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

I posted my pepper list in another thread. The NMSU varieties I have planted are: NuMex Heritage 6-4 NuMex Heritage Big Jim Nu-Mex Vaquero Barker's Hot Nu-Mex Suave Red Nu-Mex Jalamundo Nu-Mex Pinata I have one Nu-Mex 6-4 plant I may remove this weekend. It possilby has a disease issue. Otherwise most of my plants have done well. I also grow some varieties and selections from a breeder/grower in the Arkansas Rive Valley in CO. His varieties seem to do well here. I think one reason is they have been selected for this climate. And a couple of them along with one native NM chile from an reservation are my top performers to this point. I will post more as they mature and I taste some of them. I have already pretty well set my pepper and tomato lists for next year. With the hail wiping out so many tomatoes and not growing a few peppers I intended too I my lists are fairly full for next year. I received a catalog from Johnny's today. Will order some spinach to grow in the lean to in the late fall and also my corn seeds and a few others I will need for next year. Jay

Mary, Well, my eyes saw 'Juniper' and thought "Jupiter', so I guess it all worked out. :) Sheri, Fooled You is terrific if you don't want ANY heat. Even I, pepper wimp that I am, like some heat. So, if you want to grow one of the milder jalapenos, Texas A & M University has developed two that are relatively mild, in comparison to other jalapenos. They are TAM Mild Jalapeno and Jalapa. You might try to make your salsa with a mix of either of the mild jalapenos and Fooled You so you could have some delicious flavor from Fooled You and mild heat from TAM Mild Jalapeno or Jalapa. Or, you could make your salsa with Fooled You and add a small amount of canned jalapeno peppers, diced (wear gloves!) for some heat. Canned jalapenos are not as hot as fresh ones. And, if you ever want to make something really, really unbearably hot, use dried jalapeno powder! Several years ago, Texas A & M announced they were developing a mild hybrid habanero pepper that would only be 2,000 to 3,000 Scoville heat units but would have that great habanero flavor. That's one I'll try when it finally makes it onto the commercial market. Scoville Heat Units are approximate only. The more stress (of any kind, but especially heat/drought) a hot pepper plant is exposed to, the hotter the peppers it produces. Here are some Scoville Heat Unit Numbers: Bell Peppers 0 Pimento, Pepperocini 100-500 Anaheim 500-1,000 Poblano 1,000-1,5000 Rocotillo 1,500-2,500 Jalapeno 2,500-8,000 Serrano 10,000-23,000 Aji (most, there are some that are milder), Cayenne, Tabasco 30,000-50,000 Chiltepin, Thai 50,000-100,000 Jamaican 100,000-200,000 Habanero, Scotch Bonnet 100,000-350,000 Red Savina Habanero 350,000-575,000 Hope this info helps in the selection of types to grow. Dawn

Bolivian Rainbow Bulgarian Carrot * Charleston Hot Garden Salsa Hybrid * Golden Habanero Habanero Brown * Hotazel Mariarchi Hybrid NuMex Big Jim NuMex Sunset * Purple Jalapeno * Red Savina Habanero Riot Tabasco Trinidad Perfume Tuxtlas Chilli White Habanero * Zimbabwe Birds Eye * 1-2 only, otherwise 3-6 spare. Would also be interested in a trade if you have something interesting. Rob