is it a smart idea to place tinfoil basically covering my pot except with a hole for the alread existing plant to reflect top lights to give light to underneath the canopy of leaves to parts of the plant that dont recieve the most amount of light??
No. You do not want the light reflecting up from the bottom. A plants leaves are designed to process light from the top not the underside. Also foil is never a good idea. Mylar good. Foil bad.
even though i have new leaf development under the canopy of the bigger leaves which dont recieve light due to the size of the bigger leaves??
Tie them out of the way, do some pruning on your plant, use mylar on the walls/ceiling, or just paint your grow area white but reflecting light up from the bottom is still a bad idea. It's unnatural for the plant. Would you like to have someone shove food up your butt? A little graphic maybe but it's just as unnatural.
Cover the topsoil with vermiculite... ...or anything to prevent your soil from being disrupted while you water would be more prudent. I've read that the 1st three inches of topsoil aren't root friendly because watering disrupts the soil to such a degree that roots cannot grow in that zone. But with some heavy aggregate like ornamental river rocks or vermiculite to keep the topsoil from displacing....then roots will begin to grow in that top zone immediately. :iamwithstupid:
Hmmm, never heard that before but it makes sense. Everytime I dump my pots there never is any roots in the top 2-3 inches. Maybe some gravel across the top of the pot would indeed make more efficient use of the top portion of soil. Thanks man, I'm gonna try that.
My self i use hyroton balls. I put a an inch or two in the pots. Makes the grow look much more professional as well.