OT - Green House Covering

Thanks

Mine lasts maybe a year, and then I have to replace it. His has gone 7+ years now without failure.

Now it's true that the generic milky plastic costs less, but considering the time cost of rebuilding the greenhouse every year, and the cost of new plastic each year, it's pretty clear to me that I really didn't save any money.

Talk to your local greenhouse manufacture or fertilizer company which sells to greenhouse growers. They usually carry the stuff. Neither makes the poly last longer. They may infact shorten the life of the poly when you apply the products with a roller or drag the shade cloth over it. Both can be used on glass or polycarbonate, fiberglass, pvc, poly etc.

If you cant find anyone local try a hydroponics place- its amasing what they sell, or try this site growercentral.com It is our fert-chemical place in western Canada.

Some polys are designed to maximaze photosynthetic active radiation (the light that plants use) and minimize UV, to limit heat build up. This would be suited to a grower in a warm climate. Other polys let in PAR and UV, and have a special reflective coating to reflect the UV (heat energy) back inside to limit heat loss. There are a bunch of other light filtering polys that let in, or reflect out certain wavelengths depending on what crops you grow. The most high tech polys come from Israel and Italy.

Point is, coatings don't last. Spend the money and get a poly designed to fit your needs.

From my experimint last year I would by the GH UV rated plastic. The common construction grade plastic lasted 3mths before completely desinagrading into nothing. Cost was $40 for 20ft x 100ft.

My GH UV 6mil rated plastic cost $180 for a 40ft x 100ft and is a 4yr rated covering.

Now if your GH isn't too large (high $$ cost) then be sure too look at the polycarbonate sheets. There rigid like glass and carry a 10yr rating. About $1.50sq/ft tho.

T_Bone

I helped recover some greenhouses a number of years ago. The product going on and that coming off were both warranted for three years. Unless the house had high dollar plants in it, it was inspected and kept on for five years.

Some 17 years later I still have some we took off. It only sees daylight part of the time, but is still tough and pliable and not brittle at all.
Good stuff. `

Built a bow shed over the winter and now I'm converting it to a green house (http://www.by-the-sea.com/stimsonmarine/bowroof.html). The green house is 12'x28' --will buy the proper material.

Thanks again -- it was informative