Your problem is that you care too much. Peppers can sense this, and it disgusts them.
You see, the pepper's whole reason for being is because Mother Earth hates you and wants to hurt you. When you send out your "care waves", the seeds shrivel up and die. What you need to do is start flicking the cup whenever you walk by. Tell them to hurry up and die, because you need the cup. Yell out vegetationally-insensitive insults at 3 AM. They will pick up on the animosity and grow with a vengeance, reaching their tiny leaved limbs ever so slowly towards your throat.
My first year growing, I bought trinidad scorpions and chocolate habs. Picked up some ornamental purples for the wife and got a free packet of jalapeno and serrano seeds. I ate zero trinidad scorpion and chocolate hab peppers that year. Serranos and jalapenos were tasty, I guess, and even the ornamentals were decent. They grew like weeds because I didn't give a crap about them, but those damned scorps/habs knew I wanted them and spat upon my dreams from the blackest, most withered depths of their souls.
