AusBonsai

Hi guys,

I'm thinking about putting up some shade to help protect my plants from the hot karratha sun, I know it is advisable to use only 30% shade cloth but I would much rather use a shade sail as my area is 5 meters by 5 meters and shade cloth only comes 3.6 meters wide and doesn't come with eyelets.

All the shade sails on e bay say they are 95 % uv protected. Ideally I think a 50% shade sail would be the go to try and keep tempatures down that bit more.

I don't want to get the sowing machine out if possible

All the shade sails I have seen are 95% as well. They are designed to keep the sun off delicate humans, not to provide shade for plants.
It would be interesting to take some light levels in different areas. At a guess I'd say Karratha sun would probably be brighter and hotter than our weaker southern sunshine here in the mountains so would it make sense that you could have deeper shade protection for plants and still end up with the same result????

Here's another couple of random thoughts that may be worth considering: You might still be able to use a 95% shade sail if you arrange it to give direct sun for part of the day then the deeper shade in the afternoon. If you could get the shade sail up higher it would probably allow more reflected light into the plants around the edges and should end up equivalent to a much less shade %.

I think you might need to experiment and report back to us on the results.

Like Shibui mentioned, hang it higher, or allow morning and afternoon sun to shine in une the edges
Give it a whirl and see how you go

Ken