I was taught that 10,000 ft candles is full sunlight. So that is more than enough. Your bed is in the sun, right? If the sun is shining on your bed all that time, that's enough.

Depends on the time of day. Unfortunately, the only area I had available with ANY sun has 0 shadow on it between 2-6.

The rest of the time it's spotted sun or shade.

If your readings are accurate - and there are many variables that can affect them - then 2-6 pm is your best time of day for almost sufficient sun exposure. The recommended average is 12,000 for 6 hours. So 4 hours is not enough for good production and tossing in the 12-1 hour only brings you up to 5 hours of only fair exposure.

Does that mean you can't grow there? No. Just that you'll have less than ideal results and more problems - leggy plants, more difficulty keeping moisture levels consistent, more inclination toward some diseases, maybe more pests, etc - to deal with. Sometimes we all have to make do with what we have and if we keep our expectations in line with those limits, it's fine.

So if there is simply no way to increase the sun exposure - tree removal, branch trimming, changing the angle of the garden, etc. then that is what you'll have to work with and see how it goes.

Creative planting by keeping the heavy sun lovers on the end with the most sun and putting the leafy greens and cool-tolerant crops on the shadiest parts helps. Using moveable containers in sunnier locations is not an option?

Dave

This lighting situation is more or less yard-wide. I'm hoping that as the days grow longer and it starts actually acting like spring that the #s change. I'm about to go out and re-measure right now.

Dave said: Creative planting by keeping the heavy sun lovers on the end with the most sun and putting the leafy greens and cool-tolerant crops on the shadiest parts helps. Using moveable containers in sunnier locations is not an option?

That's pretty much how I planted it. The northern half has the most exposure and is where all bearing plants are (peppers,etc) and the "shadier" half has the herbs/leafy vegs.

EDIT: At 130P, the shaded part was at 9000 and the pepper part was already in the sun at 10000. I suspect that 1P I was closer to 9000-9500 instead of 8000-8500.

This post was edited by GhostRed7 on Mon, May 13, 13 at 13:59

If you're in Z7-east, your peppers may do really well in your partial shade. I usually have to install a shade cover for mine to prevent sunscald on the fruits. In some countries, peppers are grown between strips of corn for shade and shelter.

Sunlight will get much more intense in the next few weeks as the earth tilts closer to old Sol.

I'm in 7B according to the NGA's finder (Atlanta area)...is that the same as 7-east?