When I worked for another grower, it was my job to wash off that paint for winter growing. Ach. I never could convince him to break down and buy shade cloths. Myself, all my g'houses have shade cloth. You can choose your shade level. The coverings are better protected from UV and weather and last longer. It's easy to put them on and take them off. Some of my shade cloths are over twenty years old now and still in decent shape. Good investment.

Hi Calliope,

Thanks for answering! I have to do something pretty quick. I would like to get everything out of the basement and into the greenhouse.

It seems to me that a black shade cloth would attract and absorb the heat. Where as a white one would reflect...do you agree? Or maybe the Aluminet? It seems to be at least twice the price. Does it last longer? Did you have the seam and the grommets put in when you ordered it or has it held up just fine without? Sorry for all the questions, but I'm just at a loss as to what to do...

Terri

I do not put on my cloths until 1st May, normally. I am in a more southerly latitude than you, and the plants do fine until about them with proper ventilation. But, I have larger houses, and the climate is easier to control the larger the house. I have black cloths, but aluminet wasn't that available when I bought them. Black works fine if it is installed on the outside of the house. The temps drop ten degrees immediately when they go on. But, metallic is good if you can afford it.

Mine are all taped and grommeted. I had it installed when I custom ordered them. It's not that much more expensive. I prefer the cloths not to cover the whole exterior of the arches. I leave from bench level on down exposed, so having grommets allows me to use lines to secure the cloths at any point on the skin. I have several houses with the length along the southern exposure and I let the cloth down further on that side and leave more of the northern exposure open. IOW, what I am trying to prevent is direct rays on the plant material. Indirect light is gentler and good.

What size of shade cloth would you purchase for a 10x12 greenhouse? We use shade cloth on our shade house structures, in which we grow hostas. They had lasted over 10years. Seems like it would be much easier to throw on a shade cloth rather than try and wash of paint.

Should be 'have' not 'had'.

We run 30% aluminet year round on the ceiling and west walls of our all-glass GH. We find it's a good balance year round and much less hassle to just leave it on. Ours all have tape & grommets installed and the look is much cleaner and it seems to last longer. Ours is installed inside the GH and we're about to add one more panel on part of our south wall to protect a few specific plants.

I need as much sun as I can get in winter, and even 30% would throw my seedlings into botrytis. What % shade you use, when you put it on and what type are so dependent on your locality, what you are growing and even how severely you need to moderate temperatures. I throw extreme shade to my perennial house in winter to keep plants from breaking dormancy too early in spring.

Out here on the West coast the rain stops in mid june and doesn't start again till mid september. Many of the large greenhouse growers just mud their houses for the summer. All you do is take a bucket of mud and a large paint brush and walk around the house 'flinging' mud on the plastic.
In the fall when you need the light, the rain just washes the mud off.
Effective, easy and cheap.

Let me bump this old thread to say that I tried to make some diy shade paint by using a diluted interior latex paint, mixed at about 5:1. I applied it with a pump sprayer six months ago to my double layer of 6-mil poly.

The problem is that now the paint doesn't want to come off. I had thought that a pressure washer would easily take it off, at the risk of being too strong. But I was completely wrong. Not only does the power washer not remove any paint, the poly itself is oblivious to it. I use the same machine to strip wooden decks and siding. I even tried to cut through the poly with it, and it doesn't even make a mark. It seems like it relates to the poly not being a firm surface; the movement takes away the leverage of the pressured water spray.

Undiluted Simple Green and a *lot* of work with a typical plastic kitchen scrub brush eventually took off the paint. If the brush has scratched the poly, I can't see it. It took me four hours of scrubbing to clean just one end wall of a 14' wide high tunnel.

If I ever try shade paint again, I will spend the money for the Kool Ray AND paint a small test area only, let it sit for a year, and see how easy it is to remove.