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lighting Do pH and lighting really matter?

U

UltraZelda64

When reading articles about growing peppers, I always see a range of "optimal pH levels" to keep the soil at, otherwise the peppers will supposedly turn bitter, change flavor, not grow as well, or something. Is there any truth to the taste/bittering bit? My understanding is that a pH of 5.5-7.0 is optimal for growing peppers, which I'm sure is a good range. But does it really effect taste, or is it purely for growing a healthy plant overall (not effecting quality of fruit)? I understand that the pH can most definitely affect the quality and health of the plant, as different pH levels allow the plant's roots to soak up different nutrients from the soil.

Last year, if I remember right my soil was around 7.0 and I honestly couldn't taste anything different (bitterness or otherwise) compared to various store-bought habaneros I bought. This year the majority of my plants will be in a different garden, which IIRC had a pH of around 6.5 last year and was used for sunflowers. However, I'm waiting for the rain to stop so I can prepare it, and I'll be mixing some Miracle Gro (I know, I know...) garden soil in which will likely alter it a bit. I read somewhere, in fact I think it was a post somewhere on this forum, that no special pH will make up for loads of organic matter in the soil. So is pH really that important?

Also, I always read "plant in full sun" when looking at seed packets and online sources of info on growing chile plants. Well, almost always--I have read in some places (especially on YouTube) Neil of the Hippy Seed Company (great video reviews BTW) saying that he believes full sun is not optimal, and in fact some of his biggest, best plants are grown with some shade near fences. Also, all of my pepper plants were in the shade through most of the day last year due to the house on the east, the garage to the west, and various trees to the south.

I should clarify that I'm talking about the light a plant receives when outdoors, after its indoors start; I realize that when indoors and first starting, the quality of light is one of the most important parts.
 
I'm not sure on the PH of peppers etc.. I dont think it effects taste as much as it does the whole plant/root size. You have to take into account the people who recommend planting in shade, or morning sun live (most likely) much closer to the equator then we do. I've always planted in full sun here in MD. I give them as much sun as tomatoes and they love it. Our temps, humidity (humidity may actually be more here) and sun strength are much less of those then Texas, Australia etc.. Just a thought though!
 
Does PH matter? In a word; yes. Most plants have an optimal ph range and can grow outside of that range on either side, but not too far. One example would be plants that need iron for instance; if the soil is too alkaline iron will not be available (it's locked in). By acidifying the soil iron is freed up (iron chelate is used to acidify soil). This is just one example and one would have to take it case by case and plant by plant, but ph is important for optimal health and productivity. Disease resistance is a whole other factor that plays into this as well. I'd try to get as close as possible to the correct ph; a little one way or the other isn't fatal.
The consensus for peppers seems to be a ph of 5.5 to 6.5 as the ideal.

As to lighting; I'd agree with Neil. Here in Thailand; all day in this sun, in the summer (now summer here) is too much and the plants go into a wilt unless they are flooded with water, which is a bad idea. Here, a few hours (3-5) is plenty and morning is best. Cheers.
 
Well, the need for sun is well-established, but I do think that many overstate the need for "full" "all day" sun. My three garden areas get, roughly speaking, 5, 4, and 2.5 hours of direct sun. The area with 5 hrs grows like gangbusters. The 4 hour spot puts up good plants but with lower yields and smaller fruits. The 2.5 hour spot can be a pain in the neck; the peppers do form but they come very late in the season, are few in number, and smaller. However, that's 2.5 hrs of sun, where most experts tell you not to even waste your time with nightshades. I had a Holland Red chili put up 35 pods last year in 2 hours a day of sun. The point is, you CAN grow decent peppers even in an couple of hours a day of sunlight. The folks (and seed packages) that say "all day sun" are exagerrating the need, imho. I think pepper plants want to grow; they're designed to DO SOMETHING, to make it happen, if they can do it at all, and they will find a way to grind out some pods if you give them any kind of environment they can do it in, even if non-ideal.
 
pH does effect the growth of plants as stated by AjarnV and for the reasons stated. I've never heard of a scientific test of any kind to see if pH effects the taste of a pepper or any other fruit. But I would think a plant or fruit bearing plant would taste better if grown under optimum conditions. A healthy plant will yield better and I'd think it'd also taste better. Just MHO

Peace,
P. Dreadie
 
pH and lighting are very important. My plants that get full sun usually double or triple the production of plants which only get half day sun. I also think that morning sun is important to warm or dry up plants after cool or dew filled nights

Here's a chart showing nutrient availability against pH
phchart.gif

http://thechileman.org/guide_fertilizer.php
 
pH and sun do make a difference however you shouldn't drive yourself too crazy over it. After all, you have to work with what you have. I'm guessing you can't alter your location to easily.
 
POTAWIE said:
pH and lighting are very important. My plants that get full sun usually double or triple the production of plants which only get half day sun. I also think that morning sun is important to warm or dry up plants after cool or dew filled nights

Here's a chart showing nutrient availability against pH
phchart.gif

http://thechileman.org/guide_fertilizer.php
Click to expand...

Nice one; my experience favors a slightly acidic soil for maximum nutrient availability. Your chart bears that out.
 
debi4624 said:
pH and sun do make a difference however you shouldn't drive yourself too crazy over it. After all, you have to work with what you have. I'm guessing you can't alter your location to easily.
Click to expand...

You may have to work with the sun you have but adjusting pH isn't too difficult
 
Interesting light findings mega. My plants last year were in a location where they got so little direct light, I actually didn't think they were going to make it (probably less than two hours light, never timed it, and with shading objects all over the place it's hard to tell...). Despite that, all the healthy ones really took off. I did notice the peppers took quite a while to ripen though... don't have anything to compare it to yet to find out if it was abnormally slow, though. I'll see if fruit growing/ripening times lessen any this year since many of them will get around 5 hours of direct light. To be honest, I'm still surprised the plants last year did so well, given the amount of light.
 
I'm in a fairly cool area close to the beach and the summer temps rarely get over 80 and the plants in full sun area didn't do as well as the plants that got 4-6 hours of sun a day on the opposite side of the raised bed closer to the house. Both plants where planted in the same soil and both where scorpions that got the same amount of ferts so although it wasn't a total controlled experiment it was close. The end result was the shaded plant grew faster and had a lot more fruit at the end of the year. I would say as long as they are getting at least 4 hours your good, but I wouldn't keep them in the sun more than 6 hours.
 
I assume geography and different weather patterns must play a large role because my plants that don't get full sun are pathetic compared to ones that I move around each day chasing the sun. In my opinion the more sun the better especially if you have somewhat filtered sun(but not complete shade) during the hottest periods of the day in the summer.
From what I've read after 5 weeks or so 20 hours of light is best if possible. For the first 5 or so weeks 24 hours is ideal
 
A lot of research has gone into greenhouse lighting but the applications apply in a basement or outdoors. Different amounts of plants need X amount of photons within a specific range (400-700 nm) each day to grow optimally. It's called Daily Light Integral and is measured in mols. Tomatoes and peppers will grow and produce fruit with 14 mols a day, do okay at 18 mols but prefer 22 mols to really grow great. Anything over that is a bonus, unless it is too strong for too long. To give you a reference point, four hours of bright sunlight (110,000 lux) will provide over 30 mols. In my greenhouse, in September, I was getting 35,000-40,000 lux at mid-day. I would need nine hours of that light for optimal plants. In January and February, when the sun went into hiding, I was lucky to get 8 mols/day. The plants grew - very leggy, but haqd very few blooms and practically no fruit set.

Mike
 
I believe that the farther north you are the more hours of sun are required, simply because the sunlight is weaker due to the greater distance the light must travel through the atmosphere due to the sunlight's angle in relation to the earth. I also think that the cooler temps up north during the peak hot hours of summer help the plant endure the longer periods of sun. Chili plants evolved in South America where the sunlight is much more intense, but I don't see the plants there getting a full day of sun due to the other heavy dense vegetative growth that surely surrounded them during their evolutionary process.
 
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