Are you sure they are Jalapeno and Serrano's? If they are the size of a pea they may be a different type of pepper. There are some called bird's eye I think that will get red and are that small.

Can you provide pictures by any chance?

If they already had small peppers on them when you planted them outside they may have just decided to focus on ripening those ones, giving early but stunted peppers and a smaller plant. If that's the case, you would be better to cut them off when planting in your raised bed, allowing the plant to focus on growing the plant bigger before setting peppers.

rookie:

Are they in containers?

Are these plants from last year? If so, they're just winter fruit that got stunted due to the cold. Snip all of them off and the plants should kick in again.

There's more advice, but before we get into that, we need more info. Like ab said, pics would be helpful.

Kevin

When peppers turn red (or yellow or orange or brown) they are ripe. There are a few changes in the pepper besides the color - usually flavor gets better.

Jalapenos and Serranos are usually eaten green because they (jalapenos especially) take forever to ripen. The little ones you are seeing now are "winter fruit" - usually small and quick-ripening. Nothing unusual. Tasty.

I've included some pictures. I know they are the right kind of plant because last year, the peppers on both plants were just like the label indicated, like the ones you find at the grocery store. I'ts this year that they decided to grow this small. I will like to get the larger peppers like I did the last time. Is removing all the current peppers the only fix? I did notice that the serrano plant has 1 pepper that is looking more like a serrano pepper. Are the peppers spicier when green or red?

Thanks,

picture of Jalapeno plant.

This post was edited by the_garden_rookie on Thu, Apr 4, 13 at 18:48

the serrano plant has a couple small and already rep peppers.

The 1 serrano pepper that is looks like it's growing the way it should, although, a little small.

Thanks again to everyone for their advice!

rookie:

Winter fruit usually lose a lot of their heat. Still flavorful, though.

The reason why I suggested nipping all of them is to trigger the plants to put out more foliage and blooms.

In normal summer conditions, Jalapenos and Serranos pack their heat both green and red. Some varieties don't get much heat UNTIL they turn color. Also, just like with most fruit... the riper, the sweeter.

Kevin

On seeing those pics, I'd say those plants are just trying to recover from much less than ideal conditions over the winter. Give them some water, fertilizer, and a couple months time and I think those plants will be happy and producing normally again.

Yeah, take off all those red ones. They are ripe and ready to go anyway. Without any fruit to support, you should see flowers within a week.

I have removed all the small red peppers. I can't wait till I start seeing normal size peppers again, on both plants. Many thanks to everyone for your input...