I want to plant some fruit trees in the back yard which often gets hammered with strong winds.
If I used a wall of 30% shade cloth (1.8m high) would it be enough to slow down the wind?
Shade Cloth as Windbreak for Fruit Trees?
figarow on 11/02/2022 - 17:08
Comments
We do this, works well in a very high wind area, just make it as high as you can! - steel star posts are the best + if possible use some sort of steel light mesh to clip it to for extra support.
Was thinking of raising it 300mm off the ground for easy whipper snipper and using 4 lines of straight wire between star pickets.
Total height would be 2100mm. Do you think that would be high enough and would the gap at the bottom be an issue?
Is 30% shade cloth enough or should I go 50%?
50% at least and you can use el cheapo grommet kit on the edges. Triple seam about 30mm just rolled over by hand.hot rod or soldering iron to make holes.
Would cable ties work?
Cable ties are good. Make sure they are UV stabilised ones for longevity.
4 lines of straight wire between star pickets will help support the shadecloth and give it more wind resistance as well as looking neater also.
How strong are the winds? We get heaps of wind where we are and I have never had an issue with my fruit trees or vineyard. Just stake the trees until they are established after a couple years of growth from seedling.
you can even fit lengths of pvc pipe over the star pickets to give you more height
Should be good, still like a soldering iron to make holes in the mesh..You see it makes a sealed hole and less chance of hole " running ' under pressure.
Shadecloth makes a good windbreak and should slow the wind down, however you may have to go higher as the fruit trees will quickly grow to more than that height unless they are of the dwarf variety or grown in pots/tubs.
Regular hard pruning will help keep the height down but may affect the amount of fruit you'll get.