I know that this topic has been covered in many other forums at various times but my situation may (or may not) be unique. I have problems with peppers but not with other plants. So here goes....

I have finally found what I believe is a great seed starting/growing setup. I have the plants in my water heater room / furnace room (hottest room in house), up on a shelf that is about 18 inches from the ceiling. It is TROPICAL up there ! I get peppers germinating in about 5-7 days with a heating pad. I use the "six-packs" as cells and don't transplant. I have used larger 3" and 4" pots too. I did my seed planting on Jan 23rd and most plants are about 4" high right now with 10 leaves or so. I am using 2 40W residential fluorescent tubes for lighting.

The problem I have had is how to transition these to outdoors. After 2 months under the lamps last year, I already had peppers forming on the plants. I started to put them outside and whether it was a shaded area or a sunlit area, I was losing alot of leaves and the plants were wilting badly. They lost the flowers/peppers that started. In any event it took quite some time for the plants to recover, and some actually died.

I am looking for advice on how to do this without shocking the plants. The weather here in March/April is 40's to 50's at night and 60's to 70's in daytime.

Thanks in advance.