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Transplant into Potting Media immediately and cross your fingers.

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why? This stuff generally works fine.

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why? This stuff generally works fine. Have you seen where plants grown in nature?

regular potting soil takes a lot of the guessing out of the problems that could result from other soil mediums.

That being said, that stuff actually looks like pretty good container mix with the small chunks of pine bark (if that is what it is).

Peppers grown under artificial conditions sometimes don't react the same way plants in the wild do. And also, remember that the plants you see in the wild are only the ones that make it. The millions of other ones that die for one reason or another or never even germinate will never be seen. That is why a pepper plant has dozens, if not hundreds of pods and pepper pods have dozens if not hundreds of seeds. A pepper plant that produces several hundred seeds would have successfully reproduced if only one or two of those seeds wound up growing into a mature plant.

I would probably replant them into a basic potting mix until they get bigger and you can get them outdoors for the summer.

There have been times when I've botched the soil. I put too much fertilizer, or too little, or had too little calcium. Repotting is a bit of work, but doing so guarantees that you are putting your plant into well balanced soil. From there, you can continue troubleshooting knowing that the soil is out of equation.

Is what we see on top of the soil all the way through, course? You don't mention how often you water. Is the soil a bagged product or did you create a mix of your own? If it's bagged does it come with fertilizer mixed in? If it's a custom mix did you add any slow release fertilizer? When you gave a light dose of fertilizer was it liquid and by light, was it 1/2 or 1/4 strength? What kind of fertilizer did you use?

It's "manure compost", the $2/bag stuff from home depot. The plants are Perking up and looking nicer of late. Thanks!