Hi Malna - clearly your method works well in your conditions. However, I'm pretty sure this plant will be fine outside at this time of year in Norway even if it is a new plant. In N Europe we don't get those great differences between night and day temps. Although it is new to the OP, the bay in the picture looks to be around two or three years old and pretty robust. It will almost certainly have been outdoors at the nursery all this summer. The ideal, imo, is to keep it outside as long as possible to reduce the time it has to spend in less than ideal conditions. I'd leave it outside until the first few frosts of Autumn have gone by. That will help the growth harden off whereas bringing it into a warmer place will just encourage sappy growth. During the winter I'd put it outside as often as possible on milder days and keep it in the coolest, lightest room in the house. Another possibility is to protect it outdoors with fleece until it gets below -5 on a regular basis.

Scotty66: Hmmmm, that does look pretty reminiscent of my problem. That Bhut in the bottom picture as well as the top photo looks a lot like ground up "Wood" which is what my stuff was made out of. Coincidentally, both of those are the ones exhibiting the darkening of the leaves. The problem my plants were having was clearly the soil. I transplanted them all to an Orchid Mix and within a couple days they took off and the darkening is all but gone. I also started a brand new container of Sweet banana pepper seeds in the orchid mix and they are doing great with no darkening of the seed leaves or emerging true leaves whatsoever. Did you bottom water your plants (meaning you basically set them in a bucket of water and let the water soak from the bottom up)? If so, did your water begin to darken like a cup of tea after watering a couple containers. Mine did. But it stays clear with the orchid mix. I think there were tannins in that wood. Anyway, my advice is to get your seedlings into some more main stream growing medium asap. When I transplanted mine after 40 days, most barely had a set of true leaves. Some were barely visible and most had lost their seed leaves already. As soon as I put them in good soil, they began growing normal. They have made more progress in the last two weeks than they did the previous 5 weeks. Bruce

"Powdery white stuff that seems to fly when I touch the branches" sounds like whitefly. If so, direct hits of insecticidal soap works when repeated as directed.

No clue unless its just in a bad spot..like too much sand or draining too much..not enough organic matter. They are prone to scale which can make them weak but I'm sure you already looked for that. Do they get nematodes? Have you looked at the rootball lately? I might dig it up and look if I couldnt find anything else wrong w it. I have mine in a pot still. I'm a mean plant mommy lol. I just looked up Bay Laurel problems and it mostly talks about fungus phytophthora or Anthracnose. With the Phytopththora, it does list stem die back but also canker like problems. You may have to lift the rootball and see what the roots look like. IME a lot of problems start with the roots and you only see what going on, on top.