From the looks of it, it appears that you either had a lot more going or tried it several times before this. Don't know that showing the entire plant was necessary. Perhaps concentrating the shot on either or both of th lit peppers may have been better.
I think the dark might background on this one is hurting you- just zoom in close on one or two peppers and light 'er up! The contrasting red and green colors are nice, the off-center border is not.
Very funny take on the challenge. Are these cayenne? Love the hot peppers.
Good job of framing against the dark background! Nice focus. Your lighing could be a little more interesting to give more depth to the plant...
Your border is not even all around. When increasing your canvas size you need to make sure you are doing it in even numbers of pixels.
TC
Burning fruit in a photo competition? Is that even legal?
Doesn't matter. I really like this. Lighting is great, and the dark background works really well. Only issue I see is some slight background artifacts at the bottom that distract a littl.
The frame is a bit too much for my taste, either yellow or red would be better, all these colors in a frame is a bit over the edge. Great idea, and nicely done (lighting up those peppers. Original!