A pic would help. If you create an account on photobucket upload your pic then f you hover the mouse over the pic and click on the HTML link that will copy then paste in the GW forum to this thread.

How often do you water? How often do you fertlize? What is in the professional mix that would allow oxygen to the soil? Have you tested the PH of the soil yet?

First guess is too much water/too cold. In cold wet conditions the lower leaves will fairly quickly turn yellow and drop off. Have you had a spell of cool rainy weather? Have you been too generous with a watering can? (pots should be on the drier side - these things love hot dry conditions). Keep them very much on the dry side if your containers don't have drainage holes in the bottom.

Thanks for the quick replies and the info on uploading photos.

It has been raining regularly since I potted the peppers and placed them outside. We got 5 inches of rain over memorial weekend and I planted them the Wednesday before. Also it has been cool 60'and 70's during the day and sometimes as low as 40 at night. This week we are supposed to get some warmer weather.

As far as the potting mix I used Farfards professional potting mix 70% mixed with another potting mix by Farfards but I can't remember which and I don't have the bag anymore. The pro mix is composed of...organic material derived from peat, forest product or compost, spaghnum peat moss, horticultural perlite, limestone (ph 5.5-6.5) and a wetting agent. This comes from right of the bag and it doesn't give ratios.

The only fertilizer I have given it is Root Stimulator (the guy I got the peppers from recommended it.) Which is a 4-10-3 Nitrogen-phosphate-soluble potash.

I going to get a pH measurement tomorrow. Also I used cypress mulch in the bottom of the containers to help with drainage just a 1-2" layer and then a small layer on the top.

Thanks again.

Here is a link that might be useful: photobucket

Here are my thoughts.
1. Water is an issue. Try to let them dry out as best you can. If it is going rain, try to get them under cover until they dry out some. Make sure your containers have drain holes in the bottom.
2. The cold nights are also an issue. While 40 degrees at night likely won't kill your plants. It does stress them.
3. After looking at your photos,

I think however, in your case, it is damage from too much moisture and maybe freezing or near freezing of the leaves.

4. I would also find a fertilizer with less phosphate. The middle number should be less than the other two typically. Especially in the early growing stage.

Bruce

Here is a link that might be useful: Distorted Naga Leaves

Based on the amount of rain you've had I was going to say that's gotta be the problem, but looking at the photos Bruce added above, that really looks like a virus or insect problem. When I went away for 10 days at the end of April/start of May this year I had a neighbour water my peppers and I think they were fairly generous with the water out of fear of having my plants dry up and die, plus I turned the thermostat in our house down to 59F while we were away, which probably means low 50s for the plants because they were in the basement. That 10 or 11 days of cold wet conditions made the green colour in the plants fade to yellowy-green and the bottom leaves fell off of some of the plants. But the top growth looked fine, just paler in colour, but not at all distorted like in your pics.

What it actually looks like to me is that you have a bad aphid infestation, but you say you've looked for that. Could there be some kind of insect that visits at night (long shot I realize)? I highly doubt it's pH because potting soils are designed for a wide range of plants and peppers don't really have any weird requirements that way.

Let's hope it related to the cold and wet and some warmer drier weather will fix them up!

I don't think that mulch is doing you any favors and may cause problems, if not now, then down the road. Well, the mulch on the bottom anyway. The top mulch is probably fine because the roots aren't going to try to grow into the mulch on top. I don't know for sure, but, I have a feeling it isn't a good thing on the bottom. You should ask in the container gardening forum - link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Continer Gardening Forum

There is some evidence that cypress mulch is mildly allelopathic, meaning that it contains a chemical that suppresses the growth of other plants. The best example of this is walnut trees, which can kill plants in the tomato and pepper family. I would remove the mulch.

I was thinking the mulch is leeching something into the soil.
I don't think I'd use cypress mulch.

If your soil is fast enough(drains well) you don't need anything in the bottom of the pot.

Actually a lot of the stuff people use actually ends up being a sponge or otherwise actually stops water from draining.
If your soil doesn't drain properly use things like pea gravel,Pomice or perlite to open up your potting soil.

I don't like any commercial potting soil I've tried in general.
They all end up packing down eventually if I don't add a lot of Perlite or Pomice to it.
But I like fast soils and don't mind watering.
I also put time release ferts in my soil (14-14-14) so when my watering washes the nutes out there is backup nutes when needed.
I water with a 10% or less ferts every time I water my pots.
It gives a constant rate of light nutes every time I water.
I also water my plants until water comes out the pots bottom than go back and water again a few min. latter to make sure I don't get any buildup.
It might flood a soil mix that isn't fast draining.

You could have a nute problem with all that rain washing your plants out so much.

That mix sounds a lot like 5:1:1 from the container forum, so should have decent drainage. But you really don't need mulch in a properly draining soil. Plants prefer medium to be homogeneous, and often stop growing into a medium that is different then what most of the plant is growing in.

I am going to repot the peppers and remove the mulch. Thanks for all the advice. I will do this tonight. Hopefully this helps. Good thing I have a few peppers in an above ground planter if it doesn't.

Please keep us posted on progress after you've repotted them! Good Luck!

I removed the mulch. It hasn't rained all week and I have not watered any of the pots and the soil is still moist. The peppers seem to be doing better even in this short period of time. This leads me to believe that they were over saturated. I can still see some of the distorted leaves but the new growth isn't showing any signs of the curling.
On a another note we have a employee community garden at work and everything was growing so nice and the garden is a good way to interact with co-workers. I went in this morning to plant a few more peppers I had started from seed and the deer ate just about everything. Guess we should've gotten the fence up sooner:(
Thanks again.

alross:
Sorry to hear about the deer damage. I have been battling squirrels here who think my above ground garden is their personal sandbox.

But dont fret. My guess is that the plants are not dead and will produce new growth and still produce this year if you have a decent growing season. In fact, they may come back better than ever after having been "pruned".
Bruce