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health Twisted leaves and black/brown spots - Help needed

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Pepperit

[SIZE=10.5pt]Hello everyone, [/SIZE]
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[SIZE=10.5pt]i'm new to this wonderful community. I've been reading a lot before i decided to post this topic so i was able to see that the users on the forums are really kind and experienced. I do hope you can really help me finding out what's the problem with my beloved peppers. [/SIZE]
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[SIZE=10.5pt]The problem[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=10.5pt]As you can see on the photos, my peppers (Fatalii, Goat's Weed and Serrano) leaves (both old and young ones) are completely deformed and twisted. There are also some brown/black spots on some of them. The growth is very slow and the plants are extremely stunted. The new ones (planted after the bigger ones) look like they have the same problem. The black spots affected leaves are weak and tend to fall off if I touch them. [/SIZE]
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[SIZE=10.5pt]Now some info that can help us understand what's causing the issue. The old plants were planted at the beginning of April with paper towel method and transplanted to some pretty standard soil made mostly by peat with no fertilizers at all. They looked slow since the beginning. I fed them with Nytrozime but still it took more than two weeks to just show the first true leaves (and i mean that they were barely visible, not full grown). They stayed by a window with lot of light until the end of the month when i moved them outside where the temperature were about 18-23 celsisus degrees. They grew a bit, very slowly and the18th of May they were transplanted to bigger pots (2-3 liters) with soil i got from countryside, peat and some horse manure. The same day some other peppers i planted after the first batch emerged from the soil. The weather changed for 10 days (temperature dropped to 15-16 degrees) and improved only at the end of May. Now we have 30 degrees in peak hours.[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=10.5pt]The soil they are in right now isn’t the best: it’s too much compact and I guess it holds water too much. But I don’t think this can explain all the issues I’m facing. Anyway, i water them only when I can feel they need it according to the weight. They were fed once with BioVega by Biocanna, full dose. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]I noticed some aphids and thrips (very few of them, max 3-4 per plant). The aphids were killed with a garlic and soap spray and never came back. The thrips I can still see them but 1-2 per plant. [/SIZE]
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[SIZE=10.5pt]Conclusion [/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=10.5pt]I think the real problem is the black spots but I can’t really understand what’s causing it, even after some extended research on the web. The distortion of the leaves could be related to such a small amount of aphids or thrips?[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]I’m really frustrated (can’t believe I’m unable to grow peppers lol) and sad for my plants (too much empathy I guess) but I’m sure you guys can help me finding the real cause of their problems. [/SIZE]
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[SIZE=10.5pt]In the meantime I try to relieve myself looking at my overwintered peppers: “calabresi” (we call them like that in Italy, they are capsicum annuum), fishpeppers and cayenne. [/SIZE]
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[SIZE=10.5pt]Big hugs from the south of Italy and excuse me for my poor english [/SIZE]
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[SIZE=10.5pt]http://imgur.com/a/kLY7d/all[/SIZE]
 
I'll help out a little. First pic shows leaf miners. Those are the squiggly lines. A fly/moth lays an egg in your leaf then it turns in a maggot and eats from the inside of your leaf and drop down to your soil and keep doing this until your plants will be INFESTED with them. I know!
Use spinosad. Works beautiful for them bastards and for thrips.
On your soul it looks compact. I hope it's not just pure peat, you will have issues if it doesn't have the correct amount of available lime to PH balance it. If it's potting soil, if I were you I would pull the root ball and removeost of the soil while holding the root ball in water and gently swirling. Most of your roots will be fine if done correctly. Then I would re pot them with a potting soil that has 40 percent perlite mixed. It will create air and stop compaction.
Lastly never feed your plants full strength nutes. Start off with a 1/4. I never give more than a quarter.
Some of your plants look burned from the nutes.

Welcome to THP
 
It looks like you used regular garden soil in those pots instead of potting soil. I'd suggest repotting them with the right soil. Sometimes leaves will curl up like that when they're not getting enough water and it's too hot for them. It's quite possible that the compaction of the soil is not allowing them to get enough water, so simply repotting should help. When you remove them from the pots, hose the roots down to remove as much of the current soil as possible. If you have a large bucket, fill it with water then gently swish the roots in it to remove even more. Repotting more established plants like this is really a two-man job, IMO. You should have someone hold the plant suspended over the pot to the height the plant will be once it's filled with soil, then you fill the pot with soil a bit at a time, and try not to let the roots ball up too much. 
 
If you only have a few leaves with leaf miner problems, I'd suggest pulling them off and trashing them in a zipper bag. 
 
Thank you very much for your replies. Leaf miner damage is limited to a couple of leaves and i didn't see any of them yet. I just saw some aphids (very few) that went away after i used garlic-soap spray and some thrips. I will follow your advise about removing the soil around the roots and tranplanting them. Anyway i tried to check the root ball and the roots are white and healthy. 
 
What about the dark stains/black spots and leaves twisting? Can it be related to soil also? I know maybe i overdid with the nutes, at least on the new ones. I usually wait until they are much bigger but i really thought they were starving.
 
Anyway it can't be nute burn on the bigger ones because in all my previous grow with other plants in the past i learned that it affects the tip of the leaves making them crispy and brown. These are black spots. I also check my ph and correct it with vinegar. 
 
Did you try some of the above suggestions? Might want to give them a shot and then post back in a few days of what you found/improvements???
 
Yes i did transplant one of the plants with the method suggested by geeme. In this way i will be able to compare it with the others and know for sure if the soil is the problem. I used a very good and expensive soil called Batmix (by Plagron) suggested by the local growshop. I'm watering very careful and monitoring for pests. I still see a few thrips but no more aphids or leaf miners. What should i do for thrips? Neem oil?
 
Anyway, it's still soon to find real improvements. The youngest plants died (probably in that case it was the excessive fert dose) and the older ones are have some new growths that still appear deformed. I'm just trying to collect more info about what can cause black spots and deformity like that. 
 
Thanks
 
I couldn't get a good read on the pictures you posted, but from your descriptions you could have a couple things going on. Overfertilizing will first warp/pucker the leaves then ultimately burn them if left unchecked. However, this is typically evident in both new and old leaves. If it's just the newest growth and the leaves are coming out smaller than normal and twisted, it's most likely mites. Many mites are too small to see with the naked eye. A good miticide will help with that. You should be able to find something that works on more than just mites - neem might well do the trick for all the pests. 
 
Thank you very much Geeme: i will use some neem on them and flush them with water then! 
 
This is the plant i transplanted into new soil 
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And this is a cayenne pepper with some "lesion" (i dunno how to call it). What's causing this? 
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Top pic does have similarities to the early stages of fert burn. I'd say give it a while with no nutes then only gradually add back in. The cayenne….. Here are the random thoughts in my head about that. I kind of wonder if it's corking. Even though cayenne's don't normally cork (though jalapenos do), they might if they've been under stress, particularly if it's from being too wet for too long. But also any pod's skin can literally split then form the plant's equivalent of a scab if the plant uptakes too much liquid. However, that doesn't look like any of the splitting and healing I've seen (though I'm sure I haven't seen everything.) But the thing that makes me kind of doubt that it's either of those two things is the regularity of the circular shapes within the brown patches. That makes me wonder if it's not insect-related. But, like I said, I haven't seen everything, so it could be corking or splitting due to too much water. Is that the only pod like that? 
 
It is not the only pod like that but it doesn't seem like corking or splitting (i looked some pics and read some description about these problems). The plants indeed don't get much water: just once every 5-6 days and in little quantity only when the leaves cry for some liquid. I noticed this phenomenon also on "calabresi". It happened last year also but it never brought the fruit to the point of splitting. It's just a superficial scar (or something like that). 
 
I don't think it's dungerous, but i'm a curious guy and i would like to know what's causing this. 
 
Hello again guys, 
 
UPDATE: writing for a small update. I've finally understood what was causing the burning of the new growth: the home made garlic and soap spray i made. The first times i applied it was during and after the fertilization, so i blamed the fert and not the soap. Now i had some new growth (still curled inward but looking healthy) and after the application of the soap (made in nightime) i noticed the burning and some distortion of the youngest leaves.
 
I guess i used too much soap (even if it's a vegetable one) and the plants don't like it.
 
I also noticed that some of the fruits of my cayenne plants look dehydrated, especially the tip. We are having some very hot days here (30-32 celsius degree during peak hours) and maybe the transpiration is too much compared to water uptake? Or it could be other reasons? 
 
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