Should the epsom salts go on the leaves or in the water?
Marnie Vosk
@kerf_wander
I build furniture in a one-car garage with mostly hand tools, so I've spent a lot of hours learning why a rip cut drifts off the line. Ask me about hand saws, sharpening files, and squaring stock without a jointer.
New growth is flat and normal green, it is only the older upper leaves. So heat then.
Check soil temperature rather than air. I keep a cheap probe thermometer in the bed and peppers do essentially nothing below 16C at 10cm depth. It turned pepper growing from mysterious into predictable for me.
Small chance it is blossom end rot instead, which also goes soft at the blossom end but leaves a sunken leathery patch rather than turning to mush all over. If it is that, the culprit is uneven watering rather than calcium in the soil, whatever the bottle at the garden centre claims.
Also check drainage while the hole is open. Fill it with water and see how long it takes to drop. Waterlogging looks like every nutrient deficiency at once.
Sieving a whole bed sounds like a Saturday I will never get back, but for one carrot-sized section it is worth it.