Post date: Apr 30, 2018 5:17:35 PM
27april18. I think we have decided against shade cloth and white wash this summer. Maybe we will white wash the sides of the greenhouse if needed. Here's the info we have on all this:
Zach,
Shade cloth is usually purchased from a greenhouse supply company (http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/category/shade-cloth ). Typically, you would contact the company and tell them what you want and they cut it to size, add grommets, or whatever else you need. But, it takes several weeks to get it. They will want to know the dimensions of the material you need, the percent shade (you can pretty much get anything from about 30-90% shade), the type of material (mesh or weave), the color (usually white or black) and how it will be fastened. The material on 117G is a 60% black mesh. It is tied down with shade clips that hook along the edges of the cloth and then are tied down with twine. If you use a weave, you would probably have to get grommets put into it. The mesh tends to kind of pucker with time and I think has a shorter life span than the weave types, but we have used ours for almost 10 years now. We will probably have to replace ours next year. The greenhouses have screws that stick out on some of the trusses for the purpose of anchoring scaffolding during repairs. They can also be used to tie the cloth to. Or, you can just drape it over the house and tie down the corners to cinder blocks or 5-gallon buckets full of soil, etc. (Which looks awful and I’m sure Alec hates it, so you may want to attach some tie-downs to the concrete curtain wall below the glass).
It wouldn't be too hard to cover one of the 115 houses since they are freestanding. We just use a couple of tall pruning ladders, someone walking down the gutter between the hallway cover and the greenhouse, and some extendable poles and we can pretty well drape it over the house without a problem. A word of caution: The glaziers from Facilities have told me that if I were to fall through the roof I would bleed to death before they could get me to the hospital down the road. So be careful. The 115 houses should be easy because you can easily access 3 open sides and the gutter on the 4th side is made for walking. So, you can really get to the whole thing. You should NOT have to get on the roof itself.
It is also possible to use spray-on shading material (1:20 white latex paint and water). It is cheaper and fairly easy to apply, but it weathers with time and it is harder to get an exact percentage of shade.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.
Larry
Larry A. Rupp
Extension Horticulture Specialist
Utah State University
Logan, Utah 84322
435-232-1158