shade Shade house questions

[AJ Drew]

In the past, have been using trees to shade new plants and a trailer I can move around.  Been moving the business more and more towards peppers, so need more room and am building a shade house for next year.  Have 4 x 4s in concrete about 10 feet left out the ground.  They are spaced every 8 foot.  Structure is on the side of a barn.

Questions:

From pole to pole, at the top to support the shade cloth, should I use wood or should I run cables?  Seems like cables might draw the poles close to each other where there is not a counter force.  So thinking wood.  Do you think 2 x 4s are fine since the cloth doesn't have to hold anything?

Securing the cloth to the edges?  In the past, have done things like this by sandwitching plastic, cloth, and the likes between two pieces of wood.  Do you think this is the best idea?

Rating?  What percentage do you think would be best for Kentucky?  Mainly going for an area to harden off without as much fuss.  However, not going to let something like that sit empty during the rest of the year.  So after plants are hardened off, some will be planted right there in the shade house.  What rating do you think is a good compromise between hardening off shade and growing shade.  I do not want it to be too extreme, especially since there is a barn on one side so it only gets direct sunlight for maybe half the day.

 

[juanitos]

you don't even need cables / wood, just the posts and hang it up there. it can support itself.
 
on the edges u might put the wood furring like u said so it doesn't get ripped off in high wind.

 

[moruga welder]

i have mine  10 ' up it runs on wire i have homemade eyelets that loop around the cable and the eyelets of the shade cloth . i use a pole to extend the cloth for open and back to close . works great .!   

 

[AJ Drew]

Moruga, did you buy the shade cloth with eyelets or put them in yourself?  Sandwiching between two pieces of wood seems stronger, but not sure I want the grief.  I think ideal would be eyelets on the shade cloth held down with bungy or something else that will stretch with high wind and keep the thing tight.

 

[BamsBBQ]

it wont stretch...we get high winds here and i just hold my shade cloth with bungy cords

 

[Jerry Rigatoni]

it wont stretch...we get high winds here and i just hold my shade cloth with bungy cords

I got some shade cloth locally.    
This is pretty stretchy:  http://www.groworganic.com/30-blk-shd-fabric-knitted-72-wide-ft.html    
This is not stretchy at all:  http://www.groworganic.com/30-blk-shd-fabric-72-wide-ft.html
Knitted vs woven?
I didn't know there was a difference until I went back and accidentally bought the non stretchy type.  I really prefer the stretchy.  I can get it nice and taught regardless of configuration.  I went pretty simple style and just used kite string to lash it to 7ft bamboo stakes.  
 
Edit:  Here is the humble bucket patio garden with the stretchy shade cloth overhead and down the afternoon sun side:  
http://i.imgur.com/8osChdB.jpg 
Yeah, it's kind of makeshift but I put the Jerry Rig in Jerry Rigatoni.

 

[juanitos]

eyelets / grommets will costs you like 1$ extra per foot.
 
you can look at pricing for both types here:
http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/category/shade-material

 

[mrgrowguy]

I would just do 2x2 or 2x4's on top, that way you can simply staple the shade cloth on top and easy to replace in subsequent years if necessary.
 
I have done a few different designs and I would suggest the wood also because it is going to fare the best if you get any wind gusts. Even one night of crappy gusts can ruin the next day for you if it's not secured well.