Well, the latest heat wave started this Monday and caught me a little off guard. I was able to purchase a canopy and get it over my deciduous trees, but I was a little late in ordering one for the conifers. A small white pine got very toasted yesterday and I’m not sure it will recover, and a JBP had some needles turn tan today. These got moved into the deciduous tent.
My second canopy arrived today and we will put it up tomorrow. So far I am very pleased with these canopies, made by Everbright. They are 10’ x 10’ and claim to reduce the sun by 50%. Working under them is very pleasant. They will need some sandbag tie-downs, but one thing at a time.
I had been mulling over how to protect the trees this summer for some time earlier this year, and was considering putting in wood posts with a concrete foundation, sail shades and automatic awnings, but this seems like a good semi-permanent solution. If you already have shade protection, great, but thought that others might like to know.
I just put up a shade tarp from Harbor Freight under my trellis since a hard freeze in January killed 4 of the 7 wisteria that covered it. I have decided to encourage the remaining 3, but use shade cloth instead for the rest of the trellis. I will put up another 8 x 16 foot section over the area where I have the seedlings and similar on Friday. We are expecting to go over 100F early next week.
Shade is awesome and needed. I get most of mine from large Maples on the property.
I will throw out that silica helps plants to tolerate heat and get less sunburn, and also repair and rebuild damage, at least based on the information I have received from Eden. I am using silica every week and we have had a very hot spring in the NE and it does seem to help.
Not a replacement for proper shade, but another tool for summer use, that could be worth looking into.
August report post vacation: It’s hard to find the sweet spot for trees under the 50% shade. I’ve been aiming for morning sun and shade in the afternoon, but because of some space limitations I’ve had to make some compromises. The azaleas and maples towards the center of the canopy were staying too wet (understandably). The plus side was that the trees in the shade developed new shoots and are staying more lush than those in the sun, which was a surprise to me.
The goal was to protect the trees while I was away on vacation, and it mostly worked pretty well, although it’s hard to give watering instructions to the sitter when some trees stay wet much longer than others.
One of my pines fried, but there are a few green needles on most of the branches, so I’m going to baby it and hope. It was not under the canopy and for some reason wasn’t watered enough.
Next summer I will try 30% shade cloth for the summer and see how that works out. Now time to get the trees used to full sun (gradually).