Will a Shade Cloth Over Tomatoes in Tropical Climate Work?

[Freddy]

Hi, thanks for allowing me to your site.
I'm moving to Mindanao in the Philippines and wish to do a lot of gardening, mostly tomatoes.
The weather there only changes a little but hot most of the time. I was thinking of using shade cloth over my tomatoes, and watering using a drip system at the base of the plants like they do in south Florida.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks again
Freddy

[pepperhead212]

Welcome to the forum! While I can't speak from experience, I have seen posts on a tomato forum by a gardener in Texas that uses shade cloth with some success. However, it seems that gardeners in all of the very hot areas end up pulling their first crops of tomatoes when it gets in the high nineties on a regular basis, as the tomatoes are pretty much finished, then they start their seedlings for their fall crops. Some varieties are more heat resistant, and some of them can chime in with their suggestions for these.

Good luck in your new home, and I'm sure you'll be growing some hot peppers, which will love that heat!

[imafan26]

It can get over 100 in P.I. so, I would consider that the off season and plant in the cooler months, otherwise you need to make sure you get heat tolerant tomatoes. Univ. of Florida has developed some tomatoes that can take 100 degree weather, but I don't know about the disease resistance or taste. I tried Solar Flare in Hawaii and it did not have enough disease resistance to survive.

[SFloridaGardener]

Yes a shade cloth will help. I got one online that was around 70% that seemed to help. Got quite a few cherry tomatoes and a few "Forth of July" variety and some hot peppers during the heat of the summer. Now that it is prime growing season in South Florida I am seeing a big difference in plant growth and production so I'm not sure I'll do the shade cloth again next year - not worth it for just a few tomatoes.

Heat tolerate varieties are a must!