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soil Could AACT be adding too much Nitrogen to my Soil?

SL3

SL3

So far I have only been adding my Tea every other weekend. Three days after this last batch I noticed this deformed top growth on my Peter Peppers. It only seemed to affect them.  But I have been noticing some odd leaves on my other plants as well that seem to grow off to one side or the other.
 
Anyways I finally had to cut all the top new growth off of the Peter Peppers as it was turning gray and dying. I have heard some of you comment on these deformities as over fertilization, but the only ferts my plants get is in my tea. This batch only had Alfalfa, Lawn Clippings, Bat Guano, Worm Castings and Molasses. I left the Mycos and Kelp out this time. The soil is a mx of Happy Frog, Ocean Forest cut in half with my mix which is compost, peat moss, pearlite, and a little sand.
 
Any ideas what could be going on with these deformities? 
 

 

 

 

This last photo is typical of what I'm seeing on a lot of my other plants, but they seem to be tolerating it.
 
Wow. I really stumped you guys this time. I’m really surprised that you AACT guys didn’t chime in. So at the cost of feeling somewhat humiliated I’ll tell you what I believe happened to my plants.
 
I have narrowed it down to two possible problems which is either acidity poisoning or an overdose of Epsom Salt, or possibly both at the same time.
 
Up until now I have been filling a 50 gallon drum with my tap water and getting 8+ PH down to 6.0 before watering. I have gotten use to using my old PH strips which went down to 5.5. And I pretty much thought I had it down to just how much PH down I needed each time, but always tested to be sure.
 
When I ran out of strips recently, I bought some Pooltime strips from Home Depot, except they only went down to 6.8. My tap water does seem to fluctuate between low 8s to high 7s. So after dropping my water to 6.8 or lower it was anybody’s guess as to how low I actually got with these new strips.
 
I have a feeling I might have lowered the PH too low on that last batch. I should have just stopped after opening the new package and found some strips with more of a wide spectrum of PH. I threw away the old bottle and can’t remember what brand they were. There were only 4 tests on those strips as opposed to 6 tests on these new ones.
 
I also bought a PH/Water/Light meter, but the PH meter is junk and only reads 7.5 no matter what you put it in.
I used that water to make my tea, so I’m now guessing it was the water itself that added to the problem.
Next came another really big screw up. I started going through all my products that I had ever put on any of my plants and checking the doses. Every thing from B-1, Foli-Cal, Neem Oil, BT, Sulfur and Epsom Salt.
 
Everything looked good until I got to the Epsom Salt spray bottle. I had written on the side 2 Tablespoons. (That dose I now know is for a gallon of water) Not sure where I got that information or why I wrote that there, but huge mistake on my part.
I confirmed this when I took a jewelers lens to search for mites and instead found massive amounts of salt crystals all over the dying leaves.
 
Just wanted you all to know what I found so you won’t be concerned about over dosing your plants on Tea. Once I get something to read my PH properly it will be back to Tea for me. For now it’s just bottled water. 
 
Why not try flushing your soil with water and water only for a week or two and see what happens. I make steeped tea not brewed tea so I cannot comment on that aspect of your post but if its an overdose of nutrients a soil flush would be beneficial no?
 
BrianK said:
Why not try flushing your soil with water and water only for a week or two and see what happens. I make steeped tea not brewed tea so I cannot comment on that aspect of your post but if its an overdose of nutrients a soil flush would be beneficial no?
Click to expand...
 
 
[SIZE=10.5pt]Yes sir, I have already been flushing everything as they need water. I believe most will make it through with the exception of a couple Peter Peppers and one Ghost Pepper that is unfortunately loaded with pods right now. [/SIZE]
 
Yea if you sprayed them with 2tablespoons per gallon epsom salt spray you burnt them more than likely. Like millworkman said ive never went over 1 tbls gallon.
 
Dude, the problem is your soil was just too hot, all the nutes in your AACT and then that super hot soil definiately caused a "nutrient lock out" theres just way too much going on there.. Ocean forest stunted my 7pots insanely this season.Stop fertilizing for atleast three weeks. I learned its best added to a soil less mix since its so rich in nutes(ocean forest). What worked for me is to just feed with humic acid like Diamond black from General organics so they can "unlock" the nutrients already there and just suck that soil dry (of nutrients), then do light tea doses to see how the plant responds, atleast a 50/50 dilution (I'd go less). Both of those soils are seriously hot. Definitely looks like a lock out to me. Also use R.O water helps prevent lock outs. I learned the hard way. Hope this helps, just speaking from experience.
 
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