Low temperatures.

How much have you been fertilizing these plants? Are they branching out like normal peppers or just one tall skinny stalk?

Almost certain that temperatures are too low for good pepper fruit set. But don't worry too much, if the plants are robust now you'll still get some fruit when the weather heats up later. I don't think any peppers really grow well here in Seattle, and the ones that do grow don't really start producing until late summer. I'm guessing it's about the same story where you are.

Thanks. Days have been getting warmer and nights too, hopefully they will start producing. If they get any taller I will need to make taller hoops. I have been reading about this strand of Pepper and most say that they get about 18" tall, mine are at least double that, with stocks that are about 1" diameter. They also have some other main branches coming off of those.

quoting from nuseed website: "Needs warm temperature for germination...Grow at 62F night temperature and 70F days."

Not setting--not even blooming.

Must have been plenty warm in the hoops for germination--what percentage of the seeds came up? You did not comment on fertilizer--too much could promote excess growth.

Were the temperatures you gave outdoors or in the hoop house?

I planted the seeds and once stuff began to grow, as in appeared from the ground, I fertilized once. That has been quite a while ago now. I used a granular fertilizer that was designed for vegetables. I also mended the beds with soil that I had been composting prior to planting seeds. All I have done since is water them. I don't remember the exact ratio, but a majority of the seeds I planted grew, I had to pull some to thin to a few strong plants. In the same house I have been growing lettuce and spinach. That went well. They grew in very thick, and now I am working on my second planting. The temperatures that I refered to above were outside temps, I don't have a thermometer in the hoop house.

Thank you for all of the input.

Here are a few pictures of my pepers. The main stocks are tall with big leaves, and then there are a few branches coming from the base area
that look more like pepper leaves I'm used to seeing.

heres a look at the top of one plant

A look at one of the branches comming from low on the plant.

A look at one of the smaller plants, this one has a little more shade from the plastic through most of the day.

Are those definitely pepper plants? I've never seen a fuzzy pepper plant with serrated leaves... also, the last picture has that budding thing at the top. It looks more like an annual flower than a pepper plant.

Then again, I'm not an expert and there are some weird sub-species out there. But esp. the last one bears no resemblance to any pepper plant I have ever seen. What was the source of the seeds?

I kind of thought the same thing although the seeds came from a pack labeled california wonder 300 peppers. I looked again the other day at the seeds and they definitly look like a bell pepper seed. Some parts of the plant look like a pepper plant and other parts of it look like a sunflower. I guess we'll see soon.

Thanks for posting these pictures of your impostor plant. It does have more characteristics of a sunflower than a pepper.

But I do not know how you end up with a plant like that from a pepper-looking seed. You take good pictures. Would be curious to see a picture of the seeds.

You might want to be careful with that thing, whatever it is. If the seeds look similar to pepper seeds, there is a good chance it is a member of the nightshade family (like peppers, tomatoes and eggplants), and it might be one that is not meant to be eaten. Actually it sort of looks like a tomatillo plant, do a Google image search and compare.

But be sure you have it IDed before eating. :)

I think you should contact the seed company and ask them what they put in the packets of pepper seed.

I'd be willing to bet that they aren't peppers. They're definitely not California Wonder bell peppers.

I'm still not sure what these plants are. I was forced to transplant a couple of them outside of my hoop house. They were just getting too tall for the hoops. I used a big shovel and took a wide swath of dirt but they don't really like being transplanted. I wilt pretty bad, but hopefully they will come back. I am looking forward to seeing what happens. I will post pictures if anything telling happens.

I agree look like sunflowers. They dislike transplanting, too.

I suggest you post your pics on the Name that Plant forum on GW. Usually a quick reply there.

Flowers are lovely, but if you want peppers I sure hope you're able to get some pepper plants locally for a harvest this year.

Those plants do not need the hoop environment, they look very coarse and hardy. Just remove the covering material. The flower buds can't be too far from opening. You can remove the low branches to speed up the rest of the plant.

I agree the plant looks a bit like a sunflower, but the OP said that they checked the seeds and the seeds look like pepper seeds. THere's no way you could confuse pepper seeds with sunflower seeds, right? Anyway, interesting to see what blooms on that thing, heh heh...

I spoke with my neighbor the other day and she said she feeds the birds. The only thing I can say is that maybe one tricky bird watched me plant my pepper seeds and traded me for a sunflower. The odd thing is that these plants grewn in every spot that I planted these "pepper" seeds. We'll see. Looking more sunflowerish though.

Access inside the hoops for local jaybirds could make that a good theory.