Hello from Illinois

Greetings from Illinois. I am brand new to growing peppers, and plants of any kind for that matter. I am currently growing my plants all in containers of some sort. I am growing some other herbs along with my peppers, but for this forum that would be a bit off-topic. As far as peppers, I am growing Jalapenos, Chichen Itza, Caribbean Read, Cayenne, Pimento, Big Bertha, Hot Bannna, Anaheim, and Green Bell. I know they aren't all hot, but I like the gradations of heat, and my family won't touch the hot stuff.

I have so many questions, but I guess newbies typically do. I keep searching the forum for answers, but I am sure I will begin to ask some on my own shortly. I just found the forum last week as I was googling for some answers, so I haven't made my way through much of it yet.
 
Let's see if I can get the pictures added:

Jalapeno plants. Why are the peppers so small? They are already turning red and most don't come off more than 1 inch long. They taste great, but are just small.
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Hot Bananna Pepper Plant
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Chichen Itza Pepper Plant, more questions after the pictures about that.
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Chichen Itza and Big Bertha pepper plants
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Back row left, two Anaheim chili plants, Green bell pepper plant. Small plant in front Chichen Itza.
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Left - Cayenne, Right - Carribean Red
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Chichen Itza
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OK, here's the story which leads to questions on the Chichen Itza. I bought two Big Bertha plants, two Chichen Itza plants, and two Jalapeno plants in early spring. I planted the two Jalapeno plants and one Chichen Itza in one container, and in the other I planted the two Big Bertha and the other Chichen Itza. That was in mid-March or so. One Jalapeno plant died, so I bought another and planted it in the container where the one had died. I recently read that Chichen Itza do not like to be planted with other peppers, so I re-potted the Chichen Itza which is the small lone plant in the pictures, and it has 2-3 peppers on it. Now the Jalapeno's are by themselves, 2 plants in one container. The Big Bertha plants with the Chichen Itza have two peppers per plant, but the Chichen Itza pepper in this pot has about 25-30 peppers on it.

So here are the concerns: 1) My Jalapeno's are very small, and not very abundant 2) the Big Bertha peppers are low yield and not very big, 3) the Chichen Itza plant wit 2-3 peppers versus the other with nearly 30 on it. Ideas or comments would be appreciated.

Also, the plants in the cinder blocks are a reclamation project of sorts. A local store had all plants 75% off about three weeks ago so I picked the peppers up and put them in the blocks as I was out of containers. The plants have recovered, but are still pretty immature, those being the Cayenne, Carribean Red, and Pimento. Any advice hot to help them more?
 
Welcome from SC! What size containers are you using? The pods might be smaller because the of having 2 plants in a pot.

Good luck!
jacob
 
Welcome from SC! What size containers are you using? The pods might be smaller because the of having 2 plants in a pot.

Good luck!
jacob

I wondered about the multiple plants for the size of the pots. The pots are about 10 inch pots I believe. I have thought about re-potting and splitting them up, but I wasn't sure if they could be re-potted this far into the summer and still produce this year. If I re-pot them now will they pick up and go on to produce this season, or do I just wait until next season and pot in larger pots?
 
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