i'm curious to see what others say too as my bell peps (not ornimental) seem to be stunted too. at least i think after stating them from seed at end of march that they should be bigger than 3-4 inches tall! good luck!

I have planted basil with pepers for a couple of years now. They compliment ea other. It could be drought, heat, too cool of weather. Pepper plants in this area take all summer before they really start producing well.

Never heard of heat being a deterrent to actual growth. Bossom/pod development, yes. Growth, ???. As far as your potted plants being larger, I've noticed container peppers to take off quicker than in-ground, but the in-grounds catch up eventually. As far as the dead of summer heat affecting your plants, a 2-3 inch layer of mulch will help tremendously with temperature regulation and, as sjetski mentioned, shade cloth always comes in handy for the midday sun. We get a different kind of heat here though -- I've been to the Midwest in the Summer. The nighttime temps barely cool down for weeks on end I think the general rule is over 90F daytime or 75F nighttime for extended periods will effect blossoms. Maybe some of the guys/gals in the deep South and the Midwest can give you more info. Kevin

I have been eyeing this thread since it started in hopes of gaining knowledge for next year. I'll add my 2 cents: I started my tomato seedlings in flats in a greenhouse in late February, moved them to large pots (quart yogurt tubs, small coffee cans, etc) in early March, and planted out in the first week of May. (They ended up being a little long in the tooth, I mean stem: I will start several weeks later in future. I had to deep-plant most of them.) Anyway, I noted that the forsythia was starting to bloom when the tomatoes had been in their pots for about a month, and they did look like they were reaching a respectable transplant size at that point. But there was a lot of weather weirdness forecast, so I did not chance it and instead stuck to my family's tradition: plant on May Day. What I noticed was: this was right about the time that the forsythia was going *out* of bloom. There was not another frost, and every tomato established well. Perhaps the *end* of the forsythia, rather than the beginning, is the tomato indicator. And I picked my first tomato on June 12, and have been getting about a pound of fruit a day for the past week. (Mind you, I have close to 50 plants, so this isn't at all impressive! They are just outliers of the main deluge I anticipate. But it will be enough for our cookout hamburgers this Monday!)