It is rumored that such temperatures can stunt or damage peppers, but I've never paid any attention to pepper protection unless the temperature gets close to freezing. I've never seen any problems. No question that they won't GROW in those temperatures. Low temperatures will certainly cause blossom drop,

If it's just temporary I wouldn't worry about it.

Okie HU

I doubt I am going to do anything. It would be interesting to see of blossom drop. I have no idea but it seems that 10 degrees above freezing will not do much but time will tell.

Most are sweet, but I do have some jalapeno's.

43F shouldn't be that big a problem, IMO, but wind chill can bring much lower temp.s and do damage. I have a spot in my yard where wind comes around the side of the house and creates extra cold spots in some areas.

That's true that with wind, surfaces that are moist can be colder than the air temperature because of evaporation. But leaves are different. Tomato and squash leaves can dry out pretty efficiently. But pepper leaves are somewhat smooth and waxy, and can be considered to be less moist. Certainly not smart to do overhead irrigation on cold-intolerant plants when it's windy and 30-40F.

Thanks! I went out at 5:30 AM today and used warm (not hot) watered around the base of bigger peppers. It is not windy so I am hoping a little warmth rises. I have a fair amount of 1" - 2" peppers I hope do not drop. I do not think they will. I keep peppers into December her with a cold frame and some heat. I brush snow off it and have leaves next to plastic die from freezing and never had peppers drop. Blossoms are different so we will see.

I don't think you will have any problems if they are established. How large are these plants? It's only May 11th, you have months to grow peppers, you really want the plants to grow bigger at this point, not use much energy to grow peppers. I always pick off the very early blossoms until the plants are actively growing new branches. Larger plants produce more in the long run.

If you listened to the extensions/ common guidelines they post, they give you a very conservative outlook of planting warm weather plants after historic recorded frost dates and after the soil warms up fully. You lose weeks of the growing season. Now planting warm weather seeds in April in poor soil like you do, I'm not surprised that you have problems.

I'm not sure what watering with warm water was supposed to do? At best, it is a few minutes of warm around the roots before the soil cools the water back down to dirt temp again. And it would do nothing to impact the aerials. It's not like a human drinking a hot cup of tea to warm up.

A human drinking a hot cup of tea isn't going to avoid frostbite or death by hypothermia. By the same token, bathing roots in warm water might serve the need for a few minutes.

True Dan, but it is literally an hour or two before temps rise. Very little affects but only took 5 minutes. So far there are still flowers on plants so looks ok. I doubt it got below 44

Your watering doesn't hurt, but helps more if they are sheltered. You could try black plastic covering the soil to keep the soil warm in Spring. Your plants should be fine since the days have been sunny this weekend. I think your plants are much better in the ground growing roots for a few weeks instead of sitting in pots.

Blossoms will drop on plants anyway, it is normal, and you don't want a small plant growing a bunch of large peppers.

My peppers sat out in pots four or five nights ago with a 40 degree low and only one Jalapeno on the edge of a tray suffered and drooped for a day but perked back up. They're covered with flowers i promptly pick. A pepper plant growing a pepper from the first and second crotch will stunt the plant until it's ripe or picked.

Get some wall-o-waters, a cloche or other effective protection. That said, I've read that peppers tend to drop flowers and then drop fruits under 60 degrees, so even if the plants survive, they aren't growing or thriving and would probably have been better off indoors longer instead of outdoors now.

Warm water isn't going to do much.