We are shading ours now. The shade is high enough to allow direct morning and late afternoon sun in but they are covered from about 10am to around 4:30 or so. We haven't tried it this way before so we'll see how it works.

I put up my shade in the past week. I have mine about 6ft high with a 2 foot open space in the center between the 6 ft cloths. I covered the whole thing last year but felt that it was too much shade. I also wrap my containers with brown kraft to shade the roots. My plants get the morning and late afternoon sun. Currently they are growing and blooming as fast as possible. Last year I took the shade off at the end of Sept and had a good crop of Fall tomatoes.

thanks for advice hope i dont have to much sun scald already ill be putting together some shade soon till theni moved pots in position for morning sun only until about 1 pm igot a better boy at lowes 3 plants in container put in a 20 inch pot i have about 2 dozen toms already again thank for advice so quickly ernest

In case anyone hasen't noticed the global warming is now correctly being blamed on natural sun activity (according to thousands of accredited scientists)haven't you noticed the bright white sunlight.I have plants in pots that spend all summer in the sun in past years that are being burnt this year,strong stuff,I hardly have enough shaded area to put my plants in anymore.......comments welcome

I haven't even thought about putting my shade up yet. I've got the best looking plants I've had in the past few years. I'll have to admit though that two of my four plants are fully shaded after 2:00, but the other two don't get shade until 4:00 or so. I'll probably throw the shade up once the temps are consistently in the 90's.

Wade

"In case anyone hasen't noticed the global warming is now correctly being blamed on natural sun activity (according to thousands of accredited scientists).."

Well, no, actually:

"According to a NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) press release, "...the solar increases do not have the ability to cause large global temperature increases...greenhouse gases are indeed playing the dominant role..." The Sun is once again less bright as we approach solar minimum, yet global warming continues."

From: http://solar-center.stanford.edu/sun-on-earth/glob-warm.html

I think it is prudent to cover tomatoes; the heat alone can wilt a well-tended plant in just a few hours. My question is: Has anyone gotten blossoms to set in the heat by moving plants into total shade?

ha yes took advice. put up shade. tomatoes doing well, very tasty. iam getting fruit set in high 90s to 100 tempes with better boys. in after noon shade i wet plants and shaded aera .
in late afternoon. as well noticed lower temp under shde thou it variers in just a couple of feet. best i know plants are shaded by my shade screen[ bought at lowes]half day as sun get more overhead will be more shaded i also drop a tied piece of screen that i tie after sundown. this keeps 2or3 oclock sun off plants i dont know the shade percentage of screen but seems to work well so far no sun burn. ihave the green screen from lowes on 6 foot high 1 and 2 by 2s thanks for advice everyone. iam surprised at fruit set at these tempe thouh not aas productive compared lower tempes, still looks like a longer season. i didnt notice this type or setting in lower90s with full sun back east.

biermaster what is kraft

I have half barrels of tomatoes (Better Boy & Heatwave) that get the Phoenix sun ALL day long and are still producing the tastiest fruits ever like crazy! The trick seems to be to shade the lower parts and dirt with companion plants, water thoroughly daily and dowse them all with organic foliar feed weekly (because I start work before dawn all this has to be done at sunset). When it starts to regularly push 105ºF then I guess it'll be time to decide whether to protect or pull.

Kraft is a left over term from my days in the paper industry. The brown paper bags you get from the grocery store are Kraft paper. The paper I get is from the Local newspaper and is used to wrap the jumbo rolls of paper used in printing. It usually has several layers that now has a plastic vapor/water barrier between layers. You could use several large brown paper bags instead. In the 70's the barrier was an asphalt or tar. I know now that some gardeners use the stuff that has alum foil and bubble wrap on their container to reduce the heat on the roots. It is available at Lo$$$ and H#. near the fiberglass insulation.

Ok,

So I've barely lived in Phoenix for a year and have only done container gardening. LARGE learning curve year. Unfortunately I waited till a few weeks ago to plant tomato plants in containers. It is now end of April and while they have grown somewhat, no sign of blooms and now it occasionally is hitting 90 degrees.
What are you using for shade? I have a bamboo shade on the balcony that works well for other plants. How to protect the roots. I noticed the pot I was using was hot in the afternoon, that can't be good. Can I just put aluminum foil around the pot. It's just not that aesthetic LOL. Any ideas? Thanks!

Zach

Zach, I too had a learning curve with container gardening in Phoenix. I just say no now. I lost so many plants the first summer. I would water heavily in the morning but by the time I got home the clay pot had cooked the roots of whatever plant was in it.

I've tilled a garden area on the east side of my house and laid soaker hoses that run on a timer. Every 12 hours for 3 minutes. That is working very well. Good luck

Mary,

Glad you're having success with the soaker hoses. Yeah container gardening is hard..I'm also having a horrible time with pests. Well I let out some ladybugs last night and will put some more out tonight!

Zach

Zach,

Where did you find ladybugs? I've got aphid troubles and been looking high and low for them. The local HD won't order any.

gran-t-anthem-az,

Lady bugs occasionally are found very seldom in HD or Lowes and actually the last time I got ladybugs from Home Depot, I was horrified. I realized half of them were dead! I sprinkled them on my balcony garden and the next day that I basically fertilized my plants with dead ladbugs!
I since have ordered ladybugs from a company at www.organiccontrol.com They have many beneficial insects. My package of ladybugs came in a plastic container with breath holes for them and LIVE ladybugs. The packaging was great and they told you exactly how to keep them until you use them. They truly know how to sell and deliver good quality beneficial insects.
Hope this info has helped. I will not ever buy beneficial insects again from a big box nursery.

Zach

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Control

wow a yr later! i have larger containers, im useing a new potting mix, and i havent shaded yet, waiting for 90 plus on regular bases im using 1x2s as supports this yr. 4 one in each corner of my 18 to26 gal totes im screwing cross supports as needed i may need vertical extentions as my neves azoren red plant are really getting large and lots of tomatoes. plant are doing better in home made soil mix as per als mix on container gardening. ithink when i shade ill just attach sun screen to wood supports indiviually letting some full am sun.thanks to caryoln male for nar seeds and als mix, im looking really good this yr . good luck to all. ernie in surprise

This is my first year planting tomatoes in pots, actually first time planting anything! I have 3 tomatoes, I think one plant with fruit looks like it is starting to get sunspots on it. Where do you get sunshades? how much do they cost? I planted 2 of them in 5 gallon buckets with holes drilled up the sides from home depot. I wrapped the silver insulation bubble wrap around the buckets so I don't cook the roots. I have the third in a big glazed pot, without the insulation. They are heavy and I dont want to drag the plants, would rather get a shade screen. Would cheesecloth work? If I draped it over? it allows oxygen and can protect the fruit from scald.

lowes sells sun screen 6ft wide x what ever. thell cut it to your length not to costly 1something a ft x 6 ft i dont know about the efectiveness of cheese cloth. sun screen alows plenty of air in. container gardening forum on gardenweb has a lot of info teesaz. are u in the valley of the sun? ernie

Ernie yes I live in the northwest valley. I will check out lowes! thanks!

Does anyone know what might be boring holes in my tomatoes? It is a round hole and then they turn brown. Also, what to do to get rid of the hole borer.

Do you see a green hard shell bug that is kind of pentagon shaped on your plants? I would start looking early in the morning or late at night for any kind of bug on the plants.

teesaz what plant variety do u have

Ernie..well since I am a beginner, I started with 2 early girl tomato plants and the 1 patio tomato plant. If I found this site BEFORE I purchased them I would have purchased a different variety I think like sungold or heatwave.
I havent purchased the shade cloth yet, I need to get to lowes. I do however have 2 of the buckets wrapped with bubblewrap insulation, and I noticed that they are growing so much faster than the early girl I planted in the glazed ceramic pot.

I put up a sunscreen now that we're in our mid 90's going into the 100's this week. Some people talked about wrapping the base of the pots to keep the cooler with Bubblewrap. The kind you get from mailing things? Or is there somewhere else you can get it? This is my first year growing tomatoes and I do have about 30 tomatoes and flowers on all 6 plants( patio,sweet 100's, Husky Red).Can anyone help? Thanks!

You can insulate the roots by placing your pots in larger pots and filling the gap with insulating material like peat moss or the non-dissolving Styrofoam packing peanuts. Wrapping the outer pot in aluminum foil will reflect the heat off the pots keeping the soil inside cooler.

i use large containers i think 25 gal works well on big tomato plants i shade toms with sun screen and the pot i shade with burlap anything that keeps the sun off pots i feel will work. i have some pretty big tomatoes 1 and a halfers and 1 lbers bigger pot 26 gal is the best but only have 3 alltogether other 2 are 18s not as productive. squash zukini did very well got to eat lots of sqaush blossoms. good luck to u teesaz and jerseymariah. ernie

Thanks ernie. My tomato plants are still flowering and growing tomatoes. I am amazed!! This heat is a killer to the plants. I did wrap the bottoms of them with brown paper bags. I think this is helping. I would try putting them inside bigger pots with peat moss. But the pots are pretty large and I move the around all day!! In the morning the sun and as the afternoon hits I move them into the shade. Except for the EXTREME heavy pot w/2 plants. thaks for all the help!

Will the tomatoe plants survive the summer thru our high heat? The plants are still growing blossoms and tomatoes( do cover them w/sunshade) But will they keep growing for the fall growing season or do I have to start out with new plants again??

they can make it throu summer i shade mine with sun shade on top all summer last yr plant looked crappy. u may want to cut then back some. dave the garden guy on local tv say it can be done plants will flower again when temps get low enough. im still getting toms as of this writing but they ll b gone in a couple of weeks. very tastie. ernie

Shade for plants is like shade for you. The temp. in shade, is as much as 20 degrees lower than in the direct sun. Tomatoes do not set fruit in temps above 90. The pollen tends to get very sticky and won't fall on the stamens. You can help pollination along (fruit setting) by gently shaking the flowers early in the morning.