shade Shade cloth

rnichols1990

rnichols1990

Hello Everyone,
 
I need some help regarding the percentage of shade cloth I will need this summer. I have Carolina reaper, ghost, habanero, scorpion, and sweet banana peppers growing in my garden this year. My garden receives full sun, and my plants suffered last year from the excessively hot temperatures during the summer months. I'm in growing zone 9b (Sacramento, CA), so the temp often reaches 110 degrees fahrenheit in the summer. I constantly hear that very hot peppers need very hot temperatures, but my findings from the previous growing seasons prove this isn't necessarily true. I have concluded that shade cloth is probably my best option at this point, and was wondering if anyone else has used it. If so, what percentage (30,40,50, etc) do you recommend? Thank you for your time!
 
Ryan 
 
blueapplepaste said:
I live in zone 8a and just ordered 30% for my plants. I based it off the Georgia study I read that indicated 30% seemed to be sweet spot for balancing protection and yield.

Going to hang it this week. So well see how they fare.
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How do you guys hang it and use it in your different applications? I'm gonna need this too, I read that study too, pretty cool.

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YAMracer754 said:
How do you guys hang it and use it in your different applications? I'm gonna need this too, I read that study too, pretty cool.

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I'll be hanging mine with  rope tied to trees about 6 or 7 feet high so I can walk under it. They'll still get some direct morning and evening sun but really i'm only worried about filtering out the mid day sun so it should work well.
 
YAMracer754 said:
How do you guys hang it and use it in your different applications? I'm gonna need this too, I read that study too, pretty cool.

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Click to expand...
Im going to get it strung up this week and Ill post some pictures. But essentially Ill use some guy lines and hang it between my house and the retaining wall opposite my house.
 
Did you have damage to the plants that exposed fruit?
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I'm also in 9b, and regularly hit 12+ on the UV index.  My chinense are in full summer sun for 9 months out of the year, with problem, other than occasional pests or plant damage, that lets the fruit get sun scald.  I can see the banana peppers needing the cloth...  But your superhots are equatorial varieties.  Before you make a huge investment in cloth, is there any other variable that might be at play?
 
I live probably 30 miles south and mine did great in full sun all day.
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My peppers grow 40% more peppers( weighed ) ,
under 40% shadecloth.
 
More peppers and heavier peppers , less blossom drop.
 
 
For those interested, I got my shade cloth installed yesterday. Just in time, too. Two week forecast is calling for temps 100º+ for almost 2 weeks. Normal temp is supposed to be mid 80s for this time of year.  :confused:
 
Anyways, it's a 10'x10' 30% shade cloth. I hung it using eye bolts to trim along my house, and masonry anchors along the retaining wall. I used guy lines designed for camping tents to string it up. I liked this as I can easily adjust the tension and if the cloth starts to stretch or anything it will be easy to keep things taut. 
 
Here's the cloth I purchased: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079P88VMM/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
I also liked this cloth as it came with it's own clip in grommets so you could position them wherever you needed to. You could also cut the cloth down to size as well if needed.
 
I will say it's still hot under the cloth, but you can definitely feel a difference from the sun beating down. Right now they're under the cloth from ~10:30 - 3:30. So it should protect them from the most brutal parts of the day.
 

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karoo said:
My peppers grow 40% more peppers( weighed ) ,
under 40% shadecloth.
 
More peppers and heavier peppers , less blossom drop.
 
Click to expand...
 
Wow, that's really not insignificant...
 
blueapplepaste said:
For those interested, I got my shade cloth installed yesterday. Just in time, too. Two week forecast is calling for temps 100º+ for almost 2 weeks. Normal temp is supposed to be mid 80s for this time of year.  :confused:
 
Anyways, it's a 10'x10' 30% shade cloth. I hung it using eye bolts to trim along my house, and masonry anchors along the retaining wall. I used guy lines designed for camping tents to string it up. I liked this as I can easily adjust the tension and if the cloth starts to stretch or anything it will be easy to keep things taut. 
 
Here's the cloth I purchased: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079P88VMM/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
I also liked this cloth as it came with it's own clip in grommets so you could position them wherever you needed to. You could also cut the cloth down to size as well if needed.
 
I will say it's still hot under the cloth, but you can definitely feel a difference from the sun beating down. Right now they're under the cloth from ~10:30 - 3:30. So it should protect them from the most brutal parts of the day.
Click to expand...
 
I grew alot of peppers in buckets, and one thing that I will say needs to compliment your shade cloth, would be some sort of insulation around the buckets.  Be creative - almost anything helps.  With containers, high temps in the root zones is a big deterrent to optimal growth - and sometimes, even a show stopper.
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It looks like you have a manageable number of plants there.  I'd definitely think it worthwhile to wrap those buckets.
 
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solid7 said:
 
Wow, that's really not insignificant...
 
 
I grew alot of peppers in buckets, and one thing that I will say needs to compliment your shade cloth, would be some sort of insulation around the buckets.  Be creative - almost anything helps.  With containers, high temps in the root zones is a big deterrent to optimal growth - and sometimes, even a show stopper.
.
It looks like you have a manageable number of plants there.  I'd definitely think it worthwhile to wrap those buckets.
Click to expand...
 
This season I partially buried my pots to insulate the roots against the heat and it really made a big difference .
Why not just in the ground? Our very dry hot soil just wicks away any moisture , away from the roots.
In the pots for moisture retention, pots in the ground to keep it cool.
 
One very clear difference was , no wilting ever ! Not even on the hottest 45 degrees Celsius weather.
 
karoo said:
Why not just in the ground? Our very dry hot soil just wicks away any moisture , away from the roots.
In the pots for moisture retention, pots in the ground to keep it cool.
Click to expand...
 
 
That's as good a suggestion as any.  Some people just don't like putting the holes in their lawns.  I'm good with that suggestion, though.  LOL.
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Holes in the ground provide a nice stable geothermal mass.  You can't do much better than that. 
 
My fabric pots will be getting shaded soon. The large yellow mesh peanut bags i bought doubled over should help the black bags a lot. Most of them get a pretty fair amount of bag shade from the deck railing but not all day.
 
Ive been wanting to try bales of straw combined with fabric pots. Both for shade and possibly moisture. I just dont have any place large enough to test it or enough room to compost that much straw when im done.
 
ShowMeDaSauce said:
My fabric pots will be getting shaded soon. The large yellow mesh peanut bags i bought doubled over should help the black bags a lot. Most of them get a pretty fair amount of bag shade from the deck railing but not all day.
 
Ive been wanting to try bales of straw combined with fabric pots. Both for shade and possibly moisture. I just dont have any place large enough to test it or enough room to compost that much straw when im done.
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The straw so far is working good as mulch on the top of my fabric pots, looks a bit like Halloween though haha! It's only been on mine for like 1.5week and you can see it starting to compost/decompose. I wanna link up on them peanut bags if I find em cheap. Where did you buy the shade cloth?
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Good point about insulating the pots. Hadnt thought about that. Will probably build out legitimate raised beds next year. And thatll help things out a lot. This is just a run to make sure its worth it for us. But so far its been addictive!

My first thought was wrapping them in several layers of bubble wrap. Would be cheap and easy and hold up to elements. Thoughts?
 
I wanna link up on them peanut bags if I find em cheap. Where did you buy the shade cloth?
 
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A little Farm and Feed store near me has what he called peanut bags. They are really big mesh bags. Could be 1-2 bushel size, im not really sure. If i had to guess i would say that it would hold 50lbs of peanuts. I use them as small shade cloths too.
 
 
My first thought was wrapping them in several layers of bubble wrap. Would be cheap and easy and hold up to elements. Thoughts?
 
Click to expand...
 
I would not do that. Better to have something that allows air to circulate.
 
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