We're out at the Ramona farm to show you what we have growing and HOW we are growing it, especially with shade cloth.

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0:44 Intro
0:57 Shade Cloth Structure
3:13 What Kind of Shade Cloth Should You Use?
4:44 Fully Exposed Plants

This isn't the first time I've talked about shade cloth, but I won't shut up about it because it's so helpful to have! We have used it a fair amount at our urban farm location. Ramona is further north and inland, and it gets a whole lot hotter out here. That's why we created this shade cloth tunnel.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Shade cloth does NOT reduce the number of sunlight hours the plant receives. Using shade cloth is NOT the same as simply putting your plant in the shade. Shade cloth reduces the harshness of the UV rays to allow your plants to continue receiving sunlight without taking on the full force of it.

We drove some rebar and arched old PVC pipe to make a structure to hold up our shade cloth for the tomatoes. Because it can get really windy out here, we made this system so it's easy to take it down as needed. As a side note, these are dwarf tomatoes so they aren't going to get much bigger than they are now. If these were indeterminate varieties, we'd need to go a lot higher!

We've had a lot of questions about how to actually use shade cloth in the garden. This is just one way. If you have raised beds, you can put up posts in each corner. If you really want to go simple, you can just lay the material right on top of your plants. It is very lightweight, but always keep an eye out for potential damage to your crop.

I recommend using 30-40% shade cloth. Some products out there might provide a lot of shade, but they aren't made for the garden. Something like an awning cloth provides 80-90% shade. That's nice to relax under, but that's going to deprive your plants of sunlight. Shade cloth designed for agricultural use provides just enough to take the edge off of the harsh summer sun as well as reduce evaporation (from the soil and the leaves).

It's a key part of the system here in Ramona, and it really is a must-have for gardeners in even warmer areas (we have a lot of viewers in Arizona, Texas, Utah, Nevada, and hot areas of California). Even for sun-loving plants, the hot days out here can be pretty tough.

As a fun experiment, we're doing some tomatoes under the shade cloth and some fully exposed. We're going to see how the two groups compare over the season and keep you updated! For now, though, we can already see a difference between the two groups. The exposed plants feel limp, and the leaves aren't as full of moisture. Both groups are getting the same amount of sunlight, but the shade cloth just makes the UV rays a little less strong.

Shade cloth has traditionally been a commercial product to improve yields, but it has become more and more accessible to backyard growers. That's why we're so excited to use it and carry it!

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