Unwell plants

[Rainman]

So in the past 3 days my two Bhut Jolokias and Jalapeno have take a turn for the worse.  I have about 3 months experience with growing, so any advice would be much appreciated.
 

Note the leaf curl (especially center leaves) and also the yellowing around the edges of some leaves. (White patches are Epsom salt residue from a foliage spray)  
 

The green of the leaf is eroding and leaving a clear film and then a hole...  I've sprayed with liquid copper fungicide, but do I have a serious problem here or can I save this one?
 

The severe leaf curl on my second Bhut Jolokia.  Its much darker green ater the Epson spray, but the curl has not gone away.
 

Are these brown spots the same as on the Bhuts but just look a little different because the leave are more 'waxy'? I've given them a copper spray too now...
 
Should I remove the most damaged leave and hope the new growth is better after my spraying with copper? 
 
Man, I will be gutted if I have to kill these guys off.  But, they have got considerably worse in the last 24 hours... HELP please!!  
 
Rainman

 

[Sarge]

Looking only at your first pic, I would have put it down to either over watering, overfertilized or a calcium deficiency. They actually don't look that bad at all. Those little holes and brown spots could be where some sort of pest has had a go at munching on the leaves. At this point, noting that you have given them a copper spray, I would avoid touching the plant. If there is a bacterial infection, it will spread like a house on fire if you keep touching the plants, believe me man I know. My plants were over watered, not by me but by rain which I could not have any control of. Couple days after the rain passed my plants developed ugly symptoms. Brown spots but with some yellowing. The yellowing is a bad sign on older leaves when coupled with spots.
 
Your spots are isolated. Your slightly yellow new growth is quite normal. When my plants grow new leaves they're very often yellow then get bigger and go nice and green.
 
That pinching though, which was also evident in my plants could be from a nutrient deficiency/OD or it could be from pests. Get in there and look and see if you notice any little bastards moving around.
 
How do the underside of the leaves look?

 

[Rainman]

That's the thing, I water once a week (about 500-750 ml) each plant.  I'm wondering if the damn potting mix is holding too much water.  I have not fertilized for almost two weeks either and the last few days this happened.  I also added a sprinkle of dolomite dust to the soil when I gave them a foliage spray of the Epsom salt, which was 2 days before the worst of the leaf damage seemed to happen.  
 
As I said, I'm really new to growing plants.  I had the Habanero for a few weeks before it went dormant and then I cut it back for winter, but that aside all these things like leaf curl, yellow leaves, leaf/flower drop, holes, brown spots, etc. has me confused to hell.  
 
Undersides of the leave look okay... here is a typical example
 

 
Will be spraying with the Yates Mavrik sucking/chewing bug pesticide tomorrow, then letting nature take its course I guess.  
 
Would a bit of Seasol hurt, or should I let them dry back for another week, seeing as they were watered yesterday?
 
Thanks for the advice Sarge - much appreciated.

 

[geeme]

This one: 
 

 

 
.... is definitely a combo of fertilizer burn (the beginnings of it) and overwatering. Your plant is still too young to need much in the way of fertilizer. Stop using it for several waterings entirely, and stop the foliar spray. You need to flush it well with water to get the excess out. When you do resume fertilizing, only use 1/4 strength to start with. 
 
Overwatering: Wait until the leaves droop slightly between waterings, and use the lift test. When the leaves are drooping slightly, lift the pot off the floor a tad and judge how heavy it is. Then water it thoroughly then let the water drain out of the holes until it stops. Lift the pot again so you can feel the weight difference. Do this for the next several waterings. After a while, you will be able to lift the pot and know by weight it's getting close to the droopy-leaves stage, and can water just before the leaves start to droop. 
 
There's a very good chance that fixing these two things will also fix the other issues.

 

[Boguspokus]

When I use Epsom Salts as a foliar spray I dont get a salty residue. Maybe the solution is too strong. Kinda looks like burn of the salty kind to me. Stop force feeding em for a while.

 

[Rainman]

geeme - thanks for taking the time to look.  I will give them nothing now for the next 2-3 weeks and hope that sorts out the problem.  
 
Bogus - the epsom mix was what was listed on this forum, but as geeme said above, if they are too young for it, then it probably was too strong.
 
The hardest part now is flushing the nutrients as the potting mix contains water holding crystals so they'll get 'over-watered' if I go too hard to remove the fertz.  
 
I'll probably just stop stressing about them and try to let nature sort them out.   

 

[geeme]

Note that the old leaves will not return to normal, but your new growth should come in looking good. You might consider repotting with a mix that doesn't contain those water-holding crystals. 

And yeah.... think about how well most plants do in the wild. They usually thrive without any human intervention. We do have to intervene in some ways, but over-babying usually kills plants. They're much sturdier than we imagine!

 

[Sarge]

4 words. Debco organic potting mix.

 

[Rainman]

Well, I'm glad that I found this forum.  At least 4 of my 12 pots have got $3/bag Coles brand potting mix, that has nothing in it, so I can regulate what goes in there.
 
The other 8 pots though... damn that's near 185 litres of soil to replace if I go down that route.  Debco would be like 6 x 30 litre bags, so around $100 based on the internet price of $15/bag.
 
Still, if the plants die it's I'd be gutted... have got quite attached to them already!

 

[Sarge]

The water saving crystals are tooooooo much of a concern imo. They will still dry up it just takes longer time which really saves you the effort of having to water. People add peat bricks to regular potting mix to help retain water effectively doing what those crystals are doing. Your plants wont die. Give them a flush and then give them good sun. They are far from death. Some of my plants look terrible but are still far from becoming sticks.

Mastets has debco for 12.

 

[7potquezada]

Looks like a Calcium deficiency. Feed some humic acid to prevent or relieve any lock outs then apply cal.