peps22, my plant was stuck on purple for at least 6-7 weeks. They then turned multi-colored over a period of 3-4 days. Since taking that picture, they've turned even more colors and are actually kind of rainbow-like now.

"Fabricating shops utilize oil for their machines and stuff and I think some can be transfered to the material (even oil on hands)." - this is possible but HIGHLY unlikely. I am a fabricator and an engineer that worked for a stone machinery manufacturer before starting my shop. Of course stone working machinery has oil and grease in somew locations. However, the basic design of those machines normally precludes any contamination of the product (stone) From comments which include references to hard water and removal by an abrasive pad it sounds to me like surface hard water deposits which are common in my service area. Several times a year we do a service call for a "stain" only to find it's merely hard water residue that is easily removed with steel wool. The other possibility I suspect due to the "rainbow" is an oil or soap stain which can normally be removed with a hydrogen peroxide poultice. my 2 cents

Hi Kurtis! Welcome. If you're going to go with taking cuttings to propagate your peppers, the sooner the better. I haven't had the chance to try it on other garden veggies yet though, so no guarantees it will work on everything. It sounds like the flood might have taken out your garden already (so sorry to hear about that!) and this technique really only works when taking cuttings from healthy plants. Just a few tips on growing successfully from cuttings... If you can take a lot of healthy cuttings, take as many as you can since they don't have a 100% success rate, so some will inevitably fail. Clip off any leaves on cuttings that may fall below the water line once you put it in water. Any random floating things typically rot. If you happen to have multiple cuttings in the same container of water, keep a close eye on them and if any one cutting starts to turn brown/black and die, take it out immediately so the rot doesn't infect the others (and then change the water). I'm not an expert on saving waterlogged plants by transplanting, but I'm guessing the answer to that is it's possible to save them but it depends on how much they've already rotted. All the same, feel free to transplant but maybe take some cuttings from each plant to propagate as an insurance policy so you don't lose everything. Good luck!

My best guess is cold damaged. I'll bet your second flush of leaves will be just fine.