Growing Trinidad Scorpion peppers

I have been growing a Trinidad Scorpion pepper plant in a container here in Hawai'i (O'ahu). It was planted on May 21st, 2010 and I meant to write a thread here on the forums about how to properly grow them and get advice from you experts but I was so busy with work and school that I just did what I thought was right. So, as you might have expected, the pepper is dying currently. I don't know if I can save it or not but I really would like to. This is what I have done so far.

Initially, I received the plant from a friend of mine as a random gift. Very nice of him. The plant was in a container about three inches tall and maybe 1 inch wide. So, what I would do at first was put a couple of drops of water on the plant everyday to keep the soil moist and then just keep it outside all the time. This was fine for about two weeks and it was noticeably growing and then suddenly I started noticing that the tips of the plant's leaves were turning yellow and it also seemed like they had been burned a bit OR eaten at the tips. I thought that maybe I needed to transplant the plant since it was growing fine from what I thought. So, I transplanted the plant but I did it incorrectly according to my friend. I moved it into another 10 inch pot. First, I put cinders at the bottom for drainage then I put in potting soil, then I put in the pepper plant, then I put more potting soil around the plant up to it's leaves and this is why I made my mistake. I put chicken manure pellets around the plant, I watered it thoroughly, and then I put it back outside. After I few days, I saw that it wasn't doing well so I decided to ask another farmer I knew here and he told me that I should NOT have put the chicken manure pellets on the plant since the plant is still so young. He said that I can still save it but I need to re-transplant the pepper plant into another bigger container using the same method that I did the first time I transplanted the plant but do NOT use manure. So, I did this but the plant still seems to be dying and I don't know if I can save it or if I am doing something wrong. I have decided to just ask you all here since you all are experts and I'm sure if I follow you all's advice then the plant should revive and live. I really want my plant to live since this is the first plant that I have ever tried to grow.

I have been told that peppers need shade and protection from the wind but that's all I know about growing peppers and I heard that from a farmer here so I'm not entirely sure if that is accurate or if that applies to all peppers. Today, I decided to keep the plant outside during the day and bring it in at night so it doesn't get cold. I don't know if that's good or bad but I was thinking that maybe the plants are getting too cold at night being outside but I could be totally wrong here. I did a google search for "growing trinidad scorpions" but I haven't found anything yet...

This message was edited Jul 1, 2010 11:08 PM

Can you post some pictures? At this point the plant has been through a lot, so the symptoms you're seeing could just be the cumulative effect of repotting several times in a short period of time combined with fertilizer burn from the manure. I think you ought to put it in a shady spot for a little while until it recovers from all that stress (it will need some sun eventually--but when plants are recovering from a lot of stress it can help to keep them somewhere shady for a bit). I would not bring it in at night...in Hawaii I doubt you ever (even in winter) have a night that's too cold for it and in summer there's no way it's getting too cold. Make sure you're REALLY careful on the watering, especially if the plant is now in a pot that's a bit too big for it. Unless your 10" pot that you had it in was too small for it, I would have put it in another pot the same size it was in before when you repotted w/o the manure. If a plant's in a pot that's too big for it, it becomes very easy to overwater. Also for watering technique...I don't know if you've continued the approach of adding a tiny bit of water each day, but you'd be better off doing less frequent but more thorough watering--give it a good soaking and then let it dry out a bit in between.

Here are some pictures taken with my webcam since my "real" camera needs some batteries...

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But remember that it was turning yellow and the tips of the leaves were starting to look burnt/eaten even before I started the process of transplanting in the first place. I often wonder what initially caused the burnt/eaten tips and yellow streaks on the plant's leaves...?

Also, I have posted the pics as you requested. I will post a link to a short video I did using my webcam which I videoed my Trinidad Scorpion plant in it's current dying state if I can get it to work....