Shade Net Percentages Explained: 30, 50, 75 and 90% in Kenya

Thirty, fifty, seventy-five, ninety. If you have stood at a counter picking between them, the short answer: 50 per cent is the general-purpose growing net, 30 and 75 per cent are specialist choices at either end, and 90 per cent is not a growing net at all. Growers over-buy density because nobody told them that last part.

What the percentage actually measures

The number is the share of incoming sunlight the fabric blocks. A 50 per cent net lets roughly half the light through. It is a light figure, not a temperature figure, though cutting light lowers leaf temperature and slows moisture loss from leaf and soil.

That is the trade-off in one line. Shade buys cooler leaves and lower water use, and it costs you photosynthesis. Too dense over a fruiting crop gives you tall, soft, leggy plants, later maturity and poorer fruit colour. Kenya sits on the equator, so light is rarely limiting at midday, but it very much is at 6am and again from 4pm, and under a heavy net those hours are wasted.

The four bands and where each fits

Two of these bands are on the current list, 50 and 90 per cent. Read the other two anyway: knowing what they are for is usually what stops a grower buying the wrong density.

30 to 35 per cent: light cover

A light net suits ground that is already cool enough and only needs the edge taken off: highland horticulture in Nyandarua, Nyeri, Meru, Kericho and Uasin Gishu, hardening-off beds where seedlings are being weaned onto full sun, and poultry runs where airflow matters more than darkness.

50 per cent: the default

If you are buying one net and you are not sure, buy 50 per cent. It suits vegetable nurseries and seedling beds anywhere in the country, tomato, capsicum and French bean production in the hot lowlands of Machakos, Makueni, Kitui, Kajiado and Garissa, dhania and other soft herbs that bolt, and tea, coffee, macadamia and avocado nurseries. It also covers a shallow fish pond that is heating up.

The stocked line is the Shed Net 50% at 50m x 4m for KSh 13,500. That is 200 square metres per bundle, about KSh 68 per square metre, the lowest cost per square metre of any priced shade net on the list. A narrower Shade Net 50% 40M X 2M - Green, price on request, is easier to handle over single beds and walkways.

75 per cent: deep shade for shade-lovers

Seventy-five belongs over plants that want dim conditions: ferns, orchids and ornamental foliage, mushroom houses, propagation benches in the hottest counties, and produce staging at the shamba gate. It is not a vegetable net. Under 75 per cent, tomatoes and capsicum grow tall and set poorly.

90 per cent: screening, not growing

At 90 per cent almost nothing usable reaches the plant. This density is for privacy screens, boundary and site screening, car parks, drying yards, poultry house side curtains and windbreaks. The catalogue name says what it is: Privacy Screen Shade Net 90% Dark Green with Woven Eyelets, 50m x 4m at KSh 57,000. The woven eyelets are the point: lace it to a fence line or rail and it stays put in wind.

Note the price gap: about KSh 285 per square metre against KSh 68 for the 50 per cent. Density you do not need costs four times as much and grows a worse crop.

What is on the shelf, and what it costs per square metre

The High Quality Waterproof Shade is priced per metre rather than per bundle, so you can buy eight metres for a store roof or a market stall instead of a full 50 metre roll. It sheds rain, which an ordinary shade net does not, so use it where the crop or the goods must stay dry.

One quiet bargain: both Passion Fruit Net sizes cost KSh 12,500, but 130m x 7m gives 910 square metres while the 133m x 5m gives 665. Take the wider one unless your rows suit five metres.

UV stabilisation is the spec that decides whether you buy twice

Where the catalogue spells the material out, on the Bird Net-green and the Passion Fruit Net, it is high-density polyethylene, UV stabilised, and that is not filler. Unstabilised polyethylene under equatorial sun goes chalky and starts shedding fibres. Stabilised HDPE holds its strength and colour. Several of the shade and utility nets on the list carry no published material spec, so if UV rating matters for the job, ask at the counter before you order.

On service life the catalogue puts the anti-bird netting at three to five years and the passion fruit netting at four to six, with proper installation and care. Care means three things: rinse dust and debris off with water now and then, keep the net clear of machinery and sharp edges, and store it dry and shaded when it comes off, not folded in a corner of the yard in the sun.

Sizing: do the sums before you order

Work in roll length, not area. That is how the net comes.

Take a 20m x 30m block, 600 square metres, under the 4m wide Shed Net 50%. Running the 4m width across the 20m dimension needs five runs of 30m, so 150 metres of net. Three 50m bundles is exactly 150 metres, nothing spare.

That is why three is the wrong order. Runs have to overlap where they meet, so every seam eats a little width, and you want a further margin all round to fold over the perimeter wire and tie down. Budget a fourth bundle: overlaps, fixing lip and a repair piece. Ordering exactly to area is the commonest mistake on a shade net job.

Fixing it so it survives the long rains

Wind, not sun, destroys shade nets in Kenya. Four things that hold:

• Posts on a regular grid, roughly three to four metres apart, with the corners braced. The corners take the load.
• A perimeter wire round the structure, with the net laced to it. Tying the fabric to posts at a few points tears it.
• Even tension and no sag. A pocket that holds water after a night of rain will stretch, then split.
• Smooth caps on post tops so timber does not saw the fabric, and small tears patched the same week. A small tear runs a long way in one windy afternoon.

Nets that are not shade nets

Growers often ask for a shade net when they want something else. The Bird Net-green is a 4cm mesh: it stops birds and casts almost no shade, so if you need both you buy both. The Insect Net is the opposite, a fine mesh that excludes pests but also cuts airflow, so think twice before layering shade over it. The Anti Hail Net 50M BY 3M answers hail and strong wind, a highland problem around Nakuru, not a coastal one. It sits under Sporting & Utility Nets rather than Agriculture, as does the 40m x 2m green shade net, so search by name if the farm pages do not show them.

For structure rather than cover, the Trellis Net at 500m x 2m is KSh 19,500 for tomatoes, cucumbers and vines, and Plastic Garden Mesh at 30m x 1.2m is KSh 4,500 for small beds. If the shade is going in to save water, pair it with Mulch Film 60 Microns at KSh 45,000 and a Gardening Drip Irrigation Kit at KSh 5,000.

What to do next

1. Measure the block in metres, both dimensions, and note the roll width you plan to use.
2. Pick density from the crop, not the weather: 50 per cent for anything you grow to harvest, 90 per cent only for screening.
3. Convert area to roll length, then add one bundle for overlaps, the fixing lip and repairs.
4. Settle the fixing plan, posts, perimeter wire and lacing, before the net arrives.

Browse Poultry, Mesh & Fencing and Gardening & Irrigation in the Agriculture catalogue.

Bring your measurements to either counter and we will work the roll count with you: Nairobi at Darosa Plaza, Ground Floor, Karen Road, or Mombasa opposite Ratna Square.