Much discussed topic. Search finds 390 results for "light". The link might provide a lot of immediate info. IronBelly Here is a link that might be useful: Search results for

This is SO different from last year - I had oaks with 10 inches of tender new growth, American persimmons with 4-6 inches of tender new growth, all my fruit trees had all but finished blooming - many with small fruit already developing. The 4-5 consecutive nights of temps into the low 20s/teens were devastating - I had young grafted pecans, persimmons, and mulberries in the 6-10 ft height range killed back to the ground. Pecans and hickories lost all their leaves. Only two of a dozen or so grafted heartnut varieties were not killed off completely - including a couple that were 10 ft tall - killed back to the black walnut rootstock. Black walnuts and most Asian persimmons were still dormant, and escaped significant damage. This year, pears, peaches, plums and a few early apples are just now in bloom, but pecans and oaks are just entering bud-swell, or early leaf extension. Persimmons and mulberries have not yet broken bud. I'm not overly worried, and I'm not bothering to attempt to cover anything. Extension fruit specialists here are predicting at most a 10% reduction in total crop.

The best "mulch" for retaining moisture is an opaque silvered plastic sheet with a hole only large enough for the plant to come through. The silvering keeps the sun from evaporating all the water away; the drawback is that the soil is slower to warm up in the mornings, and watering the plant from above is not very effective, since the plastic sheet prevents water from going through everywhere but the one hole. It does prevent the establishment of any weeds though. If plastic sheeting is not your preference, my personal favorite is super coarsely shredded coir (coconut husk fiber and pith); the local hardware store sells blocks of this compressed mulch, which can be reconstituted in water. This stuff absorbs and holds water like nothing else organic (depending on how coarse or fine it is, between 5 and 10 times its weight in water); the top may dry, but the rest of it will release water to the soil as needed and will definitely preserve the moisture of the soil. This stuff gets my recommendation. I started the Square Foot Gardening method relatively recently, but instead of using peat moss (which is mined from bogs) I used coir, which is renewable, and not acidic (peat moss needs to be neutralized because it is somewhat acidic) and I am very pleased with the quality of the substitution. Here is a link that might be useful: A link to an example of coarse coir mulch

Thanks David - I've been kicking around the idea of doing low profile strips under the shelves - i might even like to have a channel routered out so they're completely flush but I haven't gotten that far yet. I could also potentially have them install pucks in the bottom of the shelves (since technically they're hollow). I'll have to talk to the electrician and see what his advice is. I appreciate the input!