I'm sure experienced gardeners will probably chuckle at my next question, but I can't seem to find a straight answer.
Do I need to harden off plants I bought from a nursery? I'm afraid to put them in full sun, but I'm also afraid to baby them.

If they were indoors, in a greenhouse, or in the shade at the nursery, then yes, you need to ease them out into the full sun gradually. If you don't know for sure, I'd do it anyway. Better safe than sorry. Start with an hour or two of morning sun, and increase for about a week. Depends upon the temperature, too - if you have a cloudy or rainy day they can go out and enjoy that.

The nursery plants I bought for my daughter's garden in Salt Lake City a week ago had been outdoors, and in full sun so we didn't need to fuss with them.

Ben, in my experience, you can never hurt your plants by giving them a chance to acclimate! On the other hand, I pretty much avoid traditional methods of hardening off by covering new transplants with "floating row cover" (such as Reemay), which gives them some protection from the wind and sun (as well as my cat, who for some reason finds the new plants the most attractive...).

These are the plants that I fixed the drainage for. Any ideas? Is it advanced root rot? Sunburn?

Since they've probably lost at least some roots to rot, the score's not in yet on those guys. I'd be giving them some TLC in the form of a week in a shady spot to rest up and see if they can recover, grow more roots and resume their normal growth.

When you start seeing lots of nice healthy new leaves,that's when you know things are looking up. There's new growth on all of them, but it's too soon to tell if it will get to normal size.

Ease them back out into the sun again, just like your nursery transplants. Sudden change is never easy on a stressed plant. Patience is the foremost lesson you learn as a gardener. It's a great life skill to have but SO hard to acquire! You're asking good questions and doing a great job.

What Elaine said! You saved their lives, now they are recuperating.

They do still look VERY unhappy, but they just got off the Critical List.

You might pick 1-2 that look past hope, and re-pot those. Get a good look at the roots and soil near the bottom of the pot. Decide what changes you want to make in your potting mix. Try out your new mix on the worst 1-2 plants, just in case the stress of re-potting finishes them off. .

I totally agree with Elaine, as well. I really think their biggest problem was the soggy state of the soil in the non-draining pots; it may take them a while to recover, or maybe these plants won't recover fully, but what you've learned will always be of value !

I think we also benefit from your photos combined with the confirmed diagnosis.

Wet roots can manifest many different symptoms!

I've already asked about blossoms, but I'm still confused. All of my other peppers have put out more than a few blossoms and each have more than one pepper. But my super hots have dropped every blossom that has flowered before a pepper formed. The super hots put out a dozen or more blossoms seemingly at one time. Do I need to pluck some of the less developed buds to allow the plant enough energy to form and keep a pepper?
I'm going to post pictures of the recovering plants in a few more days, there's been a lot of rain here lately and I'm going to see if they perk up with the added water.

jones1104 said: ... All of my other peppers have put out more than a few blossoms and each have more than one pepper. But my super hots have dropped every blossom that has flowered before a pepper formed. The super hots put out a dozen or more blossoms seemingly at one time. Do I need to pluck some of the less developed buds to allow the plant enough energy to form and keep a pepper?
...

Sorry, I just don't know. @cycadjungle, Tom, can you advise? We think the pots were water-logged until recently, but they've seemed better since Ben set them on wicking pads to draw excess water out.

I think they're dropping the buds because of the previous problems; Ben, if they were my plants, I would just let them be for a bit; I don't think removing blossoms will help them in any way. When (or possibly if) the plants are healthy again they should start setting fruit.

Miscommunication on my part, my apologies. I have all but given up on the plants that I initially started this thread about. I took them out of the buckets and planted them right into the ground. If they live, terrific. If they don't, that's ok too.
I got a new rotation of plants that I put into different planters. I used a light potting soil and watered it in layers as Elaine suggested. I did not mix anything with it though and it is draining very well. I have the plants on the front porch where they get about 2 hours of direct morning light. I got to thinking about it and figured if they aren't getting enough direct sun, they can photosynthesize effectively enough to bear fruit. So in thinking of moving them to a location with more sun. But when I got home last night and looked at them, they have brown spots on the leaves! The one reaper has clear circles on a few leaves that when you touch them, turn to mush. Is that from a sucking type of bug?
I'm beginning to think pepper plants in containers just isn't my thing...

Two hours of direct sun definitely isn't enough for the peppers... but the little bit of damage that I see on the leaves in your photos wouldn't concern me at all

They need about 6 hours of sun to bloom and set fruit, Ben. But ease them out to more and more sun, a couple of days at a time, so they aren't shocked.

I have a big pepper plant in an Earth Box that's been bearing for months. It's now shaded for most of the day by my big stand of bamboo, and only getting about 2 hours of sun. There are no flowers in evidence, although the plant looks very healthy. It's the lack of sun that's causing no flowering, I'm quite sure.

I think those plants look great, and you're expecting them to be too perfect. A few blemishes on the leaves is pretty normal.

I understand what you're saying Elaine, but I want to be on top of any potential problems before they get too detrimental to my plants.
I saw these spots the other day, but they have gotten worse over the course of a week. I think it's bugs, but I can't see any on the plant or in the dirt. I did cut the effected leaves off today.

Interesting discussion, for sure!
My peppers had some of the same problems earlier this month when our weather was chilly and rainy. I think your peppers are crying out for hot, dry, sunny weather. The hot pepper fields I've seen in New Mexico were all in full sun and those plants were huge.
Cool, still, damp overcast days can bring on all sorts of fungusy, leaf-spotty problems.