About shade net:

• Polypropylene or HDPE are used to make shade nets. The shade nets are generally in knitted or woven form.
• By property shade-nets are strong, hard-wearing, tear resistant and light in weight.
• The standard sizes of nets available are 2, 3, 4 & 8 meters in width and 25, 50 and 100 meters in length.
• The most common dimensions of these nets are 3 m (width) by 50 m (length) with GSM of 120 to 180.
• The shade nets are generally Green or Black in color.
• The shade percentage is very important; & it depends upon the appliance / plants under farming. Normally shade percentage specifies the degree of shade provided by the shade-nets & it fluctuates from 25 percent to 90 percent.

Raw-materials:

• The basic raw material is the HDPE/PP granules
• The HDPE granules are used in most of the cases as it is cheaper than Polypropylene.
• Additives are added to these shade nets for UV stabilization.
• The main purpose of pouring additives to allow nets to resist the atmospheric agents, mainly the dangerous UV rays, thereby, increasing the life of the nets and provide guard to the plants.

• Shade nets have widespread applications in:
  1. Floriculture (roses, orchids, etc),
  2. Horticulture (cabbage, pepper, grapes etc),
  3. Vanilla cultivation,
  4. Tea plantations,
  5. Drying of agro-products,
  6. Cattle-sheds,
  7. Parking lots,
  8. Swimming pools, etc.
• The shade nets provide protection to the plants from wind, extreme weather conditions and reduce water evaporation.
• After China, India is the second largest producer of flowers, with about 116000 hectares of area under floriculture.

The correct choice of shade nets is vital depending on the type of crop, its light and photosynthesis demands.

Recommendations for choice of Agro nets:

Demand of shade nets:

The key application areas of shade nets are:

• Agricultural applications - grape cultivation, orchid plantations, tea plantations, nurseries
• Non-agricultural applications – swimming pool coverage, parking lots, etc

1. Knitting machine
2. Weaving machine