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Put a $9 shade cloth over my tomato bed in July, and the plants quit dying on me
Last July I got tired of watching my tomatoes wilt every afternoon in the full sun on the south side of my yard here in Phoenix, so I rigged up a cheap 40% shade cloth on some old conduit I had in the garage. I figured it would maybe help a little. Instead the plants stopped dropping blossoms within a week, and I ended up picking more fruit off those four vines than the previous two summers put together. The cloth cost me $9 at a farm supply place off Baseline Road, and the conduit was already sitting in the corner doing nothing. What surprised me was that the leaves got darker and thicker, not thinner like I expected from less light. I also learned the hard way that you have to leave the sides open or you cook the plants in your own little greenhouse. This year I'm trying the same setup on my peppers and wondering if 40% is still the right number when it gets past 110. Anyone out there running shade cloth in a hot climate, what percentage works for you and how high do you hang it?
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