Nancy, of course you can grow tomatoes. People grow tomatoes all winter in front of a bright window and where I live, once the sun gets up high, we even use shade cloth.

It can get fairly hot in Chicago, so yours will probably appreciate being out of the hot afternoon sun.

Depending on when you plan on planting out, I would look for varieties that set fruit early, stay smaller for containers, etc

Corrie

Thank you Corrie! I guess it's at least worth a try. I'll look for the early variety.

Nancy, Jan put together a list of small patio tomatoes. That might be something you could look at too.

Jan grows them in her window in the winter.

Corrie

Here is a link that might be useful: Urban Tomatoes

~~~ I live in a north facing condo, with a good size patio. This year, I would love to have several tomato plants in containers. Is it possible to grow a decent tomato plant with only a few hours of direct sun daily? What kind would you suggest? ~~~

A few hrs yes. No direct sun? Not so sure. Concrete, even if not in sun may get hotter than your plants prefer. I had to move some 2cu ft. pots to the grass last yr. They loved it early in the season but I think by June ??? Had to move em. Sizing the ultimate plant size to the size pot you are willing to use and the attention you can give it is what I'd use as selection criteria.

You can grow any tom in a 20 gal tub. 10 gal = maybe a 5 or 6' tops unless you're able to tend it more or less daily. 5 gal and smaller should be reserved for smaller plants and or expect lots of tending. The support system you plan to use is another limiter.

You won't be having much fun if you try to stuff something tall like a Black Cherry into a 5 gal bucket and try to hold it with hardware store hoops since BC can reach into the teens of feet high. Toms grown in shade tend to be lanky anyway.

Have fun!

Depending on where you put them they may be able to climb up to a point where they get more hours of daylight. Mine start with 4 or 5, but eventualy get 8 as they get taller and the days get longer. They do just fine.

"Tomatoes need at least 6-8 hours of direct sun light to do well so the simple answer is no. Sorry."

-

My garden gets about 5hr of sunlight during the mid-summer. And with that I had a few hundred fruit come from 10 plants that reached nearly 10 feet tall by the end of the season. I don't know about partial shade though.

I may be new here, but not new to toms. My pastor grows toms every single year, getting a huge yields of fruit, and his garden is in dappled sun only in the am, by the pm, it is all shade. I have to say, toms love heat, not necessarily light. Now, I am not saying that you can grow them in *dark*. That would just be silly, but full sun is not needed. If you grow determinate varieties, I think 5 gallon buckets/containers would be just fine. The earlier the harvest, the less the taste (just my 2 cents there).
I hope this helps, and I hope I haven't offended anyone (since I am a *newbie* to GW/forum.

Carrie

Tomatoes can definitely be grown in part shade either in a warm area like I am in, and even in cooler climates. Is it a "best"/recommended practice? Of course not, but it can be done.

I think it is maybe more constructive and helpful to perhaps talk about and discuss variety selections and/or techniques, rather than to just say "nope, it just can't be done, forget about it."

Starters - just about any cherry or smaller fruited type can do well in lower light conditions.

More - here, I find I can get a good result with just about any variety in 4 hours of good solid direct sun, or even a decent 5-7 hour dapple. Of course, my UV index is a bit higher than in cooler areas, so that can vary.

I have even grown tomatoes successfully before with little or no direct sun at all - under the overhangs of my house. They may take a little longer to mature, and the total harvest might not be quite as good if you had them in at least 5-6 hours of direct sun, but they will still produce.

So, do what you can to get the available sunlight up. Take out some trees, limb up and/or thin out the ones you have, etc.

I grew my spring 07 crop with about 4 hours of direct sun, probably even less. I live in a highly treed area and just moved to a new property a couple of years ago, so it took me a while to get the lay of the land, so to speak. Since then, I have decided to take out several surrounding trees, which I will admit did help a little with both dtm and overall production in 08.

Here is a link that might be useful: my '07 garden

Living on a shaded lot with mature oaks, etc I thought I would have a problem growing tomatoes in shade. I guess I underestimated God creation. I would have to credit the success to the hugel beds I am growing them on along with the oak leaf mulch for the spectacular growth. In the same bed I am growing carrots and marigolds all doing very well. I probably get less than 2 hours of direct light on this bed per day due to all the trees. There are 0 pest problems, and none of my tomatoes have split. Because of the consistent moisture from the mulched hugel bed, I haven't watered my tomatoes 1 time this year. Also, the consistent moisture has produced tomatoes that have 0 cracks. Everyone should try mulched hugel beds somewhere on their property. They are wonderful.

I have been doing with 4 to 5 hours of direct sun, ok. But I am positive with 6 to 8 it would have been much better.

But direct sun is not the only source of light for plants' photosynthesis. Indirect/defused light also useful. Especially with 14 to 17 hours of daylight from May to mid August in my latitude.

Back to OP:
is your balcony faced to true north ? Slight tilt to west can help. With ZERO direct sun ? the only way to find out is by trying. I know you can do with as little as 3.5 hours of DS.
Try dwarf bush types with small fruits. In the shade tomatoes tend to grow lanky. So that should eliminate any indeterminant.
JMO

I agree with JMO. You can grow with less light. For two seasons I grew on a covered apartment balcony that only received maybe 4 hours of partial sun.
Obviously the plants suffered but I still got plenty of tomatoes. One thing to note is that the plants will grow and grow and grow as they seek more sun, so I found it helpful to grow dwarf varieties to mitigate it a bit. And of course since they will be lacking one important component, it is extra important to give the plants every other advantage - a good size pot/bed, a quality planting mix, and good nutrients. Good luck!

This year a few of my tomatoes grew in TOTAL shade. They were tall - 12+ ft. - leggy, very few suckers, and very, VERY few tomatoes - letâÂÂs say 2-3 per plant per entire season.

Nancy, how many hours are those âÂÂfewâ hours of direct sun daily? If there are only 2 or 3, I donâÂÂt think you will get decent crop. If there are 4 or 5, I think everything will be ok.

Also Nancy, please keep in mind that growing in containers is a little more complicated than growing in the ground. And in the shade, watering can be a problem. I mean itâÂÂs VERY easy to overwater.

Daniel, had to laugh, nothing grows in total shade, cept mushrooms...
yes, it is very hard to define what is shade, part shade, dappled shade ...how much is enough...
all I can say- try something small and suitable for containers and see what you get... then you will know...containers can be moved around too
Corrie, here in Chicago is not worth counting on really hot weather... my experience in growing tomatoes in this area supports more plants that tolerate cold weather not the ones that withstand the heat...

Nancy, forgot to add, we run fairly large plant swap on Memorial day weekend and there are lots of tomatoes goes around. Am sure there will be some container varieties. Stay in touch next spring!

Ted: Why are there potatoes on the floor?
Nancy Drew: I put them there, that's how I cook potatoes, on the floor.(1938)

"Daniel, had to laugh, nothing grows in total shade, cept mushrooms... "

This is a great thread. Sleuthy Nancy Drew made one post (Feb. 7, 2009) vanished forever since, and Noah, "underestimated God creation". as he resurrected it 4 years later (actually 5, but 4 has a better sound to it). Then seysonn acquired a new name "JMO" and lindalana reached out with an invitation to Nancy; now I really love the Barefoot Contessa's username (but not Barefoot Contessa frozen dinners), and I talk to a mindless thread LOL

"Thread R.I.P."

Lindalana wrote: > Daniel, had to laugh, nothing grows in total shadeâ¦

Yep, itâÂÂs âÂÂfunnyâ how newbies learn.

The plants I planted in the shade were seedlings leftovers after planting in the sunny areas.

I simply couldnâÂÂt THROW those leftovers, and I wanted to see what happens, because I read on the Internet a guy that grow OK in total shade.

In my experience, tomatoes DON'T work well in total shade. I don't know in partial shade.

oops, did not see that OP was old...
hopefully someone close to Chicago area will mark their calendars for next year anyway...
I know what you mean Daniel, I grew Monomach hat this year in dappled shade, under high canopies of oaks because I run out of any other space, taste was fantastic, I still got about 12-14 nice sized hearts from it.