Alpine house question

[gervandenbeuken]

Shading for the alpine-house?
It depends on what you want to grow in your house.
For dionysias or Saxifrages for example you need shade ( outside of the glasshouse)of course .
There are however lots of plants you can grow without any shade.
My alpine-house is protected by aluminium shade netting what let pass about 70 % light.

[jomowi]

Maggi
This bit of Aberdeen does use shade, a lot.  Since I grow shade plants that need low light and high humidity  Some of the greenhouse shade is outside and some inside.  In the summer I shut the automatic vents at the bottom of the greenhouse, put the door to open automatically (temperature controlled), put the shades down and use automatic humidity control as well.  If I do not do all these from about 11am to 5pm the humidity can fall to below 30%, my target is 50%.  The shades are net with cut-offs of up to 70% and I try to judge the weather, more shade in times of sun (remember that it does exist), less or none in cloudy conditions. I have never managed to get round to automating that.  I also use some shade on the big frames (Shortia, Meconopsis and Gesneriads) in hot weather.

Brian

[Maggi Young]

Indeed, you do need, and use shade, Brian.... just not needed here for us, or what we grow, so better that you tell us your experience!

[cohan]

someone mentioned 'cool house' is that one of those paint on things?
a fellow cactus grower in belgium was using a new product like that--looked like old fashioned lime coating, but it would be transparent when wet, so not blocking sun on rainy days..
he had it painted on in fancy zig zags for dappled light.

[mark smyth]

That sounds like a great idea

[David Nicholson]

'Coolglass' is  white paint-on shading that does not react to adverse weather whilst 'Nixol' is a paint-on type that is weather sensitive but don't know if these are available outside the UK.

[mark smyth]

Maybe Twowest will mail to mainland Europe
http://www.twowests.co.uk/TwoWestsSite/pages/product/product.asp?prod=NXL&cookie%5Ftest=1

[David Nicholson]

Not much good for Cohan he's in Alberta, Canada

[cohan]

Not much good for Cohan he's in Alberta, Canada

no problem for now--no greenhouse to worry about yet just curious about the tech, right now;

speaking of hypothetical greenhouses--i'm wondering if there is a retail application of the stuff they used for the swimming dome (bird's nest, if i have the right one?) at beijing olympics? i saw a bit of a show about the building, and it was like some kind of super duper plastic wrap...