Shade Cloth vs No Cloth: Which Harvest Was Better?

I think this experiment needs to be revisted. Shade cloth comes in multiple % and I think 50% is too much for SD, I've read 30% is adequate and it's been working well for my peppers up here in LA. The 4-sided box design skewed the results more than anticipated. For starters, it's a weird shape and I don't know why anyone would shade peppers like that, but what about a 3-sided canopy, or a 2-sided, or a simple 1-sided canopy draped above to block the sun during the harshest light? I think you guys could dig deeper on this experiment and I would like to see your results. All the best, Rob.

That was awfully dark shade cloth, and putting it on the sides was a mistake. You just want to protect the plants from the most intense heat and light, just on the top and maybe the south or west side. You want pollinators to see the flowers and also maximize air flow. I like the frame and will use something like that next year for sure. Here in Texas we have major issues with heat and sunscald, so some sort of shade is a necessity. I usually do okay putting the peppers on the east side of my tomatoes so they are shaded in the worst part of the day. But I so like the conduit frame and very well might use something like that next year; it will make garden planning simpler.

Completely different parts of the world, I know, but in my experience as a commercial farmer in Botswana, (which is sunny, warm and hot most of the year), my peppers and tomatoes always do way better under mostly direct sunlight with occasional shade cover under harsher conditions. I set everything up in such a way that I can simply roll over the shade netting when there's extreme heat, extreme rain or hail, but most of the time, that shade netting stays rolled back. I've tried growing entirely under shade netting (everything from 20% to 80%), but mostly natural sunlight with some shade has always produced significantly bigger, better, happier fruit which also start fruitting much earlier. For me, open to sunlight with occasional 20% - 40% cover when necessary, provides perfect peppers.

Anthony from Millennial Gardener (YT channel) has a running experiment for several years using shade cloth. He has had phenomenal results, but he has found the key is to put up and take down shade cloths when the UV index hits certain levels. When it hits the high, he puts his shade cloths on and leaves them on until it drops below a certain level.

Florida here and my bell peppers loved my 50% shadecloth,producing constantly. My tomatoes definitely thrived.

I use 30% shade cloth on my tomatoes here in Houston. I have been able to still harvest in high summer. I’ve never used them on my peppers.

Last year, my tomato plants were fried by the end of July. This year, I put up shade cloth, and that made all the difference-- it is September, and my tomatoes are still setting fruit and producing. The Sun Gold vines are up to about 14 feet long, on a vertical and now horizontal string trellis.

So i tested this with my shishitos and bell peppers. I put them under cover of my front porch. Originally, I did it to protect it from some severe wind storms that were coming through. But I noticed that the morning sun could still hit it at an angle for about two hours, and if I move them a little further to the edge of the porch, they could get some sun For about three more hours, but still be under the cover of the porch. It worked great! I grow in peppers in containers, allowing me to move them if a severe storm is coming.

This brutally hot summer white shadecloth made a world of difference

I love the “this vs. that” videos. They are so informative and the results can be truly amazing. Keep up the great work!