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Tomatoes in full-sun?

wacord@ asks:

Question

We live in central Florida and have extremely hot summers. A lot of our friends have their gardens in full sun but we decided to put ours in part shade for most of the day with direc t un for 4-5 hours a day. Our crop was small and size was small but tasty and our red pepper plant produce only 1 pepper. Since the summers are brutal here what do you recommend for sun vs shade and watering schedule?


Answer

Both peppers and tomatoes produce their best yield in full-sun with regular water. There are a few common reasons your peppers were minimal and your tomatoes were small, too little sun, water or fertilizer. Both plants prefer moist well-drained fertile soil in full-sun, both are heavy feeders once fruit sets, tomatoes do best with a low Nitrogen, high Phosphorus, and medium Potassium blend, peppers on the other hand enjoy a balanced blend like 12-12-12. Also if your temperatures reached 90+ degrees while the peppers were flowering it could have caused the flowers to drop before fertilization resulting in one pepper. Both crops enjoy regular water, in some climates that is everyday, if the plants begin to droop between waterings it's time to increase your frequency, adding mulch around the plants will also reduce evaporation reducing the plants water needs. 


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