[Innoma]

What is the secret to growing peppers, both hot and sweet? I've been trying it for a few years now in Zone 9 with results that are not very impressive. Here's some general background:

1. Plants are started from seed indoors in mid February and planted out in mid April.

2. Have had soil tests done and everything is pretty much in the normal range.

3. In the garden, the plants are spaced about 2ft apart and on drip irrigation.

Here's the problems:

1. The plants themselves, while healthy looking, tend to be on the smallish side and are fairly sparse on the foilage, which I suspect leads to the next problem:

2. Bell and frying type peppers are always very thin skinned and seem excessivly prone to sunburn (at least, I assume its sunburn when the portion of the pepper facing upwards looks somewhat 'blanched' and is generally softer than the rest of the pepper). I've generally grown them in full sun, but this year they are located in an area that is shaded in late afternoon and that problem persists.

3. Bells and frying peppers are not particularly bitter, but hot peppers (serranos, jalapenos, etc) are usually not very hot. I suspect this may be due to overwatering, but my dad (farmer) seems to think I'm underwatering.

There are those around here who seem to be able to grow large, thick-skinned peppers, but after several years of trying, I have been unable to do so myself. The only two solutions that I can think of would be:

1. Irrigate less.
2. Plant more densely so that adjacent plants will provide some coverage for the peppers.

In short ... how do you do it? Am I missing something?