Can you tell me what is going on in this Garden?

Question

Bell and jalapeno pepper plants are losing leaves and flowers cucumber plants leaves are very yellow around the edges I have gotten two cucumbers already so far and they were good the thing is blooming like crazy but my peppers are not really even growing and the leaves look bad. I added peat moss this year to fluff my soil up a bit as it was pretty packed down and staying wet after rain and having a lot of runoff after rain. This helped the draining issue but I’m not knowing what I need to do I have been doing 3 in 1 Garden safe to ward off any fungal infection since I planted this year because every year it seems like I have a fungus problem because of rain water on the leaves. I have installed a soaker hose also this year and has been very hot and not much rain but any help you could give me would be very much appreciated and I am also only using the three in one and neem oil had flea beetles in the beginning so put diatomaceous earth down they seem to be gone. I have also noticed around my yard I usually have thousands of nightcrawlers and this year unlike any other year and I have been here for 23 years in this same place I have seen so many dead nightcrawlers is it because it is so dry and we’re not getting much rain or is there something else going on? Oh and the plants in the pictures look kind of dirty because we had about I think close to an inch of rain in the wee hours this morning , we needed it! Also I have a lot of lightning bugs in the garden again this year I have not seen one bee and what are the orangish red bugs on the picture the round ones? thank you very much

Answer 1

I think all of the attempts to correct a the issues are making the soil VERY toxic. This will explain all of the symptoms.

Also, adding peat moss as a topdress will acidify the soil drastically. I would imagine a soil sample will reveal something close to 4.5 in pH.

I recommend wettable sulfur as an antifungal, as it does not leave the soil toxic in any way. Pair this with DOLOMITIC lime and it will recondition the soil.

I think that you are going to have to flush this area out before replanting here next season. Take off the peat moss, and apply a citric acid (CYCO nutrients makes one for flushing soil and water that is formulated for this) in water to the whole area. Let this sit for a few hours.

Flush as much water as you can over the plot. When you think you are done, flush more. Get all of that out. Citric acid will bind to the soil impurities and flush those out.

Add a layer of compost, dolomitic lime, wettable sulfur, till this in, and give it a few weeks before planting again.

This plot needs serious remediation, and if you follow these instructions you will be able to harvest your crops again.