New to gardening, couple issues with new Peppers

[Bluebolaz]

Completely new to gardening, picked up several plants on clearance (end of season in assuming?) a few days ago. I have cilantro (pretty much dead now), basil (is doing good), hatch peppers, habanero peach, Carolina reaper, and a one that had no tag but looks like the hatch one.

Anywho, I brought all the pepper plants home Monday and already am noticing some changes with them. I live near central Texas so hot days spiking close to 100*, have been watering every morning. I've noticed some leaves have some white growth on them? Some leaves at the top are darker green but bumpy textured? Some leaves showing yellow/wilting on the edges. Caterpillars seem to be leaving them alone now that I caught 6 and fed them to my turtle.

Any guidance and advice would be great, hoping to keep them alive for next year. The two hatch ones already had peppers on them, both are blossoming and one has produced a tiny pepper since bringing it home!

I picked up some slow release fertilizer, not trying to spend a lot because I'm pretty sure I'll manage to kill almost all the plants somehow. READ LESS

[imafan26]

100 degrees is pretty stressful to plants. Larger plants do not accommodate as quickly as smaller plants so they be experiencing a bit of stress from the heat and probably from a change in environment.

Since th plants are end of season items. I think the pots may be a little tight as well. The pepper with the white specks on the leaves may have mites. A common problem in summer. The wilting is probably from heat and the pepper is pot bound so needs to be watered more often and it probably needs a larger pot. The yellowing in some of the leaves might actually be from overwatering at some point.

If you want to save the plants. I would repot them. Only one plant in a pot not four. The ones with bad leaves, feed them with a foliar (miracle grow) wait a few day and lop the tops off and repot. bag and trash the tops. It will take care of the pests. Make sure the stems don't have any scale or other pests on them. The peppers will take a couple of months but with regular fertilizing they should come back in a couple of months. The wilty one, looks decent. Look for pests under the leaves. Remove what you have to and bag and trash. I would put this one in a larger pot so it won't wilt as much in the day time. I would like to see the plants in morning sun while the temps are really high. Peppers like heat but not that much. I would also try to get them off the concrete pad. The concrete reflects heat and will heat up the pots. I prefer the plants in the ground or at least put the pots on the ground and not on concrete. If you don't have a choice, double pot. Put the pot inside a larger one. The larger pot will help insulate the smaller one. I would get a pot a couple of sizes larger.

[Bluebolaz]

I'll see what I can get today, pictures were taken around 1pm. The small wooden fence blocks the morning sun but I'll get a picture tomorrow.

[Bluebolaz]

So I did some trimming on all of them, getting rid of deteriorating leaves, here a picture today, 8am, sun hasn't reached them yet. I slid them off the concrete, I'll keep an eye on them today and see how they do. The yellow streaks you see on the leaves is from the sun getting between the wooden fence. I need to search for pots and more soil.

Any recommended method for starting a clone in case I kill them doing a transplant? I noticed the roots come to the surface of the soil on all of the plants except basil.

[ButterflyLady29]

They're still quite crowded. It's best to have only one per pot and to have them in larger pots. I had a good harvest of jalapenos when I had them planted one per 5 gallon bucket.

[Bluebolaz]

I'm still debating how to go about this to have them survive winter, or choose the best looking ones to transplant and bring inside for the winter. What would you guys recommend? I don't have much space inside so 5gal wouldn't work for the one's I would bring inside for the winter.

Any tips on keeping from damaging the roots while transplanting? I know it's a mess in them with the pots each housing 4 plants!

[ButterflyLady29]

You won't be able to prevent all root damage. Just be as gentle as you can while separating them.