Grow area update

[Roy]

Geoff, the shading I use is knitted, black shade cloth on the outside. Friends with money than me use the Aluminium foil stuff. I've tried Green cloth but found the plants didn't grow well under it nor was the flowering good. (Cymbidiums mainly). It seemed to work ok for Garden plants. On the inside I use clear Polytunnel or UV treated polythene sheeting to hold warmth in winter. Too hard to remove for summer. I have friends that use UV treated large bubble plastic as insulation, which is really good, hard to get & expensive.

[Chris in Hamilton]

I was thinking of using vehicle camouflage netting during the summer. Any opinions?

[zainal abidin]

Wow excellent Roy looks so nice and neat and I'm thinking you need another space for future expansion, the orchids looks amazing.

[Roy]

Thinking the same way Zain. Hobby gone crazy, again !!!!

---------- Post Merged at 11:45 PM ----------

I was thinking of using vehicle camouflage netting during the summer. Any opinions?

Never used it Chris. I suppose any shading depends totally on the sunlight & temps you experience. I would take it fairly accurate to say what I get here is a lot different to Ontario. I just looked at a site with Average temps, day & night across Ontario. I would be reluctant to put shading up here other than about 50% shading. Only you know but I wouldn't go crazy with shading, plants need light.

[Dorsetman]

Surely the right way to go about this question is to Use a photometer (lightmeter). I have one, it cost about the same as 2 or 3 flowering size plants ( and - joke - I still have it in good condition after at least 20 years ).
Mine reads in fc or lux.I have taken it around orchid rain forests, in different seasons. Clear sky, i..e. Plants exposed to full light, no shade like vanda, get as much as 60,000 ( 60K ) lux. Deep shade floor plants , like jewel orchids, as little as 300 lux , . In my greenhouse i want to get 15000 on my cattleyas, and in the winter with no shade, I can manage that with my supplementary lights, but without them, it gets down to 2 or 3 lux.
In summer i can get this on sunny days without lights, but not on cloudy days.
So if i wanted to try different shade cloth etc., i would try it out and see how it compares.

[Mike H]

Wow, how do you move in there

[Roy]

Wow, how do you move in there

Carefully !!!!!