"Ray" wrote:

A quick Google search turned up a few good possibilities, and it looks like
Gothic Arch greenhouses in Mobile might be a good option, as they carry
several different types of cloth:
http://www.gothicarchgreenhouses.com...h_supplies.htm

Ray, thanks for the lead, and thanks to all for the replies.

Further news:

Today I went to another of the local growers for the first time,
floridanativeorchids.com. This guy had the most fabulous plants of
any of the places I've been, by far. Really excellent condition. The
difference in plant health was night and day. Super-nice guy, too.

Anyway, I got to talking to him about my growing situation. He echoed
the comments of one of the other guys that reflected light != direct
light and that I probably needed direct light - which I can only do
with shade cloth.

Interestingly, he was using some of the same cloth I saw at Home
Depot. He said, yup, it's the right stuff, and is about 50%. He also
said he has most of his stuff growing under about 50% and thought
almost any orchid could be adapted to it.

So the Home Depot cloth would work after all. But now you've all
shown me these vendors with Aluminet, and white cloth and
pre-finishing with edges and grommets - I think a set of custom-made
panels is what I want.

So some additional comments would be appreciated.

I went out and took some measurements today. The balcony faces almost
South, and is 15' long. It's 7' from floor to roof, and it's 5' to
the back wall. It's open on both ends although the East end is shaded
for much of the morning by a large tree below, and the West end has a
divider panel, but it's open at top and bottom. So picture a 7x15'
picture window, with no window and a breezeway on either end.

As you can imagine, there are two growing zones, out by the railing
and therefore in full sun for all the hot part of the day, or back in
the shadow of the hard roof. Even that is pretty bright, perhaps from
light reflecting off the water, measuring at 1000-2500 foot-candles.

The goal is to place shade panels along the front so that the full-sun
portions of the balcony can be used. Light levels up front should be
for high-light plants, primarily Vandas. Light levels in back should
stay high enough for low-light plants like Phals. Mid-light plants
will be placed in the sun zone, but with shade plants.

If you've read this far, thank you very much.

Given the above, what would you do?

Should I figure on getting one set of panels and leaving them up
pretty much permanently? Or do you want to be able to roll back the
shade during the winter? If that's the case, would it be good to get,
say, two panels of 30% each, and then put both up in the hot part of
the summer, one for spring/fall, and no panel for winter?

I hope I'm not making this too complicated.

If this was *your* rented balcony, what would you do?

Gannet
St. Petersburg, Florida