The cultural practices used will also influence soil moisture and irrigation regimes. Generally, the use of plastic mulch and drip irrigation will help to conserve irrigation water based on water placement in the row and due to the plastic being a barrier to evaporation. However, drip irrigation can also be used without plastic mulch when buried next to the row in a bare ground field. When bare ground culture is used the amount of evaporation from soil is increased and moisture is lost at a faster rate after cultivation. Additionally, if weed control becomes a problem, weeds can compete with the pepper crop for soil moisture.
Weed control is an additional benefit when using plastic mulch with drip irrigation.
Another cultural practice that may manipulate water in the soil is the use of a raised bed. Using raised beds will cause the water to move out of the row faster than if flat-culture were used. Raised beds have made significant improvements with respect to soil warming in the spring and in helping to avoid saturated soil conditions which promote plant root diseases like Phytophthora root and crown rot. Drip irrigation can also lessen the incidence of crown, leaf, stem, and fruit diseases. By using drip irrigation, upper plant parts are not wetted during irrigation applications, like they would be with overhead irrigation application.