Tulsastorm, You're welcome. It took me years to figure out that peppers produce less well if they get too cold too early in their life. When I lived in Texas in zone 8 where the air and soil warm up about 4-6 weeks earlier than they do here, I could transplant tomatoes and peppers at the same time, most likely because once it warmed up, it tended to stay that way. The peppers and tomatoes would flower and set fruit at the same time. After moving here in 1999, I learned I couldn't plant them at the same time here because tomatoes are a lot more cold tolerant and can handle our wildly fluctuating spring temperatures here, but peppers cannot handle the recurring cold nights. Tomato plants will tolerate temperatures in the 30s (as long as they stay above freezing and are free of frost, which can form at temps as high as 38 or 39 degrees under some conditions). Peppers, though, if exposed to soil temperatures below 55 degrees for even just a few days, can be damaged. You may not see any visible damage on the plant, but the plant growth often will stall and then once the plant begins growing again, it just never really kicks into production very well. I am very careful to keep my pepper seedlings inside when the weather is cool, and even if I carry them outside to soak up the sun every chance I get, I still carry them back inside on any night when the forecast low goes below 55-60 degrees. I get huge yields from my plants and I believe that's because I never let my pepper plants get cold. I also harvest peppers amazingly early....last year I got the first big harvest of sweet bell peppers on June 22nd, when I harvested 6 lbs. and the first big harvest of jalapenos on June 15th, when I harvested 10 lbs. 2 oz. Last year, I stopped weighing the pepper harvest at some point (probably early August) because I just thought to myself "enough is enough" but I know I had harvested well over 75 lbs. of hot peppers and over 30 lbs. of sweet peppers by late August and continued to harvest from in-ground plants until the first frost in October. I harvested my last pepper from container-grown plants that I was overwintering (in the garage at night, out on the sunny patio on days when temps were above 40) in January, and then the plants in the garage froze this week. I'm giving you those numbers to show it should be easy to get good pepper yields from plants transplanted into the ground in late April or early May after the soil and air temps are in the right range. Peppers are prone to many kinds of diseases including those that make the leaves puckered, twisted and mottled. Pepper Mosaic Virus is often the cause of these issues. You also will see yellow or brown splotches on the leaves, and these are caused by many different bacterial and fungal diseases. Also, if you have sandy soil or sandy loam, root knot nematodes can cause the plants to stunt and be unproductive. One way to know if you have root knot nematodes is to check your plant roots when you pull up the plants in the fall. If you see knots and galls on the roots, you have nematodes. You can do everything right in terms of meeting the plants' needs, but if you have root knot nematodes, you may not get many peppers. I am confident that if you make sure your young pepper plants never are exposed to cold temperatures early in their lives, you can get a really good harvest from them. Dawn

This is my first time posting, but my third year growing peppers. i decided to take the plunge last year and start my own peppers from seed as opposed to buying whatever plants they had at Lowes, and this year I am going all from seed, with the exception of a jalapeno or two. I only have a small grow list since my wife doesn't particularly care for hot peppers, and I couldn't give a fig about sweet peppers, but here it is: Yellow 7 Pot Brain Strain Bhut Jolokia Peruvian White Lightning Habanero (left over seeds of questionable accuracy from last year, so maybe its something else, I guess I'll know in a few months) Orange Habanero (Also seeds from last year, this was supposed to be a jamaican hot chocolate habanero, but definitely turned out to be a plain old orange hab, so that's what I get for ordering from the cheapest seed source on Amazon) Sweet Datil Poblano Sweet Banana Jalapeno

@tsheets - I posted a few months ago on a couple of the different hab/fatali recipes we were fooling around with, including some cookies. Here's a link to that post: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/pepper/msg0913133225559.html The recipes in that post use habs, but we mostly use fatalis in our desert dishes now, when we have them available. The absolute best thing we ever made with fatalis or habs were fatali-almond caramels. I haven't poste pics or recipes for that, but I will one of these days. We can only have them 2 or 3 times a year, because we eat all of them until they are gone, as soon as they're done, and that isn't good for the waistline.

You can start them anytime you want,it is late in the season so growing full term is unlikely unless your in south Florida. You will have to keep them inside under lights all winter. Check your regions seasonal temp range and allow about 2 months lead time before moving outside. Be careful of "advise",some people choose crazy stupid expensive methods and resources as "the doctrine" The elitist speak in terms and references not of common man,funny bunch they are LOL! Just take your time and research basic garden growing and youll be fine. Best Of Luck!!