Shade Cloth Question

[Shannara]

I am pretty much out of room for orchids on my tiny porch so I needed to make more room. The west side railing was way to sunny so I went out last night and bought some shade cloth (75% shade). I have some pics below of how I set this up.

Is this going to be shady enough if I put orchids this close to the shade cloth?







You can see where the hangers are for some of them. The rest will be about 8-12 inches away from the shade cloth where there is a bamboo pole with more hangers. The shade cloth goes right up on the railing where I wanted to put some of my plants

Any advice is appreciated!

Shann~

[orchid-man]

I would say that the 75% shade would be way to much.Really the only plants that like this amount of shade would be some of the paphs and plants that want very very heavy shade. I would have said that 50% shade would have been enough for your requirements.
Just to let you know I grow a larg number of Odontoglossum and most of these want shade- for these I use 50% for the winter as those days are grey and I add a layer of 30% to this for the summer months.This combination gives me 65% .

[Brutal_Dreamer]

How much light are you getting there? Do you have a light meter for your camera? The best way to answer your question is to test the levels at the brightest part of the day. In the winter the sun is lower in the sky, so it will change when summer rolls around too.

Cheers,
BD

[orcoholic]

BD is right, but 75% sounds a bit too much for anything but mushrooms.

[Shannara]

Do you have a light meter for your camera?

My camera has a built in light meter, but I am not sure how I would use it to give you a measurement in light intensity.

I can however show you some pics of the area at noon. During the summer this area is even more sunny and extremely hot.

BD is right, but 75% sounds a bit too much for anything but mushrooms.

The screen is only blocking one side of the suns exposure. The East, SouthEast, and some Southern direct sun exposure is not blocked.

You can see what I mean in the pics below taken around 12 pm. The hottest sunlight hits it around 1 pm and on, but I won't be here then. I could take more pics tomorrow.

From this angle you can see where the other side of the porch is open to morning/early afternoon sun:


This is the other side of the cloth and how intense the light is during the day on that railing:


Inside near the top of the cloth:


The railing:


So do you still think I need to drop down the percentage of shade on my cloth or is this letting enough light in? This was the only shade cloth I could find locally available and I was hopeful that it would work...but I want to do whats best for my plants.

Thanks everyone...I appreciate all the advice.

Shann~

[zainal abidin]

Shan. I'm leaving in equator with the temp everyday almost 34 to 37 degreer here I used 50% shade and the results is so fantastic, during the hot day the orchids inside still ok, not to worry but if you used 75% shade maybe your orchids refuse to bloom.

[Lambert]

I use 60% shade cloth for spring and end of summer on my NYC rooftop.

[Shannara]

Well, I will look around for something no higher than 60%...at least for now I know the plants wont get sun burn!

Thanks everyone for your help.

Shann~

[Halloamey]

Mixed views on this one hehe. I am using 90% shadenet in India. And as you say your shade cloth is blocking just the western exposure, I would say that 75% is just fine.

Actually a western exposure has the afternoon and the evening sun which is heavy in the red spectrum of the light which causes leggy growth, so its a good idea to avoid the western exposure, if your plants get enough light from the eastern and the southern exposure, then you are better of blocking the entire western exposure.
Also if they got sufficient light in the morning and afternoon, the orchids have their stores of CA (crassulacean acid) built up and ready for the night, they cannot fix any more CO2 and that could lead to photo-oxidation.