New Shade Structure 30%

[magical9]

10x5x3 WxHxD

30%

Total cost was about ~$120 +/-10

Finally. Ive been planning to put this thing together for a while. Now ill be building a few more.

[Optimystic]

I highly recommend you mulch the pots in your heat.. I can't tell but it looks like just the soil ...

I did that to some more newly potted plants this year and its really helping to hold in the moisture

even when we get over 100... especially worth it for the clay pots but i've mulched some plastic pots

too and I don't have to water every day anymore except for the smaller pots eh the plastic pots really stay wet

so I just have to scratch around alot and the topsoil always seems to be wet so I just lightly water the plastics

when the top feels dry

I still have plants not mulched and when we hit the hot peaks they just dry out so im checking them each night

til I repot them sux cause I hate giving them tap water (don't want to compete with the microbes) but we

haven't had rain in forever and im about to run out of rain reserves eh I topped most with Expanded Shale

which is pretty cheap here... but I topped the ones im gonna repot with just straight compost and well they

still dry out too fast

thats a nice idea for the shade.. I use a hoophouse... I moved most of the bridgesiis and perus out tho .. the bridgesiis

were growing thin with shade and the Perus seem to go darker blue in shade but just seems like they can handle

about anything as long as i keep the roots moist in the growing season....., but smaller plants and for acclimation,

and Pachanois so far seem to be doing better for me with broken sun... grafts too... I may have to look into a smaller

something like that for seedlings... looks like its fairly windproof .. i've been using tree shade and watering them every

fricken day too lol

Edited August 13, 2014 by Spine Collector

[magical9]

Not sure i understand what you mean by mulching my pots due to the heat. FYI my soil composition for alot of my stuff lately has been mostly cactus mix (kellog organic cactus soil) with native soil/dirt. I found that they love just straight cactus mix though. I have a few big plants in just cactus mix and i water them all the time and it drains fast. They are my nicest plants. They seem to handle as much water as im willing to give them. The local dirt mix i use holds water a little longer but seems to dry out within a few days.

ive actually done a lot of up-potting, unpotting, and just general soil mixing as i switch pots or toss plants etc etc. So ive ended up with a really nice mix IMO of decomposed granite, sand, organic cactus soil mix, and native dirt. it seems to drain really well.

Edited August 13, 2014 by magical9

[djmattz0r]

Nice shade structure! I think he just means if you were to add a layer of wood or rocks it would keep moisture from evaporating as quickly if you want to keep something a little more wet or if things dry out faster than daily. I mulch some of my smaller pots with turface for decorative purposes but I suppose it helps hold a little extra moisture in the soil. I usually water just about every day when its 100+

[magical9]

OHhhh ok ya i was doing it mostly for decor but it turned out to help alot when i water too as it holds down the soil instead of it all floating out. thanks for the advice spiny collector!

[Optimystic]

yeah thats why I did it to hold down the soil.. my mixes tend to blow away or float off some of the perlites so I put rocks to hold them

down.. not having to water as much was a bonus ... seeing you have alot of plants I figured it would be helpful... but I suppose not

as necessary in smaller pots since i water them pretty much every day or two anyways... I wish I had known tho otherwise I would have

just gone plastic all the way for smaller plants and only huge clay pots... I really get tired of watering daily but I also have a shitload

of plants in addition to cacti , so daily watering is just a part of life lol

[zelly]

also you might want to consider eventually ditching all of your white plastic pots as they tend to break down (due to UV radiation) rather quickly compared to black pots. other factors, how much wind do you get?

i've been mulling over the idea of stretching a couple of steel cables between the facia board on my roof and the back fence wall, and then attach 20'x20' grids of shadecloth

[djmattz0r]

I don't have experience with my pots breaking down yet, but why would white pots break down faster than black? I would think that black absorbing more light/energy and getting hotter would degrade them faster than a white pot reflecting a lot of light?

[hostilis]

White reflects all the colors in the visible spectrum, but UV radiation is different.

Edit:I think, just a guess. hehe.

Edited August 14, 2014 by hostilis

[Nailthesnail]

I saw this on fb, ;)) Looks great boss

[Optimystic]

There are different grades of plastic but true, most of the white plastic pots i've gotten over time have a really brittle plastic

which breaks down or cracks easy for whatever reason.. they do fine in storage but If i leave them to be weathered they fall apart...

I have some mostly white pots from "proven winners" a brand at lowes, that im reusing... they aren't thick plastic but seem to

be as sturdy as the orange plastic pots... however I think its cause they are painted white rather than white plastic, I think I recall the

inside lining to be a dark color... i've been wanting white pots too because they wouldn't get as hot, just thinking that this past week...

also wondering why so many of them are black plastic, but shit im on a budget i gets wat i can

lastly in regards to pots, watering often is gonna be washing things out including minerals and ferts and plus the plants are eating

it so the less you have to water the better especially if you are using slow release ferts.. they don't release as slow if you water

each day eh

[magical9]

also you might want to consider eventually ditching all of your white plastic pots as they tend to break down (due to UV radiation) rather quickly compared to black pots. other factors, how much wind do you get?

i've been mulling over the idea of stretching a couple of steel cables between the facia board on my roof and the back fence wall, and then attach 20'x20' grids of shadecloth

we get monsoons here with high winds but with the location of the structure.. and its weight ..it hasnt been a problem. We've had 2 moderate storms come through this last few days (woot rainwater) and the way the wind usually comes in it basically never gets windy in the yard especially in that area. I stood out in a few really high wind storms last month to watch the wind reaction against my fences and house angles and while the side of the house is a slight wind tunnel.. it never really gets that windy compared to the open areas. I do plan on using rebar stakes to hold the thing down not that i think i need them.

my local nursery owner friend has the same kind of pipe structure all over his half acre backyard but has the legs going into sleeves in the ground. The pipe is 2" though vs my 1" pipe. He was just telling me that last weeks storm caused one of his really tall neobuxbaumia to fall over and hit the shade structure. so that seemed to take down part of it but not the wind itself heh.

[solaritea]

So...neobuxbaumia cuttings then?

I bought some of those white pots earlier this year. Paid extra because they're a little bigger and sturdier than similar black ones. Damn things are breaking apart in just a few months. One crumbled last weekend while moving a 1.5m peruvianus coming close to severely injuring me.

Edited August 14, 2014 by solaritea

[djmattz0r]

I went out and looked at my pots and it looks like a plastic type difference, my black pots from the hardware store are nice and thick/flexible while the other plastic pots (white/green/orange) seem to be thinner with the white feeling the hardest meaning probably the most brittle... So is it a color thing or a polymer thing?

Edited August 14, 2014 by djmattz0r

[waterboy 2.0]

someone else may be able to confirm but I think they add carbon black to the plastic mix of black pots to provide the most UV stable plastic.

I know this is the case with plastic pipe.

EDIT - good old Handreck and Black again

Edited August 14, 2014 by waterboy

[zelly]

on one hand theres the voice of years & years of experience and on the other hand theres tons & tons of info to be had on the internet.

LoL i could just as easily not say anything and then ya'll could learn those lessons on your own.

same thing with plant labels and magic markers. a few years (or less) in the weather and that magic marker tag has faded so much you can no longer read the label.

if you want your black plastic pots to reflect heat off them instead of absorbing the heat from the sun, spray paint them white on the outside.

[hostilis]

I learned that lesson (about permanent marker on labels fading) the hard way and lost a ton of labels this summer. Started using pencil.

[Alice]

Magical9, you have an amazing lawn.

[LokStok]

I learned that lesson (about permanent marker on labels fading) the hard way and lost a ton of labels this summer. Started using pencil.

Make sure its a 6B pencil & your ID's will last decades

[magical9]

I need to spend a day relabeling.

[Kykeion]

I have started using aluminum tags to label my plants. I have some fancy premade ones that I am able to get from work, but I have seen them made from strips of soda or beer cans. You write/score them with a ball point pen, the ink eventually washes off but your label is impressed in the aluminum.

The ones I use are similar to this. If I didn't get them for free I'd just make my own since they are not very cheap.

[Optimystic]

im poor I use ballpoint pen on styro, straight up BIC

even if it wears off I press hard enough to leave an imprint

its also easy to write notes on the cups but it runs together over time

[hostilis]

A lawn that nice over there in your climate magical.... I don't believe it.

Grass carpet?

Edited August 15, 2014 by hostilis

[zelly]

Magical9, you have an amazing lawn.

synthetic grass is big business in the desert...

http://www.easyturf.com/residential-synthetic-grass/what-is-artificial-grass/

[magical9]

LOL when he said "lawn" i just assumed the cactus.

Ya its fake grass. It was here before me.