It seems to me that all plants like afternoon shade (except for cacti and palm trees).
This year I was going to swap my tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers to the left side of my yard which gets afternoon shade, and move the melons and okra to the right side (gets afternoon sun). Tomatoes suffered horribly last year on the right side, not a single tomato was produced until it got cooler.
I’m running out of space on the left side, so I was going to put the raspberries (first time growing them) on the right side. How susceptible are they to sunscald, heat stress, and reduced productivity?
In regards to light I think most plants will take as much as they can get.
Compensating for temperature / humidity I would guess is a matter of a) having a developed enough root system to keep up with the transpiration and b) having enough moisture in the soil.
That’s all to say there isn’t a particular benefit to afternoon shade. Warm season crops like tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers should be able to handle 16 hours of direct sun in favorable conditions.
When it first starts to get really hot, I’ll throw up some sun shade for my tomatoes as the sun will really cause them to wilt. It will also burn the young tomato fruits. This has seemed to help and prevent a mid-season slow-down. When they get bigger (ie outgrow the supports I use to hang the shade) I’ll remove the shade cloth and they seem to do fine.
Tomatoes: Research has shown a reduction in fruit set for temperatures above 85.
Some varieties are more tolerant of high temps.
Raspberries do not mind shade when fruiting. They are insect pollinated and benefit from the blooms being in the sun when the temperature is warm enough for insects to be on the wing.
All plants close stomata before nightfall? Diurnal plants …but not nocturnal plants…so there’s always exceptions to “all plants like” and such sweeping statements.
In response to the OP’s original question, I think it where you live is a big factor. Where I am, morning sun is MUCH hotter than afternoon sun (yeah, it’s weird).
The places where many fruits need afternoon shade are very hot and sunny. Like Yuma/Phoenix/Vegas/Palm Springs. Those places are very sunny and over 100F most summer days and sometimes 110-125. In my location where it’s very sunny but mostly 90s most fruits don’t need afternoon shade. The actual fruit itself, stone fruit, can be damaged in the 110 range. That’s where stone fruit growers in CA got concerned.
I tried jostaberry and red currant (first) here in full sun… died. Tried them again in morning sun evening shade… did better… lives but never prospered or fruited as they should.
Loganberry does great here in morning sun… evening shade location… I have raspberry and lots of other stuff in full sun doing well.
My honeyberry seem to object to evening sun… think they might do better here if they got shaded from like 2 or 3 on.
There’s bound to be honeyberries that do OK in zone 7…I just don’t have the necessary experience yet to specify. I’m trying several in z. 6b, but only Blue Velvet and Blue Moon have been around long enough to verify they live Ok here. A number of varieties defoliate in late summer; seems to be their genetics. Borealis is one such.
Quite a bunch have been experimented/bred in Arkansas…I think zone 7.