Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello Everyone,

I'm a newby and I'm puzzled trying to choose a cover material for a PVC greenhouse we just made. We are in the tropics. Any suggestions? Experience? We are looking into inexpensive poly. Mainly because at some point we want to expand to a raft bed. The thing is most of these materials are intended to keep the heat inside. We live in the tropics thus, cold weather is none of our concern. Actually we are looking for a material that can reduce temperature. Help!

Probably some type of reflective shade cloth so the greenhouse doesn't absorb as much heat but I have no experience growing in your climate so take this with a grain of salt.

Vege Net, not sure whats available your neck of the woods.
http://greenharvest.com.au/PestControlO ... ml#VegeNet

As per previous suggestions, shadecloth would be your best bet I think. I'd aim for white to reflect the most heat, but perhaps no more than 50% blockout (which seems to have a nominal blockout of around 30% in white anyway). That way your plants get what they need from the sun minus a lot of the heat.

Something like Aluminet (reflective shade cloth - http://www.gothicarchgreenhouses.com/shade_aluminet.htm) probably would be the best.

Shade cloth does let rain through and I'm not sure if that matters. Most of us use it over the top of polyethylene or polycarbonate but I'm not sure you really need anything more than a shade structure.

Yeah I would think you would want a cover over the top to direct rain water and the reflective shade cloth to reduce the lighting. Maybe netting as well to keep birds and bugs out.

Has anybody tried reflective film on the top panels of a greenhouse. I got some and I think I'm going to try it since cloth is so awkward inside and the wind is consistently too strong to use it outside.

Thank you all for your help. I think I will go with Aluminet on top of a clear poly- I want to keep the rain out because we are planning after phase 1 (basically to have a 4 bed functioning system) to convert to hybrid system with a raft. Btw, kitacooch - your 1st system is impressive