What's wrong with this pepper?

[PA Wolf]

This cowhorn pepper has only been planted for about a week in a brand new raised bed consisting of 60% bagged garden soil 40% different fertilizers. We received a significant amount of rain 2 days ago and the photo is what has happened since the rain. Is it dead? Waterlogged?

[Patihum]

Looks thirsty to me.

[PA Wolf]

We just had a hardcore rain 2 days ago. Could it be dried out that quick? I thought the same but seems pretty quick to be thirsty

[PA Wolf]

I watered the poor thing. Fingers crossed!

[ginger2778]

The 40% fertilizers, what were they? That's a lot of fertilizer, of course depending what.

[PA Wolf]

I meant to say compost, it's a mixture of manure, mushroom fertilizer, peat and black kow. I tried to mix in a good variety. Is it too much? The other plants are doing ok (edamame, strawberry, bush cucumber and bell pepper).

[ginger2778]

I think the Black Kow is the culprit. My advice, rinse the roots well after digging up, then replant in just a neutral potting mix, no manure or black kow, and use only about 20% of the others. I had a similar thing happen when I used that horrible product. Dig it up and carefully but thoroughly rinse it really well, then as described above.

[dmforcier]

Cheez, Wolf. Don't guess at the moisture content of the soil, dig your fingers in and check it yourself. Is it wet? Dry? You tell us!

Now, there are several causes of wilt: 1) no water at the roots, 2) too much water at the roots, causing root death, 3) screwed up soil, 4) (several unlikely things).

I agree with Marsha on the remedy. Do what she says. And don't use "garden soil". Use "potting mix". Very different products.

[Starlight]

I agree with Marsha too. I used Black Cow one year as I heard it was so good and ended up pulling and removing plants. Never again for me. Heard a while back and not sure if it true or not that there is barely a handful of cow manure in the bag and who knows where the other soil came from or contains.

[PA Wolf]

I do the finger test regularly, was just trying to figure out if the heavy rains could kill the plant and/or make it look this pathetic.

I do use potting mix in my 5 gallon buckets. Went on the cheap when filling my raised bed I guess. I thought with a little extra manure it would enhance the soil garden soil. Learning new things every day here. Thanks all!

[clkeiper]

when it comes to manure... less is more. I can't overstate to use it sparingly.

[PA Wolf]

Originally Posted by clkeiper

when it comes to manure... less is more. I can't overstate to use it sparingly.

After the growing season is over should I take some of my current soil out and bring in potting mix?

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by PA Wolf

After the growing season is over should I take some of my current soil out and bring in potting mix?

This one is up to you. You could just add potting mix and incorpoate thoroughly. You won't need to remove the soil. I wouldn't add any more black kow. Or if you think you still have too much of all the ferts, you could remove a good amount of what's in there and then add potting mix. Much of it is going to get used up and also break down this season, so you probably will have to add more potting mix anyway.

[brownrexx]

I only use manure in my compost pile. It can be too strong from plants, especially seedlings.

[dmforcier]

I wouldn't use potting mix in a raised bed unless Trump spent enough to buy my vote. My statement above was about Marsha's recommendation to move it into a pot. A container environment is quite different from an in-ground environment and needs a specialized growing medium.

First step in remediating your bed => Determine if you have a problem. At this point all you have is speculation.


FYI, I have used Black Kow in the mix in my rose beds. I didn't use much - maybe 5% max - and they liked it well enough.

I'm more interested in the statement that you used "manure". What kind of manure? Fresh? composted? (If so then why differentiate from "compost" and Black Kow?) Nor have you given an estimate of the ratio of the four components of your "fertilizers". If you used fresh manure in any quantity, you may have to write off that bed for the year.