That's really cool to see. May I ask what the UV filter rating is, or whatever it's called?

You did it again, Robert. Made me feel like a total slacker. (grin)

I have about 100 tomato plants left in the garden, after losing some (and apparently I'm about to lose a lot more) to herbicide drift from 2, 4-d that somebody somewhere in our general area apparently has sprayed twice in the last few weeks, with the most recent spraying hitting plants this weekend that had seemingly survived the first round of herbicide drift. Still, after starting out with a little over 100 plants, I was so pleased to have "too many tomatoes", and after reading that you have almost twice as many plants as me, now I feel like I didn't plant enough.....but I'll get over it.

I assume that with that many plants, you're going to be selling tomatoes at the farmer's market this year?

I like the shade cloth and the way you have it over such a large area. I usually shade the peppers more than I do the tomatoes. By the time I think it is getting hot enough that the tomato plants need shade, I am getting sick of canning, dehydrating and freezing tomatoes so I don't bother. It isn't exactly that I want to let the plants die, but I do kinda start wishing I didn't have to deal with so many tomatoes.

We're in extreme drought here, and exceptional drought is creeping our way from the southwest and west. On the last U S Drought Monitor it was at the western edge of Jefferson County, which means it is one county away, and I am not so foolish that I'd try to keep tomato plants going in July and August in Exceptional Drought. I don't even know how long I'll try to keep them happy and productive in Extreme Drought. We've been harvesting and eating tomatoes since the last week of April, so I'm no longer feeling starved for a home-grown tomato ripe off the vine. I've been thinking of just doing the usual food preservation for another month or so and they letting all but a handful of tomato plants go. I feel like our harvest of most varieties is about to peak, but there's also lots of spider mites, grasshoppers and now the stink bugs and leaf-footed bugs have just shown up, so it is just as well that our plants are producing so well right now because a month from now, they likely won't be.

The shadecloth I have is 50% and that seems to work well for peppers and tomatoes in our summer heat and sunlight, but I have an occasional problem with finding myself eyeball-to-eyeball with a snake that is lying on top of the shadecloth. I assume it is there lying in wait for something to eat.

Dawn

Dawn,
I haven't picked a ripe tomato yet except for a few cherry sized. But I do hope to have some to sell. Seems like the growers for the farmers market is getting smaller. So far just a couple have shown up with anything to sell. Mostly the cool season veggies and they are done with now.

I decided to not plant some crops as it's just too hard to work full time and do gardening too. So I decided to plant lots of tomatoes.

Chicken Coupe,
I think the shade cloth is about 50% but the package didn't say. China left that information off the package.

Thanks :D