Were those spots there before you started applying neem? If not, have you been applying the neem while the sun is out?

Hi, I only started with the Neem oil after I noticed the spots , thinking that they were from catipillas or some other type of pest and no, I always spray in the early evening So the leaves don't burn. Same with watering ; I water first thing in am at the base of the plant so I don't wet the leaves...

Have you checked the undersides of the leaves for pests? A strong magnifying glass helps for seeing smaller pests. Or have you seen flea beetles? They would be tiny, black, round beetles that jump like fleas. You can see them by disturbing the leaves--they'll jump all over the place.

Ohh no I haven't looked that closely ! It's almost sun down in Sydney so I will look first thing

I think your photos show 2 different things.

Based on photo 2, I would suspect the leaf burn from something applied at too strong a concentration, especially if the mixture included soap of some kind, which is fine normally in small amounts but can really exacerbate problems when a mixture is too strong. Sometimes, if you apply something and don't dilute property, even if you apply it in the evening, burn will happen either from the chemical itself or from interaction between the chemical and the sun the following day. This is especially possible with oils like neem.

The first photo, however, really looks like minor damage from flea beetles or some similar pest.

So my theory is that maybe you saw some initial signs of pest damage as in photo 1, sprayed in response but perhaps made an error with the concentration of the spray, and your leaves have been suffering burn damage, which is what you see in photo 2. Hard to tell just from photos, especially at the low resolutions Houzz allows, but that makes the most sense to me with the info I have. Does that seem possible?

Yeah that does seem likely... I will inspect closely for pests and hold off on any Neem for a couple weeks and see what happens ... only two of the three plants are showing these spots so if it spreads to the third I will know it's not the neem at least...

So turns out I found tiny tiny catipilars !

Thanks so much!!

No problem. If the Bt doesn't work, then it's not caterpillars. Be sure to get Btk (Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki) and not Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis), which kills different pests and not caterpillars.

For future gardening, consider planting umbelliferous flowers and plants that produce clusters of small, flat flowers all around your veggies. These attract beneficial predator that control caterpillars, aphids, mites, etc. This can greatly reduce how much pest control you have to do. I like white sweet alyssum because it flowers nonstop until frost for me here. Thyme is very popular with beneficials when it flowers and creeping flowering types make great groundcover, bed edging, etc.. I also succession plant my basil, cilantro and dill so that I can always let some of it go to flower. All kinds of pollinators and beneficials adore flowering herbs.