No tomato will thrive in full shade. It is just their genetic nature to require sun, 6 hrs. minimum and 8 hours preferably. Some might survive but will be quite leggy with compromised circulatory systems, poor production and disease and pest prone due to stress.

If he has anywhere in the yard that is a sunny spot then he'd do better to try some small container-bred plants where he can move them to capitalize on the best sun exposure he has.

But if he wants to shade-garden then leafy greens and herbs are the common shade garden crops.

Dave

There is a variety called "Shady Lady" that allegedly can tolerate low sun. Never grew it, but you might research. I think there are a couple of other varieties as well.

Not ideal but I have grown cherry tomato varieties (Sungold, Super Sweet 100, and Black Cherry) in an area of my garden that only gets defused sun in the morning and 3-4 hours of decent sun in the afternoon and they do well. They do still get enormous at 8+ ft tall and 6' or so wide. I'd kind of hate to see what they would do with optimal sun ;-).

Agreed about cherries. I have a bed that can get only about 4-5 hours of sun a day. The cherries there thrive, and grow to 10-foot lengths, falling way over the top of the trellisses I have them on. Loads of fruit. Always. But it depends where you are. Here, where it gets hot in the summer, many people intentionally shade their tomatoes to reduce summer stress.

Tomatoes will absolutely thrive in 4-5 hours a day of good (i.e. afternoon), direct sun. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Of course you won't get optimal production. Cherries are best with less sun.

A couple of hours of sun is definitely ideal, but cherry varieties can do well in mostly shade. I always plant a cherry or two for my mother who's garden is on the north side of her west-facing backyard adjacent to her permanently covered back patio. The area is shaded in mid-summer until 1:30pm, then gets okay sun until about 5:00pm, then back to shade. Her plants get HUGE and each regularly produce in excess of 800 cherry tomatoes per season. This will be season 5. My garden gets 10-12 hours of direct sun per day year-round and produce about the same numbers, but we routinely have cooler temperatures at night, sometimes as much as 10º cooler, so perhaps that plays a role. Local growing conditions are extremely important.