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Very Basic Question

armac

armac

We all have heard that you should grow your peppers in direct sun. The sun here in South Texas is ALWAYS strong, as some of the rest of the country is experiencing now.

At this time I am growing my container plants on my front porch, out of the direct sunlight. They seem to doing well, I have habanero, serrano, and jalapeno pods.

What benefits am I missing by not having my plants in the sun?

When I do put the plants out the start wilting down within an hour.

Thanks for your input.
 
If you are growing them out of direct sunlight then its absolutely normal that they wilt fast.

You need to harden them for a week or two.

Give them increasing amounts of sun each day.

Bleash
 
I could be very wrong here but here goes nothing.my understanding is that they do not like FUll baking hot sun all day. my peppers get sun from 1-sunset but i think they would be growing better if it were a little hotter as i have only seen 2-3 days of 80+ weather this year(i live 1 mile from the bay in San Diego) if you can put them where they get morning sun or afternoon sun. then you will see your peppers take off(you might have to water more often) or if one or the other is not an option you could always get a shade cloth and build a makshift patio cover with the shade cloth and give them full sun all day. but rememebr you might need to slowly introduce them to directy sunlight or they will get burnt.
 
spongey600 said:
I could be very wrong here but here goes nothing.my understanding is that they do not like FUll baking hot sun all day. my peppers get sun from 1-sunset but i think they would be growing better if it were a little hotter as i have only seen 2-3 days of 80+ weather this year(i live 1 mile from the bay in San Diego) if you can put them where they get morning sun or afternoon sun. then you will see your peppers take off(you might have to water more often) or if one or the other is not an option you could always get a shade cloth and build a makshift patio cover with the shade cloth and give them full sun all day. but rememebr you might need to slowly introduce them to directy sunlight or they will get burnt.
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We have had 20 plus 100 degree days. Direct sun here is dramatic.
 
armac said:
We have had 20 plus 100 degree days. Direct sun here is dramatic.
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if you put them under sahde cloth you should be good once you harden them off. my buddy grows his under shade cloth in the desert were its been 100 plus for the last month and they are fine. our aerage temp at my apt has been 75 degrees!
 
They can take 100 degrees if only for a couple of hours.

Just make sure they get morning sun or afternoon sun.

They get used to it and, if well treated, end up bigger and be more productive.

Edit: Typo

Bleash
 
spongey600 said:
if you put them under sahde cloth you should be good once you harden them off. my buddy grows his under shade cloth in the desert were its been 100 plus for the last month and they are fine. our aerage temp at my apt has been 75 degrees!
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Mine gets shade from my porch, what is the difference with using a shade cloth or using a partial shading from a porch?
 
capsidadburn said:
what is the difference with using a shade cloth or using a partial shading ?

Availability.
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I was hoping you would join in. Just read your thread. Hot down here.....always!

So to sum this up, I am not missing much benefit by utilizing my porch for shade from this S Texas sun.

Your plants are looking good.
 
armac said:
I was hoping you would join in. Just read your thread. Hot down here.....always!

So to sum this up, I am not missing much benefit by utilizing my porch for shade from this S Texas sun.

Your plants are looking good.
Click to expand...
why dont you do a test? take 1-2 plants and gradually introduce them to direct sun 30min-1hr firstday and gradually increase the time. and set them where they get morning sun, and see which plants do better then you will truely know for your conditions which is bette and what benifits you will get.
 
I have a ghost pepper that is always in the direct sun and a couple of jalapeños that are in direct sunlight. My container plants look the same if not better than the sun drenched plants.
 
"What benefits am I missing by not having my plants in the sun?"

first thing is you will quickly run out of room for more plants
the sun area is likely larger than the "shade area"
more area means more room for more delicious plants

it is like you asking if my truck is big enough?

no; not yet it ain't :eek:
 
Eh, some of my plants, especially the pubescens and baccatums, didn't really take off until I moved them into shade. My Datils also seem happier in the shade, and frankly most of my plants don't set pods without some amount of shading anyway.

I suppose if I let them get used to it, I'd have larger plants and more pods later in the season... but so far it's working out for me.

spongey600 said:
why dont you do a test? take 1-2 plants and gradually introduce them to direct sun 30min-1hr firstday and gradually increase the time. and set them where they get morning sun, and see which plants do better then you will truely know for your conditions which is bette and what benifits you will get.
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... though since I have duplicates of all my plants, this probably isn't a bad idea. Experiment time.
 
I feel your pain armac, as I live in Phoenix where we hit 100 degree temperatures an average of about 100 days out of the year... (dont believe me? look here) I'm only a newbie at growing peppers but from this year alone I can tell you that most pepper plants were not made for this type of climate and I doubt any amount of "hardening off" will get many of your plants to be healthy in 10+ hrs of 100+ degrees and direct unrelenting sunlight every day. I think shade screens are the answer.

One member here (at least) has been very successful growing several pepper strains using shade screens here in Phoenix summers. Here's a link to his grow log. http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/19777-cowboys-2011-grow-log/page__p__416093#entry416093

This is just my noob theory, maybe a member with experience can back it up or reject it: You can buy shade screen material that blocks out certain predetermined percentages of sunlight (ie 50%). The benefit of such a screen rather than placing your plant in the shade is that your plants still basically receive direct sunlight rather than reflected sunlight, giving them more energy to grow but still allowing you to tone it down a bit over what they would get out in the open in our excessively sun baked climates. I have had great success growing some other plants with these in phoenix summers (like tomatoes, herbs, and squashes), and if my peppers this year recover from the sun damage I've caused so far Ill post about the improvement...
 
Flamecycle said:
I feel your pain armac, as I live in Phoenix where we hit 100 degree temperatures an average of about 100 days out of the year... (dont believe me? look here) I'm only a newbie at growing peppers but from this year alone I can tell you that most pepper plants were not made for this type of climate and I doubt any amount of "hardening off" will get many of your plants to be healthy in 10+ hrs of 100+ degrees and direct unrelenting sunlight every day. I think shade screens are the answer.

One member here (at least) has been very successful growing several pepper strains using shade screens here in Phoenix summers. Here's a link to his grow log. http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/19777-cowboys-2011-grow-log/page__p__416093#entry416093

This is just my noob theory, maybe a member with experience can back it up or reject it: You can buy shade screen material that blocks out certain predetermined percentages of sunlight (ie 50%). The benefit of such a screen rather than placing your plant in the shade is that your plants still basically receive direct sunlight rather than reflected sunlight, giving them more energy to grow but still allowing you to tone it down a bit over what they would get out in the open in our excessively sun baked climates. I have had great success growing some other plants with these in phoenix summers (like tomatoes, herbs, and squashes), and if my peppers this year recover from the sun damage I've caused so far Ill post about the improvement...
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You know the challenges of growing anything in this climate. The non developed area around here that are not irrigated are basically desert. It is a hard area to understand the challenges unless you have a similar weather pattern, which Arizona does.

Maybe when winter comes we can make some progress with our plants, it only freezes down her for a couple of days. I am hoping to overwinter my plants.
 
I live up in the frozen north... well it is ok this time of year... but... 20 minutes in direct sun on my apartment condo's balcony-deck has my peppers wilting like crazy! I have a pot with 4 or 5 peppers in it and they did ok... but the bigger single pepper per pot ones looked like mush in less than 30 mins.. the outside temps were only about 72F (10 or so hotter on the balcony) with a nice breeze too...

maybe I need to ween them off indoor lights... or have shade outside all day rather than any sun... but I have to keep an eye on them or they turn to slime in short order...

you may want to try a semi-shade or ween them into the sun.. but if they get enough light and are growing well... I'd not push it too much... but some sun is good...

Just be glad in another month and a half you aren't getting a killing frost.... like I'll probably be getting.... until june next year


armac said:
We all have heard that you should grow your peppers in direct sun. The sun here in South Texas is ALWAYS strong, as some of the rest of the country is experiencing now.

At this time I am growing my container plants on my front porch, out of the direct sunlight. They seem to doing well, I have habanero, serrano, and jalapeno pods.

What benefits am I missing by not having my plants in the sun?

When I do put the plants out the start wilting down within an hour.

Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...
 
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