Shade Cloth, Yea or Nay?

[karstopography]

What does shade cloth do for your tomatoes, those that use it? Those that don’t use shade cloth or that have tried it and don’t like it, why didn’t you like using shade cloth.

For people in hot and/or intense sunshine and/or lower latitude growing areas, does shade cloth extend the season or add other benefits?

If you find shade cloth to be beneficial, what percentage shade would you recommend for tomatoes?

[worth1]

Never used it but it will help stop sun scald and lower the temperature of the growing area.
Possibly allowing for longer fruit set.
Even bell peppers get sun scald.

[brownrexx]

I have only ever used it on peas since they burn up in the hot sun and it worked to extend their season by a couple of weeks and allowed me to get more of a harvest.

[Tormahto]

I've never used it. But, I would use it on exactly one variety if I had too many bluebird sky days. That variety would be Brandywine Sudduth.

[slugworth]

I used it over my strawberries one year but the birds pecked right through it and it ended up looking like a bloody rag.
I had it over my tomato plants but my mother took it off and said tomatoes need sun.
Mothers' are like that,yeah they are.

[NMRuss]

Not shadecloth but expanded metal lath is what I use now on all my chiles and tomatoes. Its not for shade but for hail protection which comes in quite handy with the hail we get during the early summer months and recently at the end of summer.

[Whwoz]

Never used it here, even when we got to 44C/110F. Had a little bit of sun scald but plant leaves protect fruit from worst of that. Barely had a leaf burn. Did not want to block wind flow, vital to keeping plants healthy on those days. Others on fenced in urban blocks lost plants, cooked in the hot still air. What I found to be important on those days was the ability to cool off the plants when the sun was off them. Water sprayed on them in a breeze equals cool happy plants

[GoDawgs]

I used it last year as the year before the tomatoes suffered terribly in the all day full sun. I think there's a big difference in the effect of that sun between plants grown in the ground and plants grown in containers. All the tomatoes last year except four wewre container grown and I used 50% shade cloth positioned to block the worst part of the afternoon sun. The other four were planted in the ground in an area away from the garden and thought they weren't shaded at all, they did fine.

In fact I never used shade cloth at all for all the years I planted tomatoes directly in the garden. Then that bacterial wilt or what ever started killing my tomatoes and that started me growing the tomatoes in buckets. Periodically I test things by planting one in the soil and sure enough, just when the beautiful greenies think about starting to color up, the wilt begins and three days later the plant's totally collapsed. I guess it will be that way forever.

[karstopography]

Good input, all. I wrapped my raised beds in the polymer netting today, that for squirrel mitigation. I got to think that polymer material offers some small percentage of shade, based on what I saw online for various shade cloths. The netting is high enough it covers part or most of the tomato plants. Then, I have some shade from the tree canopy at times. Since no one is saying shade cloth is the bees knees, I’m going to forgo any shade cloth this season. Thank to all for the rapid replies.

[JRinPA]

so...thread closed after 8 hrs? lol

[karstopography]

@JRinPA not at all. I’m not trying to throw any shade on the thread. Please, chime in! As it is, though, I was already leaning away from shade cloth anyway so unless someone or several someones present compelling testimonials in favor of shade cloth, I don’t think I’ll be using any this season.

Shade cloth exists. People must use it. Why do they use it and what problems does shade cloth solve, I and maybe others could learn something from the experiences gardeners have had with throwing shade on their gardens.

[slugworth]

I gave up trying to grow Indigo type tomatoes because they need full sun to turn black and would cook before that happened.

[AZGardener]

I use shade cloth once the day time temperature is 110F for more than a couple of days. Once the extreme heat arrives the shade cloth stays up until early to mid September usually. It gives the tomatoes some relief from the intense sunlight and cools down the covered area by a few degrees.
I don't use it on corn, okra, or cowpeas, they seem to do fine without it, but for tomatoes, peppers, and Summer squash it has extended their growing season.

[karstopography]

@AZGardener So with 110° F daytime high temperatures what are you seeing typically for nighttime low temperatures? How do tomatoes respond to those temperatures, do they shut down fruit setting or flowering and then bounce back when the weather turns cooler? I know Arizona is a much drier air, lower dew point situation and that dry air can cool off at night better than our summertime high dew points Gulf of Mexico saturated air here, I’m just curious how a season might look in AZ when you are facing temperatures like what you described. Is there a prime time during the year for getting tomatoes and then a marginal time?

Anything 95°F or higher here at my place 12 miles from the Gulf of Mexico is getting above normal in the summer, although we can get to 100° and a bit beyond in unusual summers. The nighttime lows that generally remain in the 70s are the issue here that interfere with fruit setting on all but the cherry, small fruit types, setting aside any disease or pest issues that might otherwise damage or destroy plants outside of whatever physiological problems averse temperatures pose to tomatoes.

[AZGardener]

Our nighttime temps are usually in the 80s during June. Once the monsoon arrives (winds come from south rather than west) our night temps get into the 90's for a low. It is not unusual to have 100F at midnight during monsoon season. Our dew points are in the 50s average July and Aug. Starting in September the air starts to dry out some and the night temps drop down into the 80s. Fruit set stops, and basically they survive until it cools down and then new growth and flowering begins again in Sept. I have to start seeds in late December or early January and get them out in February to get a crop of tomatoes before the heat comes. I also plant seeds mid-July for the Fall crop.
Cilantro, dill, lettuce, peas, and brassicas are all winter crops for me. I cannot grow them in the Summer. Lettuce is bolting now, brassicas are done, tomatoes setting fruit.
We don't have the high humidity like the south and gulf coast states, I imagine it has its own set of growing challenges.

[karstopography]

Okay, well it isn’t all that different, on timing anyway. I grow brassicas in the winter here, lettuce, spinach, carrots, that sort of thing. Those all go in starting in mid October continuing into December. I start my tomato and pepper seeds in late December and into January to set out mid February to into March to get ahead of the eventual summer heat. I have not been doing fall tomatoes the last few years, but the timing seems similar to yours.

I’m taking out the last of the tuscan kale soon to make way for more peppers and have one patch of merlot lettuce remaining and some carrots. The carrot spot will be for something like bitter melon or a winter squash, something that thrives in the heat. Bulbing Onions will done come May and that spot will get something hot weather Asian type or maybe okra. High summer here is for Okra, cowpeas, long beans, Asian type luffah, bitter melons, maybe some C. Moschata types. Hot peppers, Eggplants, those all more or less thrive in hot and humid.

It’s year around gardening here, a person just has to pick the right crop for the right time of year.

[worth1]

I grew with great success cherry tomatoes in dappled shade all summer long in containers in your area about 25 years ago..good lord has it been that long ago.

[swordy]

This year I'm planning to use shade cloth. I've read the answers here and though most who used it were satisfied, there eas an answer that said shade cloth deteriorates the growing conditions in terms lf diseases due to no air circulation. If shade cloth is only on top of the crop, why would this block air circulation? I definitely not want for diseases to flourish in my crop..

[Wildcat82]

I haven't used shade cloth though I did plant 2 Tycoon tomatoes in pots last July and positioned then on the east side of the house so they full sun til 2:00 then full shade the rest of the day. Ended up getting 25 baseball sized fruit in early September which is unheard of here. It might be worth experimenting with a 40% shade cloth all day versus a 100% shade cover for complete afternoon coverage.

[goodloe]

I've been mulling over the use of shade cloth for a while...my patch faces East, and is in almost full sun for 10+ hrs a day. I think my plants would benefit from some shade, maybe 40%, but with frequent storms from the North, I'm afraid it wouldn't stay up for long... I've been looking at this site: https://growerssolution.com/collections/film-shade