sun Do peppers really love full sun ?

[rick_bender]

Not a real question but maybe more a debate that I'd like to start here,
 
I noticed that my peppers getting full sun for hours and in the hottest hours of the day aren't really thriving that much. They seem to suffer more than to be happy. On the opposit, my plants that are shaded (but still on the south exposure) and recieve few direct sunlight (and later in the day) seem to manage the growing process better. And the region where I live isn't especially famous for a burning hot sun.
 
BUT I've always heard that peppers need and love full sun + heat.
 
Also I've noticed that peppers growing on the ground vs containers do not seem to react the same to scorching full sun.
Maybe this has something to do with starting the peppers indoors with artificial lightning VS directly under sunlight ?
 
I'd be curious to hear the opinion of people here, is full sun a myth or... does it depends ?
 
edit : a little background information : I was thinking all of this because I live in a new place this year and it's the first time that I have a balcony facing full south, before that I was more on a western exposed and partially shaded place.

 

[DWB]

May depend on where you live. In my deep south, sub-tropical burning sun, I think they do better under shade. My garden spot is in full sun, all day, every day. My plants were very happy under 30% shade until July last year. About two weeks after this first picture, I had to remove the shade.
 

 
 
At that point, they were so out of control they needed the headroom a lot more than they needed the shade.
 
 
 

 

[rick_bender]

My, those plants are incredible ! That's really impressive.
So basically, you had to shade them at first but when they got established, they could handle the full sun ? Or would you have kept the cloth all along if they didn't become monsters ?

 

[Siv]

DW, those aren't plants, they're trees!
 
I'm also in the south and it's damn hot. For my grow bags, I found that too much direct sun stunted the plants considerably. Here's my patch:

 
Everything gets some direct sun but the shade starts in the bottom right and moves to the top left so the top left plants get the most sun. You can see that they're considerably smaller than the ones towards the bottom/right. 

 

[rick_bender]

DW, those aren't plants, they're trees!
 
I'm also in the south and it's damn hot. For my grow bags, I found that too much direct sun stunted the plants considerably. Here's my patch:

 
Everything gets some direct sun but the shade starts in the bottom right and moves to the top left so the top left plants get the most sun. You can see that they're considerably smaller than the ones towards the bottom/right.

 
Yeah so it seems that my intuition wasn't too far away from reality. Scorching sun may not be totally ideal depending on the location.
 
How many gallons are those btw ?

 

[DWB]

My, those plants are incredible ! That's really impressive.
So basically, you had to shade them at first but when they got established, they could handle the full sun ? Or would you have kept the cloth all along if they didn't become monsters ?

 
By the time they reached the shade cloth at 6-8 ft tall, I guess they could definitely handle the sun and started doing their best to break out and reach for it. By then, the jungle was it's own little micro-climate.
 
I would have kept the shade if it was possible. It was a workout taking it down.
 
 

Everything gets some direct sun but the shade starts in the bottom right and moves to the top left so the top left plants get the most sun. You can see that they're considerably smaller than the ones towards the bottom/right. 

That is some excellent evidence.

 

[The_NorthEast_ChileMan]

Not a real question but maybe more a debate that I'd like to start here,
...................................................
 I've always heard that peppers need and love full sun + heat.

 
My input to this "debate" is full sun + heat" here in New England USDA Zone 7 is quite different from South-West Arizona Zone 10 just as your description 
 

I noticed that my peppers getting full sun for hours and in the hottest hours of the day aren't really thriving that much. They seem to suffer more than to be happy. On the opposit, my plants that are shaded (but still on the south exposure) and recieve few direct sunlight (and later in the day) seem to manage the growing process better.

 

indicates two different situations of FULL SUN.......................

_

 

[Siv]

 
How many gallons are those btw ?

 
They're 10 gallon "Boxer Brown" bags. Not sure if they're really 10 gallon but that's what the package says! Actually I just checked and they're 30 litre - so 9 imperial gallons or 10 "nursery" gallons.

 

[rick_bender]

My input to this "debate" is full sun + heat" here in New England USDA Zone 7 is quite different from South-West Arizona Zone 10 just as your description 
 

 

indicates two different situations of FULL SUN.......................

_

Hi,
I mostly wanted to hear about people's experience from different locations since just like you said we're not from the same regions of the world so things can vary. Also, even though I have a few grows behind me, I still consider myself as a beginner grower and keep in mind that some legit reflexions or thoughts from a beginner may look silly to an experienced person 

"Debate" isn't the most appropriate world for this topic, I agree. Maybe more a discussion. English isn't my first langage so sometimes I can not find the proper world to express my thoughts.

 

[Siv]

So my pic further up was from last year. Here's one I took just now. I've moved some grow bags to the bottom right and added some more. You can see the shade here more clearly and also how small the top left plants look so the same thing is happening again!
 

 

[Chorizo857_62J]

I have some varieties that I took to work, and grow them on my outside window sill.  It faces the East, and they get partial sun, but in many cases have done better than the same varieties back at home.  Other varieties are thriving at home in full sun.

 

[DWB]

So my pic further up was from last year. Here's one I took just now. I've moved some grow bags to the bottom right and added some more. You can see the shade here more clearly and also how small the top left plants look so the same thing is happening again!
 

It doesn't look like it would be all that hard to hang a cloth over that area. Beautiful fence for superstructure. From my view a few hundreds of miles away, I'd say hang a few strips from east to west and use a few 8 or 10 ft T-posts to support a north-south gable rope.

 

[rick_bender]

So my pic further up was from last year. Here's one I took just now. I've moved some grow bags to the bottom right and added some more. You can see the shade here more clearly and also how small the top left plants look so the same thing is happening again!
 

It's even more noticeable on this picture, thats interesting ! I love your setup btw, and the grow bags are really cool

 

[rick_bender]

I have some varieties that I took to work, and grow them on my outside window sill.  It faces the East, and they get partial sun, but in many cases have done better than the same varieties back at home.  Other varieties are thriving at home in full sun.

I experienced quite the same. Also, surprisingly I have a bacatuum that handles the full sun all day easily and a chinense that just looks terrible after 30minutes of the same sun.
This one got moved out in the back lol

 

[The_NorthEast_ChileMan]

Hi,
I mostly wanted to hear about people's experience from different locations since just like you said we're not from the same regions of the world so things can vary. Also, even though I have a few grows behind me, I still consider myself as a beginner grower and keep in mind that some legit reflexions or thoughts from a beginner may look silly to an experienced person 
"Debate" isn't the most appropriate world for this topic, I agree. Maybe more a discussion. English isn't my first langage so sometimes I can not find the proper world to express my thoughts.

 
I apologize as your English far superior to my French.
 
This issue has been discussed a few times recently:
Various Baccatums wilting in direct sun
growing in south Texas
Dropping during direct sunlight
Bonnets and Scorpions struggling
 
And my opinion is almost all plants suffer from transpiration under the conditions you described. Sometimes root structure can contribute or the soil/media can contribute to this problem.
 
Are these in ground or pots?

 

[CaneDog]

It's always seemed to me that many factors were involved: in the ground or in pots; fabric or plastic pots; variety of pepper; age of pepper; how well established is the root system; is the root system protected, thus cooler, or more exposed to the heat; is the plant fully accustomed to the more intense light and heat or did it develop under less intense conditions?  Often an abrupt change to more intense conditions will make the pepper perform worse, at least for an adjustment period, despite that the new conditions are ultimately more favorable for it's optimal growth.  But bottom line there are certainly places with just plain too much heat and too intense sun during hotter periods.

 

[ahayastani]

It's always seemed to me that many factors were involved: in the ground or in pots; fabric or plastic pots; variety of pepper; age of pepper; how well established is the root system; is the root system protected, thus cooler, or more exposed to the heat; is the plant fully accustomed to the more intense light and heat or did it develop under less intense conditions?  Often an abrupt change to more intense conditions will make the pepper perform worse, at least for an adjustment period, despite that the new conditions are ultimately more favorable for it's optimal growth.  But bottom line there are certainly places with just plain too much heat and too intense sun during hotter periods.

 
Also my experience. This year is the first year I'm growing in a tropical climate, and some cultivars do better in the sun than others, but I only moved my Carolina Reaper plants to a better shaded area because they were clearly suffering from the sun when they were younger. All the rest seemed to manage quite well... My pepper plants receive full sun for only a few hours in the afternoon though. My main concern is that healthy plants drop their flowers, which can be temperature related.
 
Wild peppers are often found in the woods or at woodland borders. This could indicate that by nature they prefer a partially shaded environment.

 

[Siv]

It doesn't look like it would be all that hard to hang a cloth over that area. Beautiful fence for superstructure. From my view a few hundreds of miles away, I'd say hang a few strips from east to west and use a few 8 or 10 ft T-posts to support a north-south gable rope.

 
After reading your glog, I'm inspired to give this a go. I'll have to get the measuring tape out - do you think 40% shade?

 

[CaneDog]

Also my experience. This year is the first year I'm growing in a tropical climate, and some cultivars do better in the sun than others, but I only moved my Carolina Reaper plants to a better shaded area because they were clearly suffering from the sun when they were younger. All the rest seemed to manage quite well... My pepper plants receive full sun for only a few hours in the afternoon though. My main concern is that healthy plants drop their flowers, which can be temperature related.  
 
Wild peppers are often found in the woods or at woodland borders. This could indicate that by nature they prefer a partially shaded environment.

 
Surprisingly enough, I'll get flower drop issues in the summer even here in the Seattle area, but it's mostly pubescens and some less common varieties.  Most others I'm trying to simply get enough heat and sun at the shoulders of the season.  It would be a cool experience to have some grow time in a climate like you're in now, even if it meant having to adjust to new challenges.  

 

[rick_bender]

I apologize as your English far superior to my French.
 
This issue has been discussed a few times recently:
Various Baccatums wilting in direct sun
growing in south Texas
Dropping during direct sunlight
Bonnets and Scorpions struggling
 
And my opinion is almost all plants suffer from transpiration under the conditions you described. Sometimes root structure can contribute or the soil/media can contribute to this problem.
 
Are these in ground or pots?

Thanks for the links. The plants that I was talking about are in black fabric pots (7 gal)

It's always seemed to me that many factors were involved: in the ground or in pots; fabric or plastic pots; variety of pepper; age of pepper; how well established is the root system; is the root system protected, thus cooler, or more exposed to the heat; is the plant fully accustomed to the more intense light and heat or did it develop under less intense conditions?  Often an abrupt change to more intense conditions will make the pepper perform worse, at least for an adjustment period, despite that the new conditions are ultimately more favorable for it's optimal growth.  But bottom line there are certainly places with just plain too much heat and too intense sun during hotter periods.

I agree, lots of variables in the equation, personnaly I grow mostly indoors so I'm not so familiar with all these problems.

Wild peppers are often found in the woods or at woodland borders.

Didn't know that and actually was wondering, interesting point !