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Post by chrysanthemum on Oct 9, 2022 12:23:56 GMT -6
A sprawling tomato plant would not be exposed to as much wind either, and shade it's own roots. I like to use living mulch, like lettuce under tomatoes. It never occurred to me to use tomatoes that way. Obviously they grew that way when wild so maybe they like it. My mother and I were thinking about this in terms of how tomatoes naturally grow, too. Of course, they “want” their fruit to start rotting into the ground to sow more seeds. I have been a little concerned about my tomatoes rotting where they touch soil, but not a one has. The soil isn’t spending considerable time wet, of course, this summer. I like living mulches, too, but mine tends to come in the form or more intensive plant spacing. Last summer was cooler and rainier than normal, and my plants grew into a beautiful jungle, and I ended up having to prune more than I would want. I intentionally left more room this summer, but that left more soil exposed to the sun. I had to put up shade cloth up for a good chunk of the summer this year to try to keep the heat down for the plants (and for myself).
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Post by amyinowasso on Oct 10, 2022 9:53:11 GMT -6
I would have worried about disease in sprawling tomatoes, but without rain, it's not really an issue, is it. If we knew ahead of time there would be no rain... Shade cloth is a good mention for dealing with drought. I always plant too close together. Intensive planting works for me, not for my husband who is a little OCD about such things. Since he's doing all the work, he gets things done his way. let's face it, nature doesn't grow in rows and usually not all one plant, but a mixture.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Oct 10, 2022 15:32:46 GMT -6
amyinowasso , I thought I’d post pictures of my shade cloth set up from earlier in the summer. My garden areas are small and completely fenced for deer, and so I just shade the entire thing instead of shading plants. (Sometimes I just shade plants, but this summer was so extreme that my shading was extreme.) I can tell even though it’s cooler this fall that having the shade cloth down does dry things faster. The reason I have red and green shade cloth is because those were the colors that I could find large rolls on clearance, and from my research they seemed okay for my purposes. I did find it cooler under the red cloth, but that may have been due to other factors other than the color, but I noticed it. I’m going to post an update in the olla thread. After I do that, if I can figure out how to link it to this drought thread, I’ll do so.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Oct 10, 2022 15:36:50 GMT -6
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Post by amyinowasso on Oct 11, 2022 11:01:44 GMT -6
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Post by amyinowasso on Oct 11, 2022 11:14:48 GMT -6
I've been thinking about the red shade cloth being cooler. I read an article today about a newly patented paint that is so reflective it reflects 98% of the suns rays and the item painted actually stays cooler than outside air. So my thought is the red cloth is somehow more reflective than the blue. I would have expected blue to be cooler.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Oct 11, 2022 19:08:06 GMT -6
Thanks for that link, amyinowasso. There’s some really good information in there. I think maybe my green cloth is more tightly woven than the red and so more air passes through the red. It could be because the red is older and a little more worn. It could just be due to color, but there could be other factors at play such as how much of the sides of the garden are covered, or how much shade each garden area gets. When my six year old was in the garden with me today checking on his kale and carrots, he asked me to put the shade cloth back up. It was hot in that corner at that point, but the plants in that garden need the sunshine now. He has asked about the shade cloth several times since I’ve taken it down. It’s funny how much he misses it.
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