shade Who needs more shade?

[highalt]

I'm growing over 50 varieties of peppers, about half of them annuums, the rest are chinense and baccatums. It will be time to plant them out in two to three weeks. Here's where my dilemma comes in. I have a plot at the local community garden, which is full sun all day, I mean 12 - 14 hours of direct brutal sunlight. I also have a small veggie garden in the front of my house, which gets some shade from the fence, the porch, etc., so maybe 10 - 12 hours of sun, and lots of wind exposure there. I also have a patio in the backyard, protected by a 6' fence, and partially shaded by a pergola, which receives the least amount of light, probably around 8 hours, but everything there has to be in a container. I can fit maybe 15 - 20 plants there, but being in the backyard, also means being where the kids play, so not sure I want anything I'm not willing to have take a hit with a soccer ball back there, if you know what I mean.

So my question is, when deciding which plants to put where, which types of peppers need the most sun, which prefer afternoon shade? Also, if the ones that need shade are large, bushy plants, will they do okay in pots on the patio, since that's the only shade I have?

My original idea was to put the sweets in the containers on the patio, just to have them separated from the hotter stuff, but I wasn't really taking the sun/shade issue into consideration.

Thanks for your help!

 

[romy6]

That is a tough one Bonnie. Depending on where you live and time of year opinions will vary. I have noticed all peppers react about the same way. Weather annuum,chinese or baccs during the hot Florida summers the ones that only get a little morning and evening sun do the best. During the winter the plants that get full sun all day do the best. I know I was little or no help but that's all I got

 

[PapaBill]

If you're limited on where you can put them, you can always create some shade for them... a couple sections of pvc with some patio/window screen stretched between them can work wonders....

Can adjust it to add/subtract light as needed that way too... technically I guess that would be subtract less/subtract more... lol

 

[highalt]

If you're limited on where you can put them, you can always create some shade for them... a couple sections of pvc with some patio/window screen stretched between them can work wonders....

Can adjust it to add/subtract light as needed that way too... technically I guess that would be subtract less/subtract more... lol

Thanks for the suggestion, PapaBill! The place where I need the shade the most, would also be the most difficult/expensie to provide it. The comm. garden plot is 20' x 20' which is a lot of area to cover with shade cloth/screen. Besides, anything I do there has to be removed at the end of the season, so it couldn't be a permanent structure of any kind.

 

[PapaBill]

Ah, but you wouldn't want to shade the whole 20x20, just any areas where you think there are or may be issues due to the sun (and probably just for the hottest part of the day).

a few 10'x 1/2" lengths of PVC pipe with some of the 4" screen (a 25' roll is about $20 at HD), then you can adjust as needed so that it gives your sensitive plants a couple hours reprieve during the hottest part of the day. If you just pound the pvc posts into the ground, you can move them as needed...

There may be someone around who has some extra screen already as well.

I used our extra screen up to put up some shades in front of my plants (more like semi-enclosure due to where I have them at). Of course, that's when the wife decided she wanted to re-screen part of the patio... ooops... heheh

Just throwing it out there

***Edit: I may not have been clear... I'm not talking about a cover for the garden... just a verticle shade so at the hottest part of the day, the light gets filtered a bit...

 

[highalt]

Ahhh, I was picturing a rooflike structure.

This is my 4th year down there, and I am still trying to figure out the best use of that space. Learned pretty quick that cold season veggies aren't too happy there! This year, my plan was to put the peppers on the north end, running east to west, and put the tomatoes in front of them (to the south). That way the tomatoes will block the sun on the peppers somewhat during the mid-day hours. Not a perfect solution, I know. Maybe a screen on the west end of the peppers?

 

[stickman]

You could rig a hoophouse like mine but use shade cloth or patio screen instead of the sheet poly. You can just pull up the PVC pipe when you don't need it any more and roll up the shade material. It's cheap and stows compactly for next year. If you use agribon fabric, it only lets a percentage of sunlight through and partially blocks the wind, making it a great place to harden off your plants too.