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growth issue

I have an issue I need some advice on. these poor peppers in this raised bed just will not grow hardly at all posting some pics.
 

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i bought one of those soil test kits with the capsules. not sure how accurate they are but it says my
ph is roughly 5.5-6.0
potash amount medium
phos high 
the odd thing is the nitrogen tube changed no color what so ever....................which would mean I have no or very little nitrogen. I poured the fert to these plants about a month ago and nothing. maybe my concentration of fert was not as much as I had thought?
 
Low nitrogen doest just result in small plants.  It leads to discoloration, and visible signs of deficiency.
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This looks like something else.  Let's talk about your beds and the soil (or whatever) that you put in them.  As well as pics of anything else that might be growing in the same beds.
 
Ok I will get pics later but this soil is from last year if I remember correctly it is a combo of blackcow soil,evergreen brand top soil and some peat moss. As far as what else is growing in the bed. Ill get pics shortly
 
Is there a semi-permeable barrier at the bottom of your beds, or is the soil mix sitting right directly on top of earth?
 
gnomepunter said:
it sits on top of the soil no barrier.
 
OK, that's good.  It means that drainage won't be a problem.  Having a barrier can basically turn a raised bed into an oversize container, complete with the problem of a high perched water table..
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Nevertheless... Have you checked the moisture deeper than the first couple inches?  If a mix is super heavy or dense, it can certainly stunt growth.  The picture that you have of the tomato in the corner kinda exhibits the telltale signs of compacted media, leading to stunted growth...
 
Gotcha i will check further down in the soil periodically this week. If this is the issue what kind of media should introduce to assist drainage. I live on the gulf coast. Would regular white sand be enough to fix drainage issues?
 
If you're on the gulf coast, your soil is probably sandy loam and should drain just fine.  I'm seeing a lot of pine needles, is your garden under some trees?  How much sunlight are they getting?  How much are you watering?  How exactly did you fertilize them?  Did you buy the plants?  How did you transplant them?  I see some containers, what do you have in those and how are they doing?
 
Containers are squash and cucumbers. The plants are getting about 6-7 hours of sun. I may carefully dig up my plants till the soil and add some of the soil from my yard.
 
Here are some pictures of my stuff in another bed and a pot the pot is a cayenne pepper. And the other bed has tomatoes and fattalis,red bhuts,nardellos and hot banana peppers. I got the tomatoes all bunched up in that pic bc we had a storm coming in and i wanted them to have a biy of protection.
 

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gnomepunter said:
As for watering our temps were triple digits for about two weeks and I was having to water almost daily
 
Are you sure the plants weren't just wilting in the heat?
 
Yea thinking back i think i overwatered them during the heat spell. Im going to lay off the water for a while and put some sany soil from my yard in the bed and try to moniter the moisture more closly. This bed is actually from last yea same soil and may have compavted some i tried to till it before i planted this year. Adn I added compost as well.
 
No need to till.  That's not really beneficial, as it releases a lot of sequestered carbon and nitrogen.  And if you have a soil that's compacting, you just basically reset the timer until it happens again.  
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I don't know if sand is going to be the silver bullet, or not.  I don't build real soils, because I don't have real soil that I can use here.  But based off what I used to do, when I was able to plant in-ground, I would be tempted to lay down a lot of yard clippings and leaves.  Maybe scratch it in to the first couple of inches.  That will soften and sweeten your soil.  Might take some time, but it does work.  Maybe also lay down a nice heavy layer of alfalfa hay on top.  Encourage feeder roots at what is now your top surface.
 
I'm over in Mobile.  I probably don't live too far from you.
 
Most of my plants are doing well, but I have a handful that look like yours.  They're just being very stubborn to grow.  I'm interested to see if you sort this out.
 
BTW, do you skydive?
 
I have been skydiving before but I mostly just like the quote. I got a random question for you though. do you happen to be a member on gulf shores pierfishing forum. lol maybe by the name of chilerelleno? I have seen that avatar around here for a long while as well as on gulf shores pierfishing. so figured I would ask. I will keep you updated on my issue to. and nah you live pretty close I imagine. me and the wife moved from birmingham to dauphin island last year
 
gnomepunter said:
I have been skydiving before but I mostly just like the quote. I got a random question for you though. do you happen to be a member on gulf shores pierfishing forum. lol maybe by the name of chilerelleno? I have seen that avatar around here for a long while as well as on gulf shores pierfishing. so figured I would ask. I will keep you updated on my issue to. and nah you live pretty close I imagine. me and the wife moved from birmingham to dauphin island last year
 

Sorry, that's a negative on the Gulf Shores pier fishing group.
 
If you've just moved into a place on Dauphin Island, it's really tempting to wonder if the issue isn't partially with the soil.  I doubt drainage is the issue, since the soil tends to be really sandy there.  Even though Solid7 is much further away, he may have better insights as to how to manage sandy soil.
 
Unfortunately, the forecast is for really hot and humid weather for the immediate future.  It might make it difficult to see if anything you do is helping.  But, who know, those Fatallis and Bhuts may really enjoy the heat.  The Nardellos probably won't do much until fall.
 
On a side note, you need to check out Shore Acres Plant Farm on Bellingrath Road.  They have these huge bags of potting soil at a reasonable price.  It won't help much this year, but next year, you may want to top off your raised beds with their potting soil
 
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