Shade House - to Purchase, or DIY Plans & Ideas

[Keysguy]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Especially for Catts (but actually most epiphytic orchids with copious roots) they seem to benefit from the additional air circulation that they get. I know that my hanging Catts, in particular, grow a lot better than the ones on benches. Many Dendrobiums, too, do a lot better that way. Also a good way to use space... as you run out of bench space, utilizing vertical space makes room for more orchids.

Exactly (especially the air movement which allows them to dry quickly after rain or watering) and in addition to all that, the ones you hang up high will get brighter light which is especially good for Catts, Vanda's and a lot of Dendrobiums. If you use space efficiently in a shade house, you hang your high light requirement plants up high and they provide even additional shading to the plants below on the benches that don't want as much bright light.

[PuiPuiMolcar]

Hello, this is my shade (alley) house. It is mostly made from old house yard material and Japanese dollar store products. Everything is DIY with the help of my father
like what everyone have discussed here a few key point you must check off before building one.

Material
Climate / yearly environment (i.e wind and rain are key concern)
and location.

Material:
I use an old metal hatching fence as the skeleton for my roofing, to which I bend and tie them to the house wall and nailed the other end to sturdy wood beams. It is sturdy enough to handle multiple heavy orchids, however, I still dont want to take risk and I am lazy so I went with plastic pot for my hanging orchids/

Shade, I use old car cover as shade cloth and several shade net from Daiso. Daiso sell shade 34.6 x 70.9 in and 36.6 x 140 in for 2-3 dollar at 75%~ (used to be 1.25), since you're from socal, there's a high chance they're at your local Daiso, but you better hurry I might grab them all lol. Or you can just buy them in bulk at their website. Alternatively, Walmart 6x10 ft have at 50%.

General gardening tool. I get all of them from Daiso, from basic tool, orchid support stick, pots, hygrometer, wall hanger, gardening mats, tarps etc, except for copper wires, everything below 5 USD. Hydroponic stores tend to sell cheaper plastic pot in various size, including ones for air plants from last I've seen.
Although I recommend you invest more into your heavy duty tools like cutters, shovel, etc because the ones at Daiso will wear out quickly.

I hand water all of my orchids using the homedepot battery sprayer so I can't help you with an automatic system :P.

Climate:
We probably share the same climate so dry wind and hot summer would be the most concerning issue.
My alley have a gate at the end, I just cover it up with a picnic tarp and use it as a wind shield. Daiso also sell wind breaker mantle (or you can use another shade cloth,) you can just tie them together and make a make shift tent entrance.

Sun protection, if it gets too hot I'd just double the layer of the shade by tying them together with the copper wire. The same goes with Rain.

Location
This is the west side of the house so it will get a lot of sun for the whole 9-10 hours. Which is long enough for the orchid under shade I think.
Use the LUX app or a light meter to measure the ideal lighting intensity for you location. Do it back and fourth every 2 hours of the location and record your data.


The other approach is to buy several instant canopies, replace the cover and use the structure as the skeleton for your shade house.

Another one is trying the Amazon green house. Which is a bit small imo, but may be good enough for beginner. I have no experience with it, so trust this with a grain of salt.

[HiOrcDen]

Again, thanks all for the tips. Would anyone have a suggestion about tables or benches for the plants? Could this also be a diy thing? I would think some kind of plastic shelving with a grate for a tabletop, for drainage, would work well. Though if you have multiple levels, I guess you wouldn't want upper plants dripping on the lower. Are there setups with a drain, or else should one just use pebble trays for drainage?

So you've given me good ideas for hanging plants. I would also appreciate any suggestions for purchasing or DIY shelves/tables/benches!

[Keysguy]

Originally Posted by HiOrcDen

Again, thanks all for the tips. Would anyone have a suggestion about tables or benches for the plants? Could this also be a diy thing? I would think some kind of plastic shelving with a grate for a tabletop, for drainage, would work well. Though if you have multiple levels, I guess you wouldn't want upper plants dripping on the lower. Are there setups with a drain, or else should one just use pebble trays for drainage?

So you've given me good ideas for hanging plants. I would also appreciate any suggestions for purchasing or DIY shelves/tables/benches!

#1- interesting question you posed there regarding dripping from one plant to another. I suspect there will be some members of this forum that will point to the potential for disease spread which is legitimate but the question I would pose in response would be "this doesn't happen naturally in the wild?"

#2- I have a bench design that I use to build my own benches. I'd be happy to share it if I could but cannot right now as my plans are 1900 miles away from me at the moment. It is PT wood with closet shelving laid in as the bench top that the plants set on. The one key feature I incorporated is 10" high sides. Because I grow outside year round in what can be a very windy location, I wanted a way to help keep the plants upright in high winds. It works perfectly. I also use stainless screws because of my seaside grow area.

[Ray]

As far as benches, I’ve used pressure treated 2x4s on stair stringers to make tiered benches, plastic bread flats sitting of water-filled 55-gallon drums (painted black to absorb solar energy), but my favorite was Dura-Bench panels.

If you do multiple layers, attach a sheet of rigid plastic, sloped lightly down to the back, under the upper shelves, so the water will drain away, rather than down.

[Roberta]

For starters, I have used Home Depot shelving set on cinder blocks. (They eventually rust, but good for several years, cheap and easy)

As far as drips go... I know that in a perfect world I shouldn't let that happen. However, I have 'way too many orchids to give each its own real estate. At least up to now, have not had any problem with disease spreading. And growing areas both in GH and outside are pretty dense. Sometimes "imperfect" works anyway.

[Keysguy]

Exactly Roberta. Especially where in this case we are talking about a shade house where you should expect good air circulation and pretty good drying conditions.

[Roberta]

For hanging, rebar held in place with zip ties (black ones that have UV protection) works quite well. (or if there is wood, screw hooks are great) Rebar is strong and rigid. Surface may rust somewhat but it still has very good lasting power.

[HiOrcDen]

So, should the shade house have four sides? I've even seen structures that have just one side and a roof arching to the other side. So what works best for temperature, air circulation, etc?

[Roberta]

Have you defined what you want the structure to actually do? If just provide shade, then you only need to have the structure to support shadecloth (and what you need depends on what else is around - trees, house, wall or fence) and how it is oriented to the sun's path. If you want to provide temperature control, then you get into enclosure scenarios. But once you start enclosing the space, you need to be concerned with air flow, how to cool in summer (the "greenhouse effect" can make an enclosed space very hot) What plants are you preparing this for? So, you need to work backward from the set of conditions that you are trying to establish, various approaches to "HOW" will suggest themselves once you have determined WHAT you are seeking, and WHEN (summer? winter? Both?).

Living in coastal southern California, the starting point is to utilize, as much as possible, the perfect airflow that Mother Nature provides. If you must do something to obstruct that, how will you replace that function? I have a friend who lives a bit south of me, a superb backyard orchid grower, who sums it up, as "Add water, subtract sunlight, and the rest takes care of itself"