dennis,i had the same thing happen to me..they all started turning white!.luckily i was able to save most by pulling them into the garage for a few days...ya live,,,ya learn i guess......good luck...don

I've done it too when planting out from the greenhouse to outside. I thought they'd gotten some nasty foilage disease, so I was spraying everything with Daconil, lol!

-Ed

:Some have started to flower"
What a second, you're upstate NY, I'm coastal CT and your peppers are flowering?

When did you start them and did you keep the warm consistantly?

See all my pepper plants with link. I got a late start because of poor germination. They germinated in late March!

Here is a link that might be useful: My Pepper Plants

I hardened the plants off much more successfully this year than last year. I basically put them out in the shade after I came back from work every day for a week. At the end of the week, I started giving them a little of the sunlight just before the sun set. Then I let them stay outside over night (day 7 or so). The next day, I would leave them outside, but in a shady place so they did not get straight sunlight (during the day, but they got all the afternoon sun). I let that go for a couple of days, then I let them experience full sunlight both in the morning and during the day. So, all in all, about 10 days of hardening off (while not affecting any of my time at work). I guess, the key is to start very slowly and be patient. Last year, I almost managed to kill several plants (I did seriously stunt a couple). Luckily, I caught my errors in time, but this year, was a much better experience.

But, I believe the big lesson I got this year were: if I expected to have 42 plants, then plant at least a 72 tray full and keep the strong and willing ones. Let the stunted ones go. Next year, I'll definitely seed a couple of 72 cell trays and just keep the strong ones (eg, planting lets say 18 Golden Habanero plants even if I only plan of keeping 6-8). So I plan on planting 144 seeds next year, and keep about 40. I will transplant the strong ones I do not plan on keeping into styrofoam cups for give-aways and finally pitch the ones that look like weak performers (I am guessing probably 40 will be in the "will toss" category).

Another lesson I learned: If using styrofoam cups, make sure to put them on a rack on a tray, such that they are easy to pull in and out of the rack. Keep some plastic or something, so you can catch run off water. It was a pain to carry two and two cups to the sink when watering (I had holes in the bottom and since I watered them in the living room, I had to protect the carpet). They were also prone to tip over if I was a little to fast (dumping soil on the carpet and exposing plant roots more than necessary. I have the Chrome wire shelf unit referenced in another thread. Tipping cups are not a problem if you have solid shelves). When I built the trays, both problems went away.

A lesson I learned was to keep the pepper seeds warm above 80 degrees for proper germination! Not 60-70!

Another lesson is to start them end of February opposed to end of March!

i started mine in the laundry room on a shelf above the washer and dryer...tempeture was usually around 75-80,with high humidity because of the dryer..used seed starting trays with the lids on.last year i thought i read somewhere that the humidity was not good for starting seeds so i kept the lids off with much poorer results.this year,i had close to 100% germination,which left me with way more seedlings then i needed.i ended up transplanting them into 16 oz styro cups and sold them for a buck each to a friend,who has a table at a local flea mrkt,he sold them for 2 bucks each and sold out..............next year im renting a table at the flea mrkt.lol.anyway.i think the heat and humidity combined were what caused the great germination rate.by the way nuturalstuff,im in ct too and started mine on march 10,and most are not flowering yet.i agree with you on the start date,,,,next year,valentines day as opposed to st patricks day

I tried using Miracle Gro potting mix to start seeds and none came up. I then used Pro-mix using seeds from the same package and 80 percent of them came up. I think the fertilizer in Miracle Gro inhibits seed sprouting, as I recycled the Miracle Gro potting mix to my garden where it was diluted with soil and suddenly those seeds that were in it started to sprout directly in my garden.

I guess I have had very good results with Miracle Gro potting Mix both with and without heat mats.

I also learned to start the Peppers early like Naturalstuff. I started my Pepper plants March 14 last year and they got very leggy. My assumption then was that I should not start them too early. This year, I gave them fans when they were just 2-3 inches tall (just 15-30 minutes a day on low speed. Nothing radical). I noticed that when I transplanted them this year (sometime in May), they were really sturdy and strong with nice thick stems (and shorter). In fact, they did not show an ounce of discomfort when hardening them off in the South Dakota winds (had to be careful with the sun of course). The lesson I learned, if you are going to give them fans, you can start them much earlier than you would if you did not (especially, since I give them full 6 inch pots in my light rack).

Just to put it in perspective. I started my Habanero plants February 28, and they just started flowering a few days ago! I have yet to see any pods. I am thinking I could have even started them early February! Before, I thought people were nuts when starting as early as late January, but I am definitely starting to get another perspective on that one.