor use. I essentially want to wrap panels of the plastic in reflective foil and affix some hooks so I can (removably) attach them to a metal-frame grow rack as a cheap light reflector (and wall protector, to protect the landlady’s walls from water splashes etc.).
So UV exposure shouldn’t be an issue - mostly just need something fairly rigid to support the foil and allow convenient assembly/disassembly.
The PP panels work fine for this, it’s just that my local everything store doesn’t stock them in the size I want (and it would also be fairly expensive to buy them from there in the quantity I need to surround a 1.2 m x 0.6 m x 2.1 m rack, in which case I figured I may as well just buy some better sheeting from an actual hardware store).
Ether way, a light reflector gets hit by UV. if it isnt your grow bulbs are shyte all lights for growing should have a wavelengh (at least kalvin) and lumen output which should give you an idea of uv roughly. Something worth reading on about is white refelction vs various metal ones. The white ones might make your life a bit easier and not really take away from intended goals.
My understanding was that UV is only essential for succulents (and possibly helpful for flavor development and pest/disease control). Is that incorrect?
I do have a couple of other lights with a small number of UV LEDs, but I’m mostly using the ones above. Haven’t had any issues so far anyway, either with plant growth or PP degradation.
Gotcha. LED ar absolutely game changing. i love them to peices. Not only are they very directional (they always state angle) they also have fairly accurate wavelengths so like you say often not a huge UV output unlike fluorescents, halide, sodium etc. This has been a miracle for greenhouse growers! But you still need that blue end, arguably more than the red end. but deepnds on your species, cycle and goals etc. I dont dare ask, as in this country thats dumb and i will tap out.
those blues, and your reflectors’ color, will also help a lot in photosynthsis and hormone triggers.
Since you’ve brought it up, I’m forced to answer now.
I’m just growing a few herbs, nothing illegal. Mostly a huge amount of basil (~15 varieties, including a few hard-to-find ones) and a load of other stuff for the kitchen (rosemary, sage, thyme, coriander, a few types of mint, a couple of vegetables, etc.).
I just started towards the end of last year as a bit of a hobby, and got kind of carried away in the last month planting seeds without thinking about the limited amount of space I have here now that everything is germinating. I just ordered a load more grow lights and am about to order a much bigger rack - it’s a race against time as I’ll need to transplant everything soon.
You seem to know a lot about this. Do you still think UV is important for this kind of stuff, or were you referring to older tubes?
When you’re done let’s see some photos in the ‘what am I growing’ thread! I’m working on a similar project myself with a view to growing temperate-climate plants with a root-chill system.
I’m not intending to use the plastic directly as a reflector, just as a support for the reflective foil. 
