How to protect from sunscald?

[markd42]

Hello All, I had to denude the first 10-12 inches of many of my plants due to some kind of disease, probably septoria, hoping it is not blight. Anyway, I have a bunch of the proverbial low hanging fruit on many plants and wondering how to protect them from sunscald. Any suggestions would be most helpful. I'm tempted to take some of the huge leaves from my zucchini to cover the exposed tomatoes.

Thanks,
Mark

Westchester County, NY

[JoAnne]

May sound crazy, but I tape pieces of paper towels over exposed tomatoes....

[mcsee]

Can you get hold of any old net curtains and drape around the denuded plants as it will offer a great deal of protection from the sun. We've often had temperatures over 42C here during our growing season and on these hotter days I cover my 'exposed' plants with old cotton bed sheets, which helps the foliage from being burnt as well.

[tjg911]

have access to shade cloth?

[markd42]

SOrry for my ignorance but what is shade cloth and how is it used??

THanks,
Mark

[Suze]

Surround, a finely milled kaolin clay that is mixed with water, is great for this. It can be ordered online from Gardens Alive. Google for a coupon code or use one of their catalog discount codes before ordering, though - don't pay full price.

For exposed fruits, I mix up Surround at 1.5 to 2x the recommended rate (1.5 - 2 cups/gal of water instead of 1) and apply to those fruits using a pump sprayer. If you get a good coating down on them, it serves as a sunscreen.

Note: if you spray the entire plant(s), I'd use the recommended 1 cup/gal rate or at least at no more than at 1.5x. It would be a waste of product and $$ to apply Surround thickly to the foliage, and I also have to wonder if a solid white coating of that stuff would cut down on photosynthesis too much. But for the fruits, you can make it thicker to protect them from the sun.

Shade cloth can also help, but personally, the Surround is a quicker fix for me if I need to do something asap to protect any exposed fruits due to lack of foliage cover. A bonus is that stink bugs and several other insects don't like Surround and will tend to avoid any sprayed fruits.

SOrry for my ignorance but what is shade cloth and how is it used??

Shade cloth is a mesh fabric (frequently made from nylon or plastics, but sometimes other materials) that shades your plants a little but some sun still makes it though the mesh/weave depending on which percentage of protection you opt for. Most folks tend to go with the 30%, 40%, or 50% shading. Personally I prefer 40% here in Texas, when I bother to use it.

It's usually securely mounted above the plants in some fashion so it doesn't blow away.

http://www.google.com/search?q=shade...&bih=478&uss=1