PVC Aquaponics Shade

3 weeks ago, I started building a shade for my aquaponics system to protect the plants from strong winds and heavy rain. As I am living in a gated townhouse, I am not allowed to make modifications to my veranda and bordering walls. Therefore, the criterias for my shade design are:

• cheap as possible
• no drilling/nailing on existing walls and roofs
• does not extend beyond the borders of my house
• constructable with the power tools I have
• able to withstand tropical winds and rain
• leaves and water doesnt stay collected at the top
• ease of cleaning (such as support legs that doesnt block the broom when sweeping underneath the system)
• pleasant to look at

I came up with a few design and performed test simulations in my head to see how they will stand up against the harshest weather in my area. Finally, the candidate that scored the best is an "arch" design made from 1/2" PVC pipe. I then did a rough sketchup model of my system with a finished shade to estimate the length of PVC pipe needed.

 The contruction of the shade was done over the course of a week during my free time. I also made some changes to the initial design by adding wider PVC pipes at the base for extra strength

Phase 1: PVC Frame

All the pipes were held together using screws. Precision, precision, precision!

Phase 2: Wire Bracing

Doing this is HELL! I have to make sure all the braces are not too loose and not too tight. Too little tension and the shade will be shaky. Too much and the pipes will have an unsightly bent. I cant remember how many times I redid all these wire bracing!

Took me 3 days to get the all the wire tension right. At the end, all the hard work... is worth it!

I used strings to pull the whole frame to the right shape before adding the wire bracing.

Phase 3: Plastic Tarp

These are greenhouse clips I made from 1/2" PVC pipe

Transparent plastic tarp that I bought from ACE hardware

Oh! Just look at that smiling kangkong! I can also hear my okras cheering... "Finally!"

Here are some closer shots of different parts of the shade:

The base of the shade is screwed to the grow bed stand.

Wires are applied here to reduce shaking

Just a simple bend is enough to secure the wire to the pipe

Two Weeks Later

After two weeks, the shade survived several stormy nights with minimal damage. During strong winds, 1 or 2 badly designed clips may pop out. I had replaced them with better clips and since then, it doesnt happen anymore. The shade shakes very little during strong winds and leaves collected at the top gets washed down by the rain.

A shot of my shaded system at the backyard

Grow bed shot. That pot of pink flowers in the middle are dianthus barbatus or "Sweet William"... My name :D

Kang kong growing vigorously without being bombarded by falling fruits from above

Standing proudly are okra plants and at the right are Genovese basil seedling that I bought from Mercato supermarket at Pavilion, KL

Tilapia tank no longer littered with leaves and fruits

Rosemary, various bok choy seedlings (2 varieties here), and japanese cucumber at the back

Beautiful kang kong leaves... Pretty flowers...

Kang kong flower up close

Kang kong fruit

Cherry tomato and "white floral spires" basil seedling. At the back, under the white container, are experimental rosemary cuttings.

Seedlings of "white floral spires" basil

This new shade is a good place to hang a Petunia plant

Unfortunately, I still have problems with rain splashing on the wall. My japanese cucumber which are planted near the wall is having problems staying upright. Their leggy stems may be due to inadequate light or too much nitrate.

"Kyuri" or japanese cucumber

Arent their leaves a little light? Iron deficiency perhaps?

I need to think of a way to block the rain splashing.

Thanks for reading!

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Gardening in Shade Some useful information

Gardening does not always means that you need to grow plants in full sun. Shade in the garden is like a nightmare for many gardeners. Though most of the vegetables like Tomatoes, or cucumbers require full sun for their development, many plants can grow wonderfully well in shade. Here in this article we will try to give you some idea on how you can do gardening in shady condition.

When people talk about shade they can mean a variety of condition. So at times it can be confusing to what actually a shade gardening refers to. First of all let us make a distinction between different types of shades.

Gardening in partial shade

1.    Partial shade: This kind of shading refers to a condition where the place receives direct sunlight for less than 4 hours.
2.    Full shade: This is a condition where there is no direct sunlight through out the whole year. There are some plants (like Euphorbia) which can grow well in areas like this.
3.    Dry shade: If you are planting under some big tree the chances are that apart from being shaded, the place will be very dry. As the water content of the soil is mostly sucked in by the big trees. There are few plants which can survive in these conditions also.
4.    Moist shade: In case the planting is near any big water source such as ponds or rivers the soil remains very wet through the season. In this condition plants are never short of water.

It is the partial shade that we will discuss in this article. As we have already discussed in out earlier article Sun or no Sun, if you want to grow fully grown fruits in a plant, you need to provide them more than 6 hours of sunlight. Having said that, crops such as Spinach and other leafy vegetables, Peas, Cauliflower can grow pretty on partial shade.

Some tips on growing vegetables in shade:
Most of the plants which grow in the shade generally have larger leaves to absorb more light. Do not crowd shade tolerant plants. It will help to absorb most of the light available. Less crowding will also increase the air flow through the plant and will reduce many diseases.
Paint the walls of your buildings surrounding the shady area with lighter paint. It will increase the light reflection and provide light support to the dark shady areas. You can also use mirror tiles or metallic surfaces for this purpose.

Benefits of Shade gardening:
There are some benefits also if you are doing gardening in shade. If you remember, while discussing growing tips about Cauliflower and several others we have informed you about the effect of heat on bolting. In case your gardening is in the shade the impact of bolting can be reduced. The leafy vegetables such as Spinach lettuce grown in partial shade will look much fresher and you can enjoy them for a longer period of time. This is due to the fact that the more they are in the sun the larger will be the amount of water loss.

Talking about water, you also need to water the plants less regularly than when in the direct sun. By knowing ideal plants for shade, you can very easily optimize your total garden space. Plant the plants which prefer the direct sunlight in the sunny place whereas as in rest of the partial shaded spaces you can easily cultivated rest of the plants. It will help you to double your total vegetable output.

You can get some vivid idea about sun and its impact on vegetables growing in this article.



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