[who knows what evil?]

My plants quit putting on fruit in this heat. Lots of blooms, but nothing setting now. Not even the cherry tomatoes have any fruit setting.

Would shade cloth or shade screen be of any benefit; or is it just the heat on its own?

[Arrowhead1952]

I may try to get something to shade the plants. I had some in big pots a couple of years ago, but they didn’t do well at all.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Last year I had hanging tomatoes, hanging from my two clothesline crosses in big pots (plastic strawberry pots, lightweight but big.) Long story short, they started to fail when it got terribly hot, but I more-or-less saved them by shading them most of the day with bedsheet material.

That enabled them to survive and fruit, but it wasn't entirely satisfactory. My own conclusion was, I will never do "hanging" tomatoes again. They dry out too fast, plus are subject to stem breakage as they sway or torque in the wind.

IMHO, though, shading does help tomatoes in very hot dry weather.

[CynicalBear]

>>Would shade cloth or shade screen be of any benefit; or is it just the heat on its own?<<

The shade cloth helped the ones I covered. I didn’t know before that either but it made all the difference in the world. The tomato plants that weren’t covered died and the ones covered are still setting fruit. I used 60 percent shade cloth.

[Sarajevo]

It sounds like you all need to heavily mulch your plants. I have my Julienne tomato's growing outside of my greenhouse. They've gone crazy. They are growing in caliche that has an 10-12 inch thick layer of fresh horse manure on it. I water them heavily every three days. Tomato's love the heat, but you have to keep their roots damp and cool or you'll end up with a long, tall, stringy looking plant with blooms and not much else. I have that problem with the plants in my upside down planters.

This has worked for the zukes and cukes also. Eggplants are so-so.