sun Is too much direct sun possible?

That looks like some kind of bean plant. Every bean I have grown has needed protection from the afternoon sun. Supposedly there are some kinds of bush beans that can tolerate the full blast Texas sun, but I have never gotten around to planting any.
 
geeme said:
As already noted, it's not really a question of sunlight alone, per se, but the combo of sunlight and heat. Where are you in Slovenia (closer to the coast or mountains)? It sounds like, from the reading I've done, your weather is roughly similar to ours in Ohio. You are further north than we are, but have different geology in the surrounding area. Most of the people who have posted here so far are much closer to the equator then you are, and likely get higher heat for longer periods. They also rarely (compared to here and there), if ever, get snow. (Houston, TX is my hometown, so I am very familiar with the differences.) 
 
If your weather is more like ours in OH, you are only occasionally going to have days hot enough that your plants will suffer from the heat. Even at 30C (86F), your plants should be able to handle sun all day, assuming they have sufficient moisture in the soil. Your plants are still very small right now, so will be more sensitive to sunlight and wind until they are fully hardened off. Just be patient with your hardening off, and they'll be fine. Keep in mind that chiles need a minimum of 6 hours of sunlight to produce well and that they are native to areas that get and stay as hot as some of the hottest days you and I have for longer periods of time than we get. They do best in the tropics and subtropics, so they can definitely handle our summers.
 
I live close to mountains/hills, inland Slovenia. Thanks to all of your for your answers I learned a lot. I will take care of the excessive soil heating and I will slowly adjust plants to sun. Why do I need to adjust them so well though? Is it because they were started indoors in the months we had mostly cloudy weather with low sun and now all of a sudden sun started heating like crazy?
 
I had peppers every summer (for a few years now) on full sun, through entire day, and never had any problems with burns. The temps here are moving from 25 to 35°C in average in june/july/august (speaking of inshade temperature) and the humidity is around 40 to 50 when dry. I don't know how hot it gets on the sun (maybe near 45 to 50), but sometimes there is no way to look at peppers for a long time during the day :) or there would be a significant increase of beer consuption :)
 
It looks like you live somewhere near (hey neighbour :P ) so if you harden them first, they will be ok. Yes, you need to harden them exactly because of the light/temp difference of indoor/outdoor planting...
 
tsurrie said:
I had peppers every summer (for a few years now) on full sun, through entire day, and never had any problems with burns. The temps here are moving from 25 to 35°C in average in june/july/august (speaking of inshade temperature) and the humidity is around 40 to 50 when dry. I don't know how hot it gets on the sun (maybe near 45 to 50), but sometimes there is no way to look at peppers for a long time during the day :) or there would be a significant increase of beer consuption :)
 
It looks like you live somewhere near (hey neighbour :P ) so if you harden them first, they will be ok. Yes, you need to harden them exactly because of the light/temp difference of indoor/outdoor planting...
 
I am from Maribor :D hey, we had pretty cloudy weather and rain past months so I think everybodies peppers need some adjusting here, unless you had them under artificial light. Or do you have them outside since the start? I had them on a window sill but they still didn't receive sufficient light it seems or else they would have been hardened enough
 
future_man said:
 
I live close to mountains/hills, inland Slovenia. Thanks to all of your for your answers I learned a lot. I will take care of the excessive soil heating and I will slowly adjust plants to sun. Why do I need to adjust them so well though? Is it because they were started indoors in the months we had mostly cloudy weather with low sun and now all of a sudden sun started heating like crazy?
Yes - because they were started indoors. Plants started outdoors are typically fine - think of all the plants that start out in the wild with no human intervention. As long as they get sun and wind from the get-go, assuming sufficient moisture, there is no need to harden off. When you start indoors, however, they have no wind (unless you put a fan on them) and definitely no light as strong as the sun. I'll reuse a human analogy here - think about yourself at the beginning of summer, after you've spent most of your time indoors through the winter. If you go spend an entire day in the sun right away, your skin will be burned - quite badly if you really went out all day. But if you go outside just a bit to start with then gradually increase your outdoor time, you will tan and over time be able to spend much longer periods of time outside without burning. Plants are no different in this way. 
 
The window sill - - I have a window at the front of the house that gets direct sun during the winter. It is the closest I can get here to true direct sun for the plants, but I do not put my plants in that window. The reason for this is because our winters are usually very cloudy, but when the sun does come out, the reflection of the sun on the snow is a scorcher. I've tried starting plants in that window in the past, and finally just gave up - it's less hassle to just harden them off in the spring outdoors. Keep in mind that hardening off includes protecting them from too much wind at once. If you had a fan on them throughout the winter that would help, but true wind can be much harder. Regardless, they will have been at least somewhat protected from the elements while indoors, so need at least a short period of hardening off even if you have them in a sunny window with a fan.
 
When I was looking into the general weather of Slovenia, I saw there was quite a difference depending on whether you were near the coast or the mountains. It does seem that your weather is very similar to ours in this part of OH - we get lake-effect snow from the Great Lakes, while you can get snow from the mountains. Of course, there are the oddball times when we get unusually hot weather, but they don't typically last very long. All said, your plants should be fine after they are hardened off. No one actually likes hardening off, but it's a process that has to be gone through.
 
Streamer, you know how often they update this chart? Wondering whether the boundaries for some climes are moving given the changing weather patterns and rising temperatures.
 
Streamer said:
Maybe this can help you realize the importance of the all important CLIMATE that is so necessary for the propagation of plant life around the World.  
 
ClimatesofWorldKoppen-Geiger_zps795f07f2.jpg
 
I'm in zone 8b in Panama City Florida and have been growing peppers for about 20 years.  I mostly container garden.  Based on my experience, most varieties I've grown can tolerate full sun provided they get enough water.  These include most annum and Chinense varieties.  Also Tabasco does well in full sun.  That said, they will not fruit during the hottest periods as the pollen is sterile.
 
However, it is clear that certain varieties do not like full sun.  I have found that Pubescens definitely require some reprieve from the heat and sun in order to flourish.  I also place my Datils in areas that get partial sun instead of full sun.  I also do this with Chiltepins.
 
But, for the most part, chiles do quite well in full sun as can be seen when one looks at the fields in New Mexico and Avery Island.
 
plaisir8 said:
Streamer, you know how often they update this chart? Wondering whether the boundaries for some climes are moving given the changing weather patterns and rising temperatures.
 
Sure don't.  AND,  I haven't noticed any "rising temps".  I'm a life long resident of my locale too.
 
Streamer said:
Sure don't.  AND,  I haven't noticed any "rising temps".  I'm a life long resident of my locale too.
 
Oh, Okay. Well I guess it's pretty warm in your neighbourhood to start off with.
 
Just going to come in here real quick and say that just because your plant wilts a bit doesn't mean it's not hardened off. Wilting is more commonly a sign of hot roots which tend to happen with containers more than in-ground plants (not impossible if your ground also gets supper hot).

If you spent a week or two gradually exposing your plants to the elements, your new growth should be more than capable of handling full sun. Old growth will still be sensitive and you may lose some to sun/wind burn, though what I have noticed is they tend to bounce back just fine.

For container gardeners you will want to grow your plants in partial shade, or find a way to insulate your containers from the sun. I covered my pots with cardboard last year to great success. Drilling holes in the sides of plastic pots has also been reported to work well.

Source: I grew peppers both in ground and in containers last year with a south/southwest facing yard. We had full sun the entire day with average 80% humidity and temps in the low 40s Celsius. My cayenne peppers (the oldest) were in-ground and grew to a height of 5ft with about a 3 ft span. Bell pepper in container continuously wilted in its pot unless placed in shade or the pot was covered, after moving it to the ground it magically stopped wilting.

I guess that wasn't so quick lol.
 
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