To prune or not to prune?

[b54red]

I have had one tomato fruit get sun scalded this year so out of approximately 500 fruits picked this year with an average weight of around 12 to 14 ounces that isn't too bad. The sunlight here is very hot with long days. I wish I could say the same for my bell peppers which don't get pruned and have had massive sun scald problems this year due to the intense sunlight. At least one third of the fruits on my bell peppers have been scalded to one degree or another so yesterday I put up shade for my bell peppers for the first time in a long time. I hope it helps.

I'm sure I will have many more fruits get sun scald as the summer progresses and gray mold hits some of my plants. When it hits the plants will usually lose all the leaves affected after I spray with the dilute bleach spray to stop the GM. It is kind of a catch-22 situation with GM. If I leave it alone and don't stop it early I lose the whole plant before too long or I take care of the problem and get some scalded tomatoes.

The Missouri pruning will take care of most shade issues that need to be addressed on the more open type plants.

Bill