I will give my 2 cents Worth.

I dont know of any science on fruit set that I could talk about with any reasonable amount of justification.

I can tell you what I know from experience.

Shade has been mentioned here, if it is 90 degrees that means it is 90 degrees in the shade. If a fruit wont set at 90 then no amount of shade will do anything for it.
One thing has to be thought about though, what is the temperature in the bright sun?
Just a thought.

Another is sun scald I have read from very reilable sources that some of the spindly varieties have no problems with sun scald.
This is true for folks up north but not true for folks in Texas.
New Yorker is one example.
All I got from this variety is sun scald. It would need some sort of shade for sure.

If and I mean (if) a person is dead set on productivity and large tomatoes and they have limited space, I believe that determinate or early tomatoes are the way to go.

I'm not putting down the indeterminate varieties it just gets so hot so fast here that many times I have had plants not put out anything.
It is not from to much nitrogin.
Planted out at 18 inches in the first week of March all the blooms in the world only to see them fall off.

I cant deal with the waste of time and space with these varieties, I want tomatoes.

To compromise I plant a few beloved tomatoes that do well for me and put out fast and get big some are indeterminate and large. The rest of the indeterminate types are small to medium small and they do good all summer.
As small as it is wild cheery is a work horse all summer.
It is almost native to this area, it is one of the first tomatoes grown in Mexico me thinks or at least close to it.
I have started to rethink my garden a lot.
I am looking for varieties that are and have been grown here for many hundreds if not thousands of years.
Be it beans squash corn or what ever.
Rain and heat are my main concern.

I have many reasons for my change of thought, way to many to list here so I will quit now.

These are only my opinions and subject to scrutiny as anybody is more than welcome to do.:)


worth

Tim, the Big Beefs usually are what I would call a smaller than average indeterminate. I categorize the vine sizes of my indeterminate tomatoes small, medium, large, and huge. I rate the Big Beefs as medium size plants along with some others like Old Virginia & Indian Stripe. Of course if you can keep any of them alive for an extended season of over 6 months they will all get large.