Cant quite seem to post a picture here... Help!

sam: check out posting earlier this week under "pics" --- there's info on how to post pictures (although I haven't tried it yet myself).

as far as your in-ground plant, given its current stage with peppers, you're likely better off to leave it outside and not try to transplant. if you are bracing for very strong winds, you can extra secure the stem with steaking/ties. You'll have many fruit/flowers blow off .... but key to keep the plant well intact, and then allow to re-fruit. depending on the location in your garden, if there's anyway to provide extra cover, then that would be an added plus.

here in So FL, we decided to keep our bhuts all in containers. it's a lot of extra work, esp. with some plants towering at 6-7 ft, but we're able to pull inside in case of rough weather (cold to hurricanes).

Irene ... go away!

You could dig it up (don't mess with the roots too bad) and put it in a 7 gal container. That't what I would do. You may have some pods drop but at least you can save the plant.

You could look at it another way. You for sure are going to save one, so you won't be completely screwed. You could try staking / tying the one in ground and see how it does. You will probably loose some fruit / leaves, but, I really doubt it will completely kill the plant. Same thing if you dig it up, you will probably loose some fruit / leaves and will have to recover from root damage. Of course, if you are going to save it over the Winter, that'll be happening in a month or so anyway.... OK, I'll quit babbling... :-)

hope this works

Here is a link that might be useful: Lemon Bhut Trees