New shade house

[WaianaeCrider]

Started this last year and only got 1/2 way and stopped for some reason.  Building this out of 1" PVC pipe.  My others are of stainless steel, I think.  Some kind of steel anyway.  But I could not find anyone selling the strange corner pieces need to use steel. So PVC is is.  Hope it's strong enough to last a few years.  Ran 1 piece short of finishing today.  One to many measure once cut once mistakes.  LOL  Will go to HD and get one more length and finish tomorrow, I hope.  Its about 7 ' high, 6' deep and 11 ' long.

This will be just for orchids, mainly dendrobians. 

[ColdBonsai]

Isn't PVC great? So easy to work with. And it's pretty cool what you're doing with it. 

Will the shade cloth cover the frame/block UV from hitting the PVC?

UV rays will make most PVC weak over time (mostly in terms of impact strength instead of brittleness), if you think that might be a problem a can of spray paint + primer that'll stick to PVC will help with long term durability.

Maybe not necessary if it'll be covered.

Post pics when it's full of orchids! 

 

Edited July 13, 2021 by ColdBonsai

[WaianaeCrider]

5 hours ago, ColdBonsai said:

Isn't PVC great? So easy to work with. And it's pretty cool what you're doing with it. 

Will the shade cloth cover the frame/block UV from hitting the PVC?

UV rays will make most PVC weak over time (mostly in terms of impact strength instead of brittleness), if you think that might be a problem a can of spray paint + primer that'll stick to PVC will help with long term durability.

Maybe not necessary if it'll be covered.

Post pics when it's full of orchids! 

 

Yes some inexpensive cloth form HD.  No idea how much shade as they don't say on the package.  LOL  Dummies.  Yes cloth will cover, lay directly on the PVC.  It's easy to work with, but when you measure  and glue you'd better have measured CORRECTLY.  LOL

[WaianaeCrider]

Finished the frame work and put in the poly pipe for irrigation.  Next step is the shade cloth.

 

[WaianaeCrider]

She's pretty much finished now.  Just gotta hang a flapping door.  No orchids ready so I put some Hawaiian Natives in.  Lot of here are trying to grow plants that either were here when the Hawaiians first came or the "Canoe Plants" that they brought with them.  Just about all the natives are endangerd as they grow no place else on earth and exotic trees/plants by the thousands have come to take over.

[WaianaeCrider]

Started working on the worst of my orchids.  No leafs, just semi-dried stems.  I use to put some wood bark of some kind in my mix and I've found that stuff turns to mush after a while.  Well some of the dates on these orchids show I've been not taking care of them for about 5 years...Bad Me.

Now I'm using just black cinder from our volcanoes on the Big Island.  I top each pot off w/a thin layer of what we cal "blue rock".  It's also a basalt from the volcanoes but very dense and heavy.  Good to kind of hold this transplants until they develop roots down into the cinder.  Now I gotta hit HD tomorrow and pick up some time release orchid food.

This shade house to be know as the Blue House will not look "pretty" for at least a year or two until things begin to grow and flower.