Shading your tomatoes

By David Wall
Guest Columnist

Tomato growers are in a particular dilemma this year, as it seems we’ve literally gone from winter to hot summer over a period of about one week!

In 2017, tomatoes were being transplanted to gardens in mid-March, followed by spring rains before a hot, dry summer. This year nighttime and soil temperatures were so low that tomatoes couldn’t safely be transplanted until the second week of May. Then, a week or so later, the hot, dry summer arrived.

Now, we’re facing daytime temps well over 95, and nighttime temps are well into the 70s. If this continues, tomatoes will flower without producing fruit, and green tomatoes will lose their ability to turn red. There might very well be no tomatoes until temperatures begin lowering in mid to late September.

There are some simple ways around this, but they involve shading tomato plants until temperatures begin improving. Simply stated, shelter your plants by using shade cloths that let some sunlight through but block most of it. Whatever shading material is used, they are place on the west side of the plant(s) on the outside of your tomato cages.

The most effective, but perhaps the hardest to install is a long shade cloth running the entire length of a tomato row. Tomatoes receive direct sunlight in the morning and only partially so in the afternoon. The shade cloth restricts direct sunlight, thus providing cooling for the plant and soil. The negative side is that it removes your ability to move across rows between plants.