Bob Walker asks how to manage shading during snowy winters in Maryland. When I lived in Maryland (up until last spring), I used Aluminet during the summer months (June through September), on the outside of the greenhouse. During the winter, say November to February, the glass would be clean. In the periods in between, I used shade paint, which I could apply and remove as necessary. I think the Alumninet would really suffer from the sort of miserable icy winter mix so common in Maryland. Shade paint has the advantage of being infinitely variable in its application; shading needn't be an all-or-nothing proposition.
A word of caution about using internal shading/thermal barriers during the winter: this can be so effective that the snow does not melt from the top of the greenhouse. If you have a load of snow on top, open your thermal barrier that night so that the snow can melt and slide off. To do otherwise can lead to disaster: ask J&L Orchids, who had a house collapse under the weight of a very heavy snow because they did not withdraw the thermal barrier one night. Luckily, they saved all their plants. And thanks to Greig Russell, of South Africa, who was able to provide the Cynorkis snippet I requested from the 1958 Orchid Review. --Lisa Thoerle, pleurothallidiot, Little Compton, RI -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
