I use the white "frost cloth" they sell all over the place for shade cloth for my pumpkins or cantaloupes. It keeps the white flies and squash bugs off them too. It blocks just enough sun that the plants don't fry and not enough that they aren't getting starved for energy.

Only downside to it is it only lasts a few seasons if your garden is planted in a windy area and you have to hold it down with rocks or clamps.

For my pumpkins, once the vines get a certain size I remove it all and let them finish in full sun because it doesn't matter if the vines get eaten then.

Thank you iandyaz for your in put. I live in the valley for over thirty years so I know our summer can scorched any nonnative plants. I'm thinking about using the aluminet for its heat reflective property. You think 50% density is enough or too much?

Seems way harder to find low % shade cloth than high here, which seems weird, everybody else I've talked to wants something low as well, you'd think more local stores would carry it. I know it must be online but it's expensive and I don't want to pay for a huge quantity.

I threw some 50% shade cloth over some zucchini plants last summer when we had those few ~120 days, and that was the end of them. I'm sure the heat was as much a factor as the loss of light, but I still wouldn't use something that high again, at least not for something as sun-loving as squash. I might try something like 20% if I had it.

Okay cheap alternative if you have a small area to shade: last year I improvised some frames out of PVC pipe and clamped ordinary white garbage bags around the top. Probably not a big temp drop, but it's a little diffusion for those intense days.

One thing to note is if you're using the hdpe shade cloth, you definitely want to elevate it over your plants so they get light from the sides and have good airflow. That stuff is a good insulator and it'll trap all the heat under it if there's nowhere for that air to go.

An easy way to do this was actually taught to me by this forum. I bend 2 half inch pvc pipes like an upside down U shape, and put each end into the ground using half inch rebar. Then attach shade cloth to one side of the U so it shades the ground around the plant.

Thank you all for your inputs, much appreciated. I have a 20x20 fully enclosed garden with chicken wire all around to keep the local wildlife out. It's about 13 feet tall. I'm planning to put the shade cloth on the top, south side, and west side during the hot moths then take the shade cloth off during our cool months. I'll post some pics soon.

In that climate plants will still get plenty enough light with 50% shade cloth. The amount of light is not so much the limiting factor as moisture in the soil and dry air. The sunlight hurts more than helps because of the already hot temperatures and dry air, the leaves will get scorched. Even if you drowned the plant in water the roots might still not be able to supply water fast enough to keep the leaves from drying out.

In that climate plants thrive in shade. Even if you get to the point where the amount of light reaching the plant is theoretically below optimal, that's still better for the plant than getting dried out.

There's a reason you have difficulty finding less than 50% shade cloth in your area, and that's because it almost wouldn't be worth it to go to the trouble of putting up a covering if it didn't shade that much. You only need the shade cloth for the summer (half the year from mid-April to mid-October I mean).

I agreed with you 100% Parker!! I spoke to a nursery near my home and that's what they recommended, 50% Aluminet. Ordered mine shade yesterday. I'll post pics this weekend.