I am in zone 9A, Texas City, Tx. My peppers didn't make but 1 jalapeno and the Serranos haven't done much better. All season long I got 1/2 quart baggie full. Now, in September they are covered with hundreds of minute peppers. The ones that do make a pepper are only 2 inches long. What may have happened? Last year I got many many bags of peppers.
There are several reasons this may have happened. The first thing that comes to mind is that some years are just better than others. This year was an awful tomato year in Memphis, TN, they just did not produce. Last year was much better. But that aside, peppers are heavy feeders meaning they use a lot of nutrients from the soil. If you grow them in the same place several years in a row they just won't do as well after the first year. You can mitigate the problem a bit by fertilizing but crop rotation is a much better option.
They can. I would either let the clippings stay on the lawn or rake them up and dispose of them for the first few mowings. Some herbicides have specific instructions to this effect on the label.
