We use shade material to try to protect tomatoes from sunburn. Half-inch diameter PVC pipe and "T" or "cross" fittings are used for the frame. Rebar cut into sections about 18-inches long and driven part-way into the ground anchors the pipe in place. In this case, we had some mesh fabric sold in a 50 foot by 6 foot roll that we bought at a flea market. It allows morning sun and then filters the afternoon sun. It is easy to disassemble and store out of the way.
For the tomatoes, we just put the shade mesh cloth (available from Harbor Freight at pretty reasonable prices) on the cages, which are made from concrete wire mesh. Like just about everyone else, we've had a hot summer with no relief in sight so we installed the shade material a few days ago. It isn't aesthetically pleasing, but it does the job. It is a little like having a fort in the backyard when stooped over, wandering through the tomato cages, picking tomatoes under the shade material.
If you are wondering what the deal is with the tomatoes under the PVC frame shade, that is my grafted tomato experiment, which I hope to report on favorably later. As of now, no news to report other than the tomatoes are growing pretty well even though they got a late start. Here is a link to the grafting post.
https://garden.org/thread/view...
