This years peppers- Tri Color Mini Belle, Chimayo, Carmen, and Melrose.

I sowed my pepper seeds in my hotbed about march 1st. It was when we had daytime temps in the 30's and 40's. I thought at the time maybe none would sprout. But they did great, and last week I transplanted about 45 plants into their bed. Next year I think I will separate them and transplant them once in the hotbed, prior to planting out. I took a knife and ran it down between the plants a few days before setting them out, but they suffered a little that way. I have transplanted hundreds of plants from the hotbed, and literally have had maybe ten that didn't survive. After the annual  summer rain and wind storm comes, and blows the peppers over sideways I've always thought that the next year I need to stake the plants. But I've never done it until now. I used finger jointed wooden lathe. we'll see what happens. You can also so my homemade shade tunnel with some burlap I had laying around. In time I plan on purchasing a large quantity of 40% shade cloth, as I'm convinced virtually no plant likes temps greater than 80 degrees and don't need to bake in the summer sun.

I also am showing my double digging and burying manure under the beds. The cooking manure raised the bed temps abut 20 degrees which the plants are loving, however it isn't safe to do so, because of the wonderful new herbicide Clopyralid, which apparently is omnipresent in hay, straw, manure, grass clippings, and finished compost. The good news is it is only potent at  3 parts per billion or greater and that it breaks down in 265 days. Please call somebody to get it banned.