I planted regular old green peppers last year. They were wonderful until, probably slugs, ate massive holes in them. Are the types you're growing much different? I had success with them years ago, but that was when we were always able to plant by May 22, and the summers were more suited to productive gardening.

Wishing you luck and keep us posted.

I bought a rather large pepper plant from Costco this year and stuck it in a cold frame. It will live there all season. Peppers like temperatures that we rarely get.

I did have fairly good success one year when I lived in an apartment downtown. I got quite a few from a potted plant on a south facing deck. It was a very hot year though.

PS: I was referring to night temperatures above.

A few years ago T+T seeds had Super Heavy Weight bell pepper seeds. My friend and I love them..they are fast growing, meaty and are the largest peppers we have grown. Before we used up all the seeds T+T didnt have them for sell any more so we started saving our own seed. I did not think they wouldn come true but so far over the last 3 years they have..Jean.

Quick update, it's been a month since my previous pics, so here's how things are doing on June 27. Getting kind of mixed messages here -- the Charleston hot peppers seem to be doing better in containers (as expected) and are starting to flower now, whereas the one in the garden is nowhere near flowering (not sure if it's just slow or if something is eating the buds off). The Hungarian peppers however are actually doing a bit better in the garden than in the pots, which is not at all what I expected. Ah well, still very early in the season.

Charleston hot in pot on deck:
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Charleston hot in garden:
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Hungarian peppers in pots plus direct in garden:
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I've got some other peppers too -- Firecracker and a half-dozen cayenne, but I don't have them planted in pots and soil so I can't make any comparisons from them.

It's quite an interesting experiment, Don. The Charleston Hot in the pots are really looking fantastic! I'll be curious to see how they turn out by end of season!

September 20 update:

Currently enjoying a streak of sunny warm weather but I believe the average first killing-frost here is Sept. 19, so the garden is on borrowed time now.

Alas, we had a punishing hailstorm on July 12 which beat the crap out of the peppers in the garden, thus ruining my experiment. However, it was clear by then that the pot of Charleston Hot on the deck was far outpacing the one in the garden. Then it hailed. The Charleston in the garden slowly recovered, but by mid-September had only set 3 very immature peppers. The Charleston on the deck however (which I whisked inside at 2 a.m during the hailstorm) were a completely different story. I'll let the photos below -- taken two days ago just before I picked all the red peppers from the plant -- speak for themselves. In the two days since picking the ripe peppers, I can see lots more now turning colour. The longer it remains frost-free, the happier I will be, but once the frosts begin I plan to keep these protected at night as long as I can, under the deck or in the garage. I turned all the first pickings into hot sauce, diluted with some Hungarian hot wax peppers, because the Charleston Hot really are brutally hot. The plants themselves usually looked sickly and pale, which I understand is typical for this variety.

I managed to also save one pot of Hungarian hot wax peppers from the hail, which I then grew on our back deck for the rest of the summer so I could move it quickly if hail threatened again. Here's a pic of it from 2 weeks ago, after I had already picked some ripe peppers from the plant.

The other pot of peppers I grew on the deck (Firecracker) is completely loaded with peppers (no photo). It has the odd habit of the peppers having no heat at all when very immature, but extremely fiery when red ripe, far hotter than a cayenne. I was kind of dismissing it as not being able to ripen in this climate, but over the past week or two I have picked lots of red-ripe peppers from it, though the vast majority are still green. Not sure yet whether it will go down as a "hit" or a "miss".

Your deck peppers look amazing. This may be a dumb question but how often do you have to water them.

That's actually a good question :) With the Charleston and the Firecracker (not shown but similar-size plants as the Charleston), I watered them every day, probably about 2 litres each per watering. The smaller Hungarian pepper was probably watered every second day. Up on the deck they get full sun and are fairly exposed to wind, so they do suck up the water. We were around all summer so it was easy to step onto the deck and water them each day, but it wouldn't be great if a person was going away for weekends or longer. I suspect they could have gone two, possibly 3 days before wilting, but I never tested that. I didn't use any drainage trays, they just drained freely out the bottom, so if I was going to be away for a few days I could have solved the watering issue by providing catch-trays to give them an extra day or two of water. Longer than that and I'd have to get someone to come and water them. Worked well for me, but not a great set-up for anyone who goes off on vacation for a week or several in the summer.

Thanks.

I was just about to say "no more peppers'" I have not had success and was about to give up. But Maybe one more year. C

Nice photos and awesome production on those plants Don!

Had looked like a very promising pepper season for me, though it just rained toooo much especially during July and early August and the plants went into shock and dropped most of the small developing fruit. Next year, I'm gonna container grow them on the deck and set them into the solarium during rainy or cool weather.

I'll revive the thread. I'm starting peppers for the first time. I'll use your dates as a guide. I have a grow light with heating mat so I'll see if I can germinate. I do have hotter varieties.

Last year, I grew 'Sweet Sunset' and 'Superette Sweet', both are very similar in habit and are heavy producers ... though, 'Sweet Sunset' was the clear winner with being thicker, sweeter and more tasty. So, this year, how could I resist growing 'Hot Sunset' !! Tomorrow, I'll sow the seeds.

I'm trying Fatalli for the first time. I also picked up Datil to try for the heck of it.