I would leave them be, not sure what area you live in but most of the U.S. has had quite a bit of rainfall and the wet feet conditions are not favorable for the peppers and is most likely the cause. If you are on a watering schedule since it looks like you have soaker hoses that could be an issue with too much water.

Or too little.
Stick your finger in it to know for certain.

are those rocks? that soil looks hard, rocky and dry..
and 2 pepper plants 1 inch apart isn't exactly going to make any plant happy.

lay off the epsom salt,

just use fish emulsion for now.. apply it every week in low dosages (1 tsp per gal) with several waterings of just water in between until the plant recovers.

Hey Y'all.

If anything they are over watered. I went out and bought myself a lil' bit of that soluble seaweed kelp, mixed up a teaspoon with a gallon of water and applied it. I reckon' that'll help 'em but if it's viral I hope to hope they make it to the fall. I love me some peppers.

> If anything they are over watered.

i take that back, its just the 2nd pic that looks dry.
either way, you should make sure the soil is loose.. it's really difficult to over water if the water is able to drain from compact soil..

I honestly concur with that message, Stevie. I did done till 8-10" with a spade and added 2" of compost in March of this year 2015. Them reddish rocks were mixed up in the dirt and make up a bit of percentage of my soil composite. I'd be hard pressed to call my top layer the A horizon too. T'was all but Zoysia atop of B Horizon from the looks of it. All bets are on me top dressin' with some more compost come this fall. Better to be pickin' and eatin' from my back space then pickin' them fossil fuel greens over at the super-market. I'll be sure to update if any of these little pistols start greening up for me.

Did you remove the peat pots?

Hi Peter,

I sure as did remove the peat pots, with an air of delicacy in my handling, and might I add - tossed those suckers into my compost pile. Everything else in my vegee garden has, in my humble opinion, grown into their shoes so to speak. It's just these gosh darn pepper plants that I purchased at Lowe's that have tickled my curious bone.

I had no luck with Bonnie's peppers and eggplants last year. They were stunted unhappy plants. I attributed some of it to the peat pots.

Stop adding stuff. Make sure the soil isn't too wet and that it doesn't stay wet too long. Is it all the leaves having problems or just lower ones? If it is all or mostly lower ones, then don't worry about it. That is nothing to worry about.

IMO plants in the ground need a lot less added fertilizers than those in pots. I would simply try to regulate the moisture of the soil to an almost dry to moist condition and leave it at that.

What kind of sunlight are they getting and what are temps like?

12 hours of full sun. I'm cutting back on the water especially since its been a rainin' a lot

Too much water can definitely cause problems like you are seeing.

UPDATE:

Hey Y'all! About three weeks ago I mixed a 10-10-10 fert with some bone meal and worked it into the soil around these old pepper plants. Then I mixed up a batch of seaweed kelp powder and watered the leaves and surrounding area. Then I water these old plants every fews days...just a tinkle to get some nutes into their systems. Well, wouldn't you believe they've turned a leaf and come back to life like old Lazarus. Dark green leaves and lots of new peppers on the way. My heads a spinning with pepper pops and salsa tunes.

Nice. I hope you have plenty of season left to take advantage of the turnaround.

I had a similar situation where I had several plants that didn't seem to be growing at all. I then added fertilizer and they took off like weeds. These days I use the color of the new leaves to determine if it's time for more fertilizer... Great job, Hopper.