Pennyaline wrote:
I've grown bell peppers for years and haven't seen a problem like
this one befo

snip

It seems that the problem has been solved without destruction of the plant!

A few days after I posted this, the nursery asked to see the plant
again. They had heard some other complaints about pepper plants failing
in the same manner and wanted to see again if mine was a true match. It was.

It seems that all of the plants had buds formed when they were purchased
and transplanted, and the purchasers (myself included) were advised to
pinch the buds off. All of the purchasers with complaints of failed or
failing plants had gotten the same advice and consequently pinched away.

The nursery now believes that they were wrong to recommend pinching the
buds, and feel that the pinch back in tandem with removal from the
controlled nursery environment and transplantation probably caused
setback. One buyer saw his plants through using only enough time to
allow the plant to recover. As the nursery talked to more of their
buyers, it happened that nearly all of the plants recovered and began to
put out new growth.

After I heard about that, I babied my little Beauty and watched it for
progress. Within a couple more days, the plant gave me a flush of deep
green growth.

The nursery still offered to replace it, if I wanted. But I'll hold out
and pull for this little one. It may even have time to ripen fruit.

It's not dead quite dead. It's feeling better.