CHRIS;
1) I dont know, sorry. I am not good with indoor plants.

2) Ask your landlord, you might be surprised what you can get just by asking. Depends on what part of Canada you are in re: peppers doing well there.

3) Many peppers need 75F plus temps to even germinate, and some pepper variety's take as much as two months to emerge. Just depends on the variety, growing conditons, water, etc. You might check your local nursury's for Ornamental (sp) peppers. I saw some at a local Fred Meyer Store here in Washington State.

4) Easiest way to dry, IMHO, is to purchace them dried at a local mexican or east indian market and grind them at home for your father. Or if you find a FRESH pepper in the store you like, you could buy some, cut them in half, put them on a paper plate, and place them on top of your refridgerator till dried enough to grind. Or you can place them in your oven at the LOWEST possible setting, and watch them. Should take about 12hrs, depending on the temp of your oven.

Or you could write me, and I could send you a sample of my dried peppers, or already ground pepper as a sample. But, be forewarned, my peppers are HOT!!!

Best Regards;
bluelytes@yahoo.com

Do you know what varieties of chile they were? That might give you a better guess of how long till fruiting and how big they're going to get...Also, I think you may want to get some standard growing mix instead of the cacti/succulent for your next repotting. Not that most comerical cacti mixes are't good for some things, but they may be lower in nutrients than a pepper would like.

Well it is hard to answer some of you questions without many more details, but I can give you a great link with all sorts of information on growing chili peppers that may help.

kendra

Here is a link that might be useful: fiery-foods.com

Thanks for the suggestions and the link! The article about growing peppers in containers was most encouraging, and come spring I will shop for a more suitable soil in which to re-plant the peppers. I may even seek clearance from the landlord to plant a couple of the seedlings in the yard.(though I have visions of him accidently destroying the entire crop with his riding lawnmower!) As for buying already dried peppers, well why didn't I think of that! :) BTW, for those who asked, the type of peppers are "New Mexico Anaheim".
Chris

>He carries a jar of them in his coat and puts them on EVERYTHING!! It's actually kind of funny.

Me too, After over 60 years of the same old spices, some chile pepper kicks the flavor up a notch..

I carry 2 of the pepper shakers listed with 4 different chile peppers loaded. These are just a litte longer than a 35 mm film container.

I also have a very small pepper mill with another flavor.

:-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Pepper Shaker