Thoughts About Shade Cloth
In researching shade cloth options for my new Solar Gem, I have found several fabric choices, including one silver fabric called Aluminette. I did have one person on Daves Garden forum reccomend that one, at 50% shade coverage. The shading ranges from 30% to 70% on the webpages that I have checked for shade cloth. At 50% there is still enough light for many plants and this cuts down on the heat which is going to be our biggest problem as soon as we start getting all sunny days. I am wondering about getting the edges finished (hemmed) with the metal grommets imbedded every two feet. This way I could string a rope though the holes and tie it down to some ground stakes. I might get the fabric a little longer than the house so it goes over each end a little and can be loose in the middle to allow for the roof vents to be able to open up underneath. Other options would be to pull it down tight and cut holes to accomodate the roof vents. Also I was thinking of taking tucks in the fabric at the ends to make it fit the angled peak and tuck in around the top of the door and back window. It seems like a whole greenhouse cover pattern could be made and the fabric sewn to fit. I wish I had a pattern, anyone out there ever done this before? If the pattern could be made, it would work for sewing a winter thermal cover as well. Anyone out there with ideas?
Thoughts About Shade Cloth
I am a master gardener and have had my 15' gem for about 6 years. This is the third greenhouse I have had and by far the best. I had a beautiful glass one, that cost a fortune to heat and cool and we were constantly replacing the panes. Then came the aluminum honey combed one that leaked at every joint and got insects in the combs and was basically unusable during the winter and summer. Both I used shade cloth in the summer.
I do not use a shade cloth on my gem. When the outside temperature gets over 90, I put a fan in the door and water my plants more than usual.
I do keep over 100 gallons of water in my greenhouse during the winter. My kids have fun painting used gallon milk cartons, bleach containers, juice containers, etc.. I also have some old metal milk containers. This helps a lot. For my lemon tree, orchids and other tropicals, I put bubble wrap over one of the benches (making a little cocoon) and have an electric heater inside the bubble wrap.
For the other plants, like the fuschias, geraniums,etc that I winter over, I add a second heater when the temperature gets down in the teens or below. This year we went sub-zero.
I also use a heating pad for my starts.
I should mention that during the fall and winter, I grow a variety of cold weather veggies in my greenhouse like lettuce, spinach, beans, etc..
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Heating and Cooling The Solar Gem
Mt Vernon,
I'm impressed that you have grown such a wide variety of things in there and even with "Sub Zero" Temps.
We have had such cool and overcast weather here south of Portland for the past couple of weeks. So far I have a tiny clip on fan in there and I know I need a much bigger one with a high velocity to get me through the summer. So I'll be shopping for a better fan soon.
As far as the shade cloth, I did some reading this last weekend on the online forums and, while nobody on the forums talked specifically about the fiberglass one piece greenhouses, many of them did say that they used white or silver shade cloth in conjunction with the fan for summer cooling. So I did go ahead and order a piece of white 50% shade cloth. It won't cover the whole thing. I got the 12 foot size, so it will drape down 6 feet on each side of the greenhouse. I'm just going to rope it down to some stakes, but loosly, so that the roof vents can still open and close under it. I just need to drop the temperature about 20 degrees on some really hot days, that I'm sure sooner or later will be coming our way.
It will be an experiment to see what affect shade cloth will have on the climate in there. One person suggested that I have the fan blow over an open wide top container of water, as an alternative to a mister, which was another cooling idea as well. So I'll just be trying a few different things, until I come up with a setup that works with my climate.
I do like your idea of water containers for regulating temperature, I'm just not sure how much space I will be able to give up for the water containers. That might be one of my things that I try though, we'll see.
I have a lemon tree too, and a Tangerine, Lime, Orange & Avocado. They spent this winter in my unheated garage. I just ordered two dwarf Bananas, crazy Huh?
Thanks For Your Ideas,
Creekside Farm