My girl isn't happy.

[Dummy]

I've cut back on watering from twice to once a day. I punched holes in the soil to aerate. I've crushed up calcium tablets and have been applying Captain Jack's fungicide/insecticide. But she looks miserable. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

[3Berries]

Needs nutes.

[Bowhunterwoody]

Got some bugs also.

[GroBuddy]

Imo you're doing too much. Adding this, doing that. Keep it simple. Add a layer of compost or wormcastings( couple inches) , spray with pesticide. I prefer something like Doctor Bonner's but any will work. Water let it be. When using the Jack's are you soaking undersides of leaves?

What nutrients do you have to use?

The dr.bonners has a peppermint soap I'll use it at 1 to 2 tablespoons a gallon of water as a preventative pest spray on outdoor plants throughout veg, every couple to 3 days. You can soak the plant entirely and throughly. Peppermint is a deteriorate soap kills, can use up to 5tbls a gallon I've never saturated plant at that application rate. Remove all leaves with eggs dont just spray. You'll know when you see it. Not saying you'll have egg on any leaves just saying in general

Wormcastings will not burn plants, it will add microbial life and a great multitude of nutrients however at minimal amounts.

Compost adds microbial life as well, also provides a multitude of nutrients at a higher rate. Depending on application rate to plant size this can burn plants.

Both of these add more to soil than listed.

[crucialbunny]

A couple things to mention about your post. One is that punching holes for aeration can be counter productive because often it leads to the soil becoming more compacted by compressing it. A better option might be to use an auger so it pulls dense soil out. The second thought is that your topsoil looks suspiciously like manure to me. Usually manure is way to hot for young roots to grow into. Most decent soils will have perlite or some type of agent to aid in aeration and I'm not seeing that in your pics. Speculation on my part but I thought I'd bring it up. Good luck

[Dummy]

Thank you, 3Berries, Bowhunterwoody, Grobuddy, and crucialbunny. I've been feeding Tomatotone organic food regularly since July at the proscribed amount (3Tbsp/2 weeks). I put on horse manure last year. I'll try the worm castings. I'll also try to incorporate some perlite. Thank yall for making the effort.

[Dummy]

So I dug out what soil I could and replaced it with a soil/perlite/worm casting combo. My question is can I continue feeding my girl on her schedule? I don't want to give her nute burn along with every thing else she's trying to overcome. Thanks for reading this.

[SoOrbudgal]

Just give it water get it healthy don't throw a ton of nutes at it let the soil do it's work an just water an sunshine. It's pretty small don't overkill with cocktails.

[Dummy]

----update-----
my one plant that made it this year is a male <wompwomp>
I'm going to let it go so I have seed stock for next year.

[SoOrbudgal]

figures

[alltatup]

Stankybud no need for insults...