Mylar, Panda Film & Reflective Grow Room Wall Coverings
Light that reaches your walls and ceiling without reflecting back to the canopy is wasted energy. Reflective wall coverings redirect that light back into the growing zone — improving canopy uniformity, increasing effective PPFD across the plant surface, and reducing the number of fixtures needed to achieve target light levels. A quality reflective hood directs fixture output efficiently; reflective walls capture and redirect the rest.
Mylar Film: Up to 97% Reflectivity
Mylar film is the most reflective option available at up to 97%, highly flexible, and easy to cut and apply to walls, ceilings, and barriers. Standard flat mylar is most effective when kept smooth and wrinkle-free — wrinkles and scratches create focal points that concentrate reflected light and can cause hot spots on the plant canopy. Patterned mylar diffuses reflected light more evenly, significantly reducing hot spot risk while maintaining high overall reflectivity. Both are available in roll formats from 25 to 100 feet.
Panda Film & Poly Sheeting
Panda film — black-and-white poly sheeting — reflects approximately 90% from the white face while the black reverse blocks all light transmission. This makes panda film ideal for room partitioning, light-proofing divided spaces, and preventing light bleed between growing zones. White poly sheeting provides cost-effective large-area coverage for commercial spaces where per-square-foot cost is a priority. Orca Grow Film offers premium diffuse reflectivity with a woven texture that resists tearing and performs well in humid grow room conditions where standard mylar can degrade over time.
Installation Tips
Keep all reflective films smooth, scratch-free, and clean for maximum performance. Reflective film tape and corner pieces make installation cleaner and seal light-leak points at seams and edges. For temporary installations, adhesive-backed mylar eliminates the need for fasteners. When calculating how much reflective coverage affects your effective PPFD, use our PPFD & Light Coverage Calculator alongside your fixture data to model the improvement.
Pair reflective wall coverings with LED grow lights or HPS fixtures, and explore grow tents for a fully integrated reflective growing environment. Fast shipping.
Reflective Grow Room Coverings FAQ
What is the difference between flat mylar and patterned mylar?
Flat mylar reflects up to 97% of incident light when smooth and wrinkle-free — the highest reflectivity available. However, any wrinkles or scratches create focal points that concentrate reflected light into hot spots on the canopy, potentially causing bleaching or heat stress. Patterned (diamond-embossed) mylar uses a textured surface that diffuses reflected light more evenly, significantly reducing hot spot risk while maintaining high overall reflectivity (typically 92–95%). For most growers who can't guarantee a perfectly smooth flat mylar installation, patterned mylar is the safer, more practical choice. The marginal reflectivity difference is outweighed by consistent, hot-spot-free performance.
What is panda film and when should I use it instead of mylar?
Panda film is black-and-white poly sheeting — the white face reflects approximately 90% of light; the black reverse blocks all light transmission. Use panda film when you need to partition a room into separate light-tight growing zones, create temporary walls, or divide a tent into chambers with different light schedules. Panda film is more affordable per square foot than mylar for large area coverage, easier to handle without wrinkling, and the light-blocking back face is useful when complete opacity is needed. Use mylar when maximum reflectivity at the growing surface is the primary goal.
Does reflective wall covering actually improve yields?
Yes, measurably. Light that reaches your walls and ceiling without reflecting back to the canopy is wasted energy. In a bare-walled white room, approximately 10–20% of fixture output is lost to wall absorption. With high-reflectivity mylar, this loss drops to 3–8%. In practical terms, adding reflective coverings to bare walls in an existing setup can increase effective canopy PPFD by 5–15% without changing fixtures or wattage — a meaningful improvement, particularly at canopy edges where PPFD drop-off is most pronounced.
What is Orca Grow Film and how does it compare to mylar?
Orca Grow Film is a woven, diffuse-reflective grow room liner with a textured white surface. It reflects approximately 94% of light in a diffuse (scattered) pattern rather than the specular (mirror-like) reflection of flat mylar. Diffuse reflection distributes light more evenly across the canopy and is less susceptible to wrinkling problems than mylar. Orca is significantly more durable and tear-resistant than mylar — suitable for permanent installations where mylar would degrade over time in humid growing conditions. Orca is the preferred choice for permanent grow room build-outs; mylar is fine for temporary setups and grow tent liners.
