PJ:
RE: greenhouse
The problem you will have with a green house is that you will likely cook your plants. Normally people use a green house to maintain warmer temps in a cold environment. That isn't your problem. You already have temps on the upper end of the spectrum. You would have to heavily vent the green house which opens it up to all the pests you want to keep out unless it uses screen or something like that.

Here is what I would do. Either start them indoors in one of those 1-2" cell starter kits and then put them outside when the next growing season starts. Time it so they are a few inches or so tall at that point.

RE: Direct sunlight.
You should be able to give the seedlings direct sunlight from day one as long as they dont get too hot. The sun is great, the extreme heat isn't.

It seems you have three problems to deal with in growing seedlings outdoors for the next 4 or 5 months: 1: Heat, 2: Jungle Bugs 3: excessive rain. Sunlight itself isn't an issue. Plants love the stuff if you can filter out the heat.

Here is one possible solution to two of the problems and a partial solution to the third problem.
Construct a frame for a green house but instead of covering it completely with plastic or other translucent material, use it only on the top. Then for the sides, use a screen material. This solves the bug and the rain problems. Now, for the heat, you could place it in a spot that only gets morning sun so that in the heat of the day, it still gets indirect sun but not the extra heat from direct sunlight.

You can make the frame out of PVC pipe which is really cheap or even wood. The plastic sheeting for the top is pretty inexpensive and I dont think the screen would be too expensive either. For 20-30 seedlings, you could just make one that you can lift up and place over the seedlings. If you are into a whole lot of plants, make a small house and put a door in it.
Plenty of air circulation with screen sides, plastic roof to keep out the rain and most bugs wont be able to get in. Just place it where the direct sunlight won't fry the little guys.

Bruce

Bruce,
That is very good advice, in fact, it was EXACTLY what I needed to hear. I've got a perfect spot that gets full sun from sunrise until about noon, then drops into full shade for the rest of the day...done and done. I was actually thinking along the same lines as you regarding the greenhouse. I figured that it would just be too hot if totally enclosed, and that I would have to get creative. I'm pretty crafty though, and I'm an engineer, so I've got a few ideas. I have this picture in my head that I keep coming back to, of a plexglass enclosure (maybe open bottomed to just lift up off the plants, or maybe fully enclosed with a hinged door of some kind, idk yet - depends) with 6" (or larger, again - depends)circular cutouts on both sides covered with 6" speaker grills. This should create an excellent cross venting effect, while offering unobstructed sunlight from the front and top, total protection from the rain (which comes sideways down here as often as it does down..lol), and a complete barrier for the jungle bugs. What do you think?

OMG, Home Depot is calling out to me right now....

PJ

I live in the jungle as well and I can tell you from now until September my plants that grow in the shade are the healthiest and easiest to take care of. My young sprouts I keep in the shade except early in the morning and late in the evening. Do you have any large trees you can start them under. I have never had luck doing a direct sow. I prefer starting in pints. Waiting till they are about 6 inches tall and then putting them in the ground. Some of my babies I start in in mid summer I keep in almost total shade during the summer months. If you have some spare time check out my grow log. Have a great memeorial day:) Copy and paste link .

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/27252-romy6-2012/

A couple of ideas.... build raised rows for the peppers. The water will drain more quickly to help with all the rain. Rather than a greenhouse type of thing, you could use shade cloth and some sort of support system - maybe high hoops? You could possibly build something like that from PVC or purchase a kit. that way you aren't fighting the heat, you're providing shade but still have the ventilation and it really is an outdoor environment. Don't know what to tell you about the bugs. Everyone's pests are different.

All very good info, thanks everyone. I've got some good ideas now. I may just try out 2 or 3 approaches and get a feel for what is going to work best for me. I'll report back what I come up with.

Romy,
When you say grow in the shade, do you mean all day shade? Full or dappled? I honestly didn't think peppers would thrive in such an environment...that changes a few things! Also, since you are a jungle grower too, would you mind if I shoot you a PM from time to time for advice?

PJ

LOL, I wish that I could change the title of this thread, after some thought direct sowing is not really even what I had in mind - I'm not sure why I wrote it..LOL! Should have simply been "Growing Seedlings Outdoors" or something....anywho.....

I was milling around today, thinking of different ways to give my seedings some protection - I looked over....then I tilted my head...and then an idea was born!! Just thought that I would share....

I looked at this empty 5lb can of MG....

....and thought "what an interesting little house that would make..." so I grabbed my dremel, cut out the sides and bottom - leaving the top on for rain - then used some epoxy to glue in swatches of fiberglass insect screen, leaving the bottom open. This thing is dope!! HAH!

It only covers a handful of cells - but it does that WITH PRIDE....LOL!

Love it.

PJ

Pretty creative!

PJ, you can email me anytime. When I say shade I only mean during the hottest months. Otherwise you get lots of flower drops and pods dropping. I prefer a spot that the young plants only get about 3 or 4 hours of direct sun and maybe a few hours of indirect sun. For bugs I use peretherins. 7 dust or bonide 218 citrus fruit and orchard spray.

I have an inground plant that is about 7 feet tall and only get a few hours of direct sun a day.It is about a year old.

I can tell you my experiences container-gardening bell peppers and jalapenos in Houston. I directly sow my seeds into small cheap pots, then transplant into large buckets with holes drilled in the bottom.

For bell peppers: I keep the plant in partial shade year-round. I have a hanging system for them--the plant grows out of the bottom of a bucket hanging from the eve of my duplex. The pepper plant is 18 months old (no freeze last winter) and has given me several crops of peppers. I may start moving it to full sun in the Fall.

For jalapenos: Right now, my jalapeno plants are in full sun. But the temperatures are only hitting the low to mid 90's. When it gets above 100, I'll move them to a shaded spot (using a cheap enclosure I made out of some leftover Ikea plastic shelving). Also: I cover the top of my jalapeno plants with compost (as the forum FAQ recommends) to help prevent the soil from drying out as quickly.

We can get a lot of rain here, and my plants seem to tolerate it. One of my jalapeno plants did lose a bunch of flowers in a storm, and I think it will stay dormant until Fall. This happens a lot when we have very hot summers--my bell pepper and tomato plants stops producing when temperatures stay over 100, but will perk back up in late August. Last year I got a late summer crop, a February crop, and now they are going non-stop :).

PJ,
see what I mean, Jaime's got the inside scoop on the Florida growing! ;-)
Shade, shade, shade! Can't say it enough! Ha! Your seedling hutch is awesome!

Josh

Wow. This is like a revelation. Growing in the "shade" really opens up a number of opportunities for me that I hadn't considered. I'm so glad that I found this out! And to be able to grow 7 foot tall plants....whaaaaat? Jaime obviously is another GW Obi Wan!!

So, I made a secondary improvement to my little seedling hut...and I thought it was worth sharing....

I lined the top and back with tin foil, and also lined a cardboard base with the same...

My test seeds have all germinated, this will mark day 8....

I found a nice little sunny spot for them to live, the hut offers lots of shade so i figure full sun is the best place for it.....

I'll definitly be making a few more of these!!!

Happy Memorial Day folks....cheers!!!

PJ

Pepper cages? THey look cool and I hope they work out for you.
Bruce

What's the point of the foil?

I figured that the foil would reflect sunlight around inside the hut, thus utilizing some of the direct rays coming in from the front and sides to bolster the indirect light levels under the canopy. It seems to be working as intended, as it is noticably brighter inside with the foil than without. =)

PJ

It just seems odd that you go to all the trouble to provide shade, then use foil to reflect more light in there.

Tin foil does not reflect. Mylar will ! But where we live you don't need either:)

LOL. I can see what you mean!! Although, the purpose of the cage is three fold: 1) Protection from torrential rain 2) Protection from jungle bugs 3) Protection from ~direct~ 25 latitude summer sun. That being said, I thought that the foil might increase the amount of ~indirect~ light inside the cage through reflection and diffusion of the direct sunlight, thereby providing a boost of energy without the searing intensity.

I've been informed that this may not be very efficient or effective, however, I can't help but think that it can't hurt. The light picked up by the base would be wasted anyways, so any little bit that becomes usable for the seedlings provides an increase over no foil at all.

I'll make another with no foil, do a side by side - and see if there is any noticable difference.

PJ

Sorry Jaime, your post wasn't up when I opened the thread. The product that I used was actually a heavy duty aluminum foil, although I said tin foil...which doesn't even really exist anymore...lol..anywho...

I'm considering your statement that foil doesn't reflect. To my knowledge - for a non transparent material such as heavy duty aluminum foil - incoming light waves can only be either reflected or absorbed - as transmittion is not applicable. By observing the interaction between foil and sunlight one could conclude that a significant portion is being reflected. What are your thoughts?

PJ