Thanks, Dave. I attached a link to the other post. I seem to have some replies now. You hit the nail on the head - I'm thinking I've either overfed them, or neglected something. The peppers showed the yellowish rims on the leaves before I ever touched them with a fertilizer, and I've never applied fertilizer during the heat of the day. I'm in North Florida and our tomato planting season was to get them in the ground NLT 9/1. I ended up getting them in the ground about a week before that. The peppers have been in the ground since 8/13 or so, and were planted from seeds saved from a container pepper with no deisease. The rest planted on schedule according to the UF planting guide site. I read that Neem was anti-fungal, and thought the yellow spots could be some infection in the plants, and therefore the spraying would help keep it under control. Could the compost tea have burned them? I don't think I have seen any additional effects after spraying the tea, other than them getting taller. Should I scrap the pepper plants, and plant beets or carrots, and cut off the lower yellowing tomato branches? Thank you SO MUCH Dave! I wish you had a TV show! Could the compost tea Here is a link that might be useful: Other post with Pics

Thanks for your continuing suggestions! A couple of weeks ago, my Tomato plants' leaves started to change their color and become a bit brownish. I was really worried that the mild hale we had one night (roughly a week after they were planted) might have caused blight. I took a couple of samples (one bad looking old leaf and another newly growing one) to a local farming store (OC Farm Supplies in Anaheim, CA). The guy there was so patient and cooperative, he told me that he can't see any kind of disease with it and felt I might be watering them too much. Relieved, I came home and cut down on my watering routine of every other day to twice a week. It's been a week since and my plants are looking good already. Additionally, I went to the beach early Sunday morning and collected a couple of buckets full of Kelp. I soaked them in a big 13 gallon bin by filling it with water for about 12 hours. I took the thick juicy water out and added one part of this juice to an equal part of water and gave them to all my plants. There was enough left for me to give to my trees as well. This juice is THICK. Afterwards, I took out small chunks of this Kelp and laid it around my plants and covered them up with aged horse manure compost (which could double up as mulch, too). I am planning to repeat this process once a month throughout the growing season. From what I read, this thing is full of nutrients, so I am hoping this will help my plants to have enough of N-P-K. I bought Dr.Earth's Tomato, Vegetable & Herb Fertilizer (5-7-3) but haven't fed them any of it yet. If I continue feeding them Kelp juice every other week, would that be enough or should I still be fertilizing more? I want to keep away from any store bought feed (like Dr.Earth's), if I can. Your expert advise will be grately apprecaited. Thanks, Telugu Raithu

I am fairly certain they are the problem. As I understand termites are not limited to dead cellulose. I am finding termites in living plants that have just began to strt wilting. I've seen many people with this same problem suggest nematoads. Has anyone had any success with that? Thanks for the feedback.

Newbie, The program that certifies organic farms allows the use of composite lumber like Trex in growing operations that are certified organic, so it seems likely that there is nothing in it that would leach anything toxic into the soil. Like George, I don't know of much wood that won't rot. I've never used redwood because it is cost prohibitive, and even cedar rots. Osage orange or black locust fence posts here in my part of the state can last up to 50 years, although once you remove them you may find quite a lot of the post did rot while underground---just not enough for the fence post to fall over or collapse. Like George, I doubt rusting steel or iron would leach into the soil enough to damage the soil or plants grown in it. The Noble Foundation wouldn't advocate the use of corrugated metal beds if they felt there was any risk involved in using them. They're all about science and research and doing things properly. The Medina Orange Oil you linked is exactly the same one I buy and use. It is very strong and must be diluted a great deal. It makes a great soil drench for fire ant mounds, among other things. If not diluted enough, it makes a great paint stripper--so be careful how you us There are many soil dwelling critters that will eat wood, including carpenter ants. If you haven't seen any termites, I wouldn't worry about them. If they should pop up at some point in time, there are ways to deal with them. As George pointed out the wood likely just rotted due to constant contact with the soil. I've grown in raised beds lined with wood since the early 1980s and never have seen a termite in or near any of them. I'm not saying it never would happen, just that it isn't very common here. You could hammer a few inexpensive grade stakes into the ground now near the area where you intend to build your raised beds and see what happens to them over the course of the next few months. Think or them as termite traps. As much as I like raised bed, I agree with George that in some situations, grade-level beds may be better----because they don't warm up as quickly and because they don't dry out as quickly as soil in raised beds will dry out. Much depends on a complex combination of factors including how well your soil drains (or doesn't drain), how windy and exposed your garden plot is, how much rain you do or don't get during the growing season, etc. All of my garden is not raised beds. I have raised beds in the sloping uphill portions of my main veggie garden, which has mostly well-amended red clay soil, and couldn't garden without them. That soil in that area, even when well-amended, tends to drain very slowly. In the wettest part of the wettest years, even plants in the raised beds can stay too wet and can rot. I don't have raised beds at the western end of the garden where there is a very fast-draining sandy/silty blend. The soil there drains too quickly, a problem that would be even worse with raised beds above grade level. For the first 5-6 years here, even with constant watering, it was hard to keep anything alive in that sandy soil because it just wouldn't hold water long enough. Eventually I amended it enough that it now holds moisture well, but still not well enough that I'd put raised beds there. So, you have to consider your soil and how well is drains when you decide what kind of beds to use In my new garden plot out west of the barn, the soil drains incredibly fast in much of that garden, while there's a few really clayey slow-draining clay. In the fast-draining sandy soil back there, I almost could have waffle beds (sunken below grade level) except for the fact that every now and then we have a big, slow-moving storm system dump 6-9-12+" of rain in one day, and I think that waffle beds on a day like that might turn into ponds with dead plants in them. This is only its second year and I haven't amended the soil much yet and I doubt I'll ever be able to get it to hold moisture well enough in typical weather that I'd want to build raised beds back there. In fact, I'm fairly sure I'd never put a raised bed out there unless it was a hugelkultur bed, and my fear or snakes has kept me away from hugelkultur beds here so far. Dawn