Pepper Thermal Heat Bed

I acquired a large number of cinder blocks from a secret location in the winter of 2012-2013 and used them to create a "thermal storage grow bed" for my peppers. In the summer before (2012) we had grown some peppers in the city on the south side of a friends duplex. The wall was stucco, and the soil was nothing special, but the largest peppers I have ever seen grew that summer. The plants resembled bushes rather than plants! This growing bed was my attempt to emulate the conditions.

The theory of this bed is to store up heat during the day and release it slowly at night, providing the peppers with a more stable daily temperature routine so that they experience less stress and grow faster and larger. So far this has not panned out, and the peppers grow marginally better inside the bed than out. I chalk this up to a couple factors:

• The cinder blocks are not filled with soil which would significantly increase their thermal capacity
• The original design had called for the north wall  to have soil mounded against it, again increasing thermal capacity
• This summer so far has been atrocious for growing peppers

Last year the peppers also didn't well, but the thermal bed did have one significant advantage last year that proved its worth and somewhat its theory. Last year we received a surprise late frost. I had put out absolutely no frost protection blankets and the temperature hit -2C. All of my tomatoes and most of my squash died from the frost, but I didn't lose a single pepper. I will continue to modify the design and will let you know if I find a more effective configuration.