Shade cloth questions..

How do I choose the right color or percentage of shade cloth for my tomatoes and peppers? I live in the desert and worry that it can get too hot even in the spring. Should I worry about getting something now, or waiting til its closer to summer, or not at all?

Hi Googlie, you might post this question in the southwest gardening forum as well. Lots of Phoenix gardeners there and they know all about gardening in major heat. I don't have much experience with vegetables here, this is my first year to really sincerely try hard, but I successfully grew Cherry tomatoes last year without any shade cloth. I'm not going to worry about shading things until we hit 100s regularly here in Tucson. I can't help with color or percentages, I'm sorry.

Mindy

Hello Mindy. Did your tomatoes get any shade at all during the day? My garden will be pretty much in the middle of a shadeless 1/2 acre, and im a worry wort haha! Among all the forums I must have overlooked the southwest gardening. I will post over there too :) Thanks for your reply! Good luck with your garden, I hope to read somewhere that it does well! This is my practice year (or at least first attempt haha). Wish me luck! -Jessica

No, no shade at all! But cherry tomatoes fruit so early that they did fine. I'm sure they would have hung around longer had I given them some mid-day shade starting in June or so. Good luck to us both....I'll look forward to your progress reports.

I have success with cherry toms here, but everything (not just tomatoes, but pretty much everything but zucchini) stalls once the temps stay in the triple digits. I think having 100* days and 60* nights are also hard on the toms. There are some threads in the tomato forum about growing toms in hot conditions that you might want to check out.