Best sun/shade % for various vegetables - what's correct?

[Delilah]

Hi

I am planning my Autumn (Fall) plantings, and am reading various disagreements about the levels of sun and shade preferred by some vegetables. e.g. I have read that all of the below veg must either be full sun or are happy with a fair amount of shade. Which do you think is correct/best?

Carrots
Spinach
Kale
Onions
Potatoes
Garlic

(Bearing in mind that in Sydney we get a fairly high ratio of sunny days to cloudy days through Autumn and Winter. The angle of the sun is similar to how it is in San Diego or Atlanta - same latitude, just upsidedown .)

Thanks

[TZ -OH6]

All of them grow best with full sun. But as a rule of thumb, those that need flowers either for fruits (tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, etc) or for the flower heads themselves (broccoli, cauliflower) need alot of light to initiate flowering over foliage growth. Those with fruits or storage organs (carrots, onions, potatoes) need high light for the plant to grow those things (you can't store chemical energy in a potato if the plant isn't getting any energy from the sun). Plants that are just leaves will not be so limited by lower light availability, and those with smaller fruits (cherry tomatoes) will do better with less sun than large fruit varieties.


Light does not need to be direct sun. If you have shade you can boost light to the plant with reflective material (growing next to a white sided house is better than a red brick house). Spreading plants out in low light areas prevents them from shading each other.