first off pepperbob, the dry lines are called corking and are perfectly natural on both jalapenos and serranos just to name a few, it is often a sign of high heat and low moisture, but I can promise you as someone who has harvested several hundred jalapenos and serranos this year, the ones w/ corking are just as good as the ones w/o and in most cases at least on my plants the ones w/ corking have been hotter! secondly it is easy as pie to post here u just have to know how to do it. Photoshop is free and it is ridiculously is to post pics w/ i take pics w/ my phone,and my gf's digital, when she is not off on some trip somewhere and it is availible, but both upload to photobucket in a snap, then all u have to do is go to ur album, run the cursor over the pic it will give u several options to share this pic, the easiest one is the HTML code, I think it is the 3rd option if im not mistaken, then click on the html code, it will flash copied, then once u r in the body of ur post hit cntrl V and a big string of characters will appear, that is the html code for ur pic, then when u preview the post the pic will be in it. the easiest way I have found to do this especially is u have more than one to post is to have the explorer open to GW on one tab, and open to photobucket on another, good luck and keep the faith man.
paul
p.s. I am on 4 forums and this one is my fav overall, and thanks to the good folks here, even though it is my first year gardening of any kind, i have been blessed w/ great harvest after great harvest all season, ive learned so much here I feel like Ive been growing for yrs and some of the guys say my plants look like I have. check out my little love from the garden post, u will see what I mean!

i use photobucket and pste the supplied html link into the message body when posting pics.

and if everyone else can post pics on here, and you can't... then it's not the forum that sucks. j/k ;)
you can find other ways to post pics (and practice) on the gardenweb test forum (link at bottom).

Here is a link that might be useful: gardenweb test forum

Howdy,

If you look around the forum, you will see there are tons of photos posted. Most people use Photo Bucket or some similar site to post photos. Few people are more inept at computer stuff than me, and I figured out Photo Bucket in a jiffy. It is easy.

You just go to photobucket.com and set up an account. Then you upload photos from your computer. Once you get your jalapeno photos uploaded in photobucket, put your cursor on a photo you want to post. Then, left mouse click on the "HTML code" line and it will read 'copied'. Then, put your cursor into the message box here on GW and simply paste the photo. Sounds like a lot of steps, but trust me, it is easy.

Lines on jalapenos that look kind of like shallow splits, are no big deal. Do they look like the ones in this photo?

Paul,

When I was typing and getting the photo I pasted, your message hadn't been posted yet. You did a great job explaining. I wouldn't have posted my message had I seen yours. After I hit submit I found there were two messages ... like mine.
Hey - I'm slow.

Jim

just shows... no bad mouth'n the "pepper forum", or you get jumped. LOL

Corking on chiles makes them worth more in Mejican mercados.

My esposa is Mexican and she will not eat my jal's if they are not corking. Wierd but I agree with her that they taste much better!

cool, thanks everyone! I picked a couple corkers for my eggs this morning and they are great! Do all peppers cork given enough time? I wonder why we don't see corking peps in the grocery stores. Maybe too many people ignorant about it, like i was??

Yep. I like to let my Jalapeno's and Serrano's grow til they start corking. Im not a big fan of ripe red Jalapeno's and Serrano's as i find that they lose that nice fresh crunch to em after they ripen and get a little soft.

I believe ya dont see many corking jalapeno's in the major supermarkets is because the commercial growers pick them before that happens and most customers like to see nice shiny green flawless looking peppers.

Jim

Thanks Jim! (apparently responding to comments via gmail doesn't work...) Funny thing is, I picked a couple corking serranos, one red, one green, made 2 egg burritos with them, and ate them while finding and reading your message!! delishhh!! strange timing! or, awesome timing!! I'm new to pepper growing, but haven't found red peps to be soft yet, but I'm not doubting you at all.
What you said about the supermarkets, agreed 100%!!

jim, no worries and thanks, second or third or fourth opinions are what forums are all about and I agree w/ u somewhat that is to say I love my crispy green jals and serranos, but I also love them red ripe and smoked or roasted, the flavor is awesome, but if u r gonna eat them fresh green is the way to go, anaheims, and big jims are other peppers that I like green much better than red, but I will let some ripen to red for red enchilada sauce it seems to me that only the super hots need to be ripe before they are picked, almost all the rest I have grown or tasted are good green or ripe!
paul

Corked black cluster