Wow - that's pretty amazing that you've got no nitrogen in the soil. Compost should help with that! I've also been reading The Sustainable Vegetable Garden by John Jeavons and he recommends grown fava beans and vetch during the winter months since these will actually replenish the nitrogen in the soil via their roots.

Yah, _5 Acres an Independence_ also suggested vetch as a cover crop.

Green manures (clover, vetch) need a growing season for their bacteria friends to "fix" the nitrogen in the soil. Not a quick solution for peppers in peril.

Some blood meal, on the other hand, might be a way to quickly feed you plants organically, even.

I was thinking about it last night, and I bet the soil had nitrogen, but after it got delivered but before we could put it in the terraces, it got rained on heavily, two days in a row.

Every website I've seen says nitrogen can be washed out of soil, and I bet that's what happened. Drat.

I'd rather not put in cover crops in the winter, simply because we have a year-round growing season, and I'd like to grow stuff! I'm hoping I can replenish the soil now and keep it happy with cottonseed meal in the future.