Topic: What do you use to shade your greenhouse?

[Duke Ellington]

What do you think is the best material to use and why?

Duke:)

[Deb P]

I confess I have never shaded my greenhouses!  :-[

My tomato plants I grow in two growbag deep rows and they shade themselves as they grow, I use a min/max thermometer to keep an eye on the temperatures, the vents and doors seem to do a fair job of avoiding overhigh temps. My little lottie greenhouse suffers more, but I grow mostly chillies in that one, and this year okra and melons which like the heat so I'm less fussed. I was thinking of erecting a cane grid in front of the glass and using it for climbing squash to make a 'living' shade for that one, now I have transplanted the gooseberry bushes that were there this year I can actually get to the area without being ripped to pieces.....

[budgiebreeder]

I grow my Runner beans around my greenhouse for shade.It works for me.

[lauraladybird]

Well at the moment I have a piece of fleece draped over one half of the roof kept in place with pegs as one side of the interior is full of fuchias which I intend to flog!  It wouldn't work on a windy day but it was quick and easy to put in place.  You can buy coolglass shading wich is a powder you mix into a paint and use on the glass but it doesn't look great and if a faff to get off also once in place the plants miss out on the days where there's low light levels.  There's also green mesh you can buy which goes on the inside but again I found this a bit of a hassle so I'm sticking with the fleece arrangement!!  Hope this helps :)

[goodlife]

Last few summer I haven't needed any shading ::)..more like umbrella..
But normally if needed,,builders (green) mesh...same as used for polytunnels..

[landimad]

I have a basic plastic lean to type and this gets the fleece treatment in the summer.
In the winter I have used the Bubble wrap all over to keep the heat in.
I am going to try the green mesh if the sun gets to strong.

[ruud]

Here in holland we paint the greenhouses with chalk-water.The proffesionals are doing that also so i always do my greenhouse wenn they are doing them ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Duke Ellington]

Last year I used green shade netting but the clips that hold it in place were useless!!  and kept falling off. It was reallydifficult to reattach it once my tomatoes had grown tall.

I suppose liquid chalk is the same as COOLGLASS shading. *Ruud*

Is COOL GLASS  really that difficult to get off. :(

Duke

[Tee Gee]

On the allotment basically none other than 'dirty' glass ::)

The greenhouse at home is shaded by my neighbours hedge from hell.......an eight foot + leylandii

[goodlife]

I attach my green netting outside with wooden pegs..greenhouse has those vertical slats where glass goes in...just right for pegs to grip in... ;)

[tonybloke]

either coolglass or green netting (on the outside)

[RobinOfTheHood]

The weather.

[ruud]

The weather duke,rain will finally wash it of,but it is a slow proces.

[grannyjanny]

Tony. Why & how on the outside please.

[tonybloke]

if the shade netting is on the inside, it will itself get hot, and pass this heat onto the plants. if outside, this won't happen. when i put my shading net on, I'll post some pictures of the 'how'  ;)
(I use a fairly stiff, fine mesh as shade for the greenhouse, it's held on with 2 wires which run across the length of the greenhouse)

[no-lottie]

The weather duke,rain will finally wash it of,but it is a slow proces.

Chalk water, Greenhouse Paint or Parasoline is designed to paint the exterior and give it a light coating that helps block UV rays. It does break down, but most often will take the whole growing season to do so. I use the Parasoline and it is magical with how effective it is.

At the end of the growing season, just wet the remaining coating with water and use a wet broom to remove what's left.

[Plum]

I use old plain net curtains. I use two pieces for roof with thick garden wire through top, this is then looped over ridge. Then I thread a cane trough bottom, this adds weight and can rest in gutter. Pegs for each end in case windy. I can roll them back if not needed. For side of green house thread a cane through another piece of net curtain , place cane in gutter , peg edges. Easy to remove on dull days. Just washed nets for another years service. Found paint on stuff annoying if we got a few dull days. Could attach netting in same way.

[teresa]

Old white net curtains suspended on wire inside greenhouse or have used watered down emulsion paint inside this can then be washed off in winter. I got a tester in light green ( for our house ) the left over used on greenhouse looked nice ha ha.

[Morris]

I use green shade netting in the spring, if it is sunny as now, when I have lots of seedlings that need protecting from extremes of temperatures.  It also adds a layer of insulation for the night. 

The past 2 summers I haven't bothered with shading at all, as the weather has been so miserable.

I gave up on coolglass as it isn't so flexible in that you can't whip it off when the weather is dull. 

[jlottie]

We use a mix of lime and water, the rain washes it off gradually over the Autumn so by the end of October its clear again :)