Here's Why Your Plants Are Growing So SLOWLY 🐌

if your plants are not growing or they seem to be stunted that's pretty much the worst case scenario right I mean we grow things for a reason so that they'll grow so in this video I'll share some common reasons that plants are stunted and what you can do to fix it the most common cause of slow or stunted growth that I can think of is transplant shock so if you've started planting doors from seed and have brought them outside there's always a low period where the plants grow very slowly and get acclimated to their new environment the plants need to get accustomed to both the outdoors environment direct sunlight and wind precipitation but also their new soil environment for example this pepper was transplanted into this grow bag about two weeks ago and it really hasn't grown any in that period of time but I'm not worried at all what I know is happening is this plant is setting its roots down into this container filling out the soil with a strong root system preparing to grow more foliage up above now I've seen it too many times where people are scrambling trying to figure out what's wrong with their are plants during this period and spring adding nutrients over watering over caring for the plant when all the plant really needs is even watering and Thyme another reason your plants might be growing slowly is temperature for certain plant varieties early spring can be a very sensitive time overnight temperatures can dip down into the 40s sometimes the 30s without you knowing it and your plants will be stressed as a result this will mostly affect warm season crops like peppers and tomatoes if you've transplanted them Outdoors a little bit too soon and they experience those overnight temperatures that can stunt your plants temporarily what we recommend in these situations is to cover your plants with a row fabric that's what this bar here is for to use fabric to cover this raised bed if temperatures get too low or too high if temperatures are low we'll use row cover Fabric and if they get too high we can use this same structure for shade cloth one example is green beans people often plant their green beans a little bit too early before the soil has had a chance to warm up it's always best to wait until early summer to plant your green beans so that the temperatures will be right if you plant in early spring or mid-spring those green beans aren't going to get off to a very strong start and they may seem stunted or slow growing another possible cause of stunted plant growth is an inadequate pot size for the plant that you're growing this is a ground cherry plant and these can actually grow to be pretty big but I have it in this about one gallon container which isn't all that much soil for these roots to fill out so as a result I expect this plant to not get very much larger than it is now maybe another few inches but it's already starting to set flowers and fruit and this is a direct result of the container size that it's in so the same would apply if you're growing peppers or tomatoes or eggplants in smaller containers if you're noticing flowers and the plant isn't as big as you'd like it to be it's probably a sign that it should go into a bigger pot this is a good example here this is an elephant ear in a very large container because these plants take up a lot of nutrients a lot of water and and they can benefit from that increased amount of soil another possible cause of stunted plants is not picking off early fruits and flowers this pepper is still in this three inch pot and it's already trying to produce bell peppers clearly this plant isn't big enough to support multiple Peppers so you always want to remove early fruits before the plants get into their final location this will allow your plants to focus energy on producing root systems and more stems and leaves before they start to try to set fruit you'll end up with a larger yield in the end another common cause for slow growing plants is lack of nutrients now this will usually affect your container plants more than your in-ground or raised bed plants but it can really affect plants no matter where they're planted if the soil has been depleted so if you're noticing yellowing leaves especially on the lower parts of the plant working its way up chances are your plant needs some nitrogen so I recommend using something like this fox farm liquid fertilizer or Miracle Grow performance Organics something water-soluble that will quickly feed the plants the nitrogen that they need if you're uncertain whether your plants need nutrients the best thing to do is to get a soil test you can send away a sample of soil and you'll get some really valuable information back telling you exactly what you should add to your soil just as bad or perhaps worse than nutrient deficiency is an overabundance of nutrients and a very common issue is too much phosphorus in the soil most soil in North America has plenty of phosphorus in fact some areas have too much already essentially what happens when you have too much phosphorus is your plants can't uptake other nutrients like iron make sure your soil actually needs the nutrients that you're adding another possible cause of stunted plants is inadequate light I'm sitting here underneath our cherry tree and I'm pretty much in full shade now this elephant ear happens to like part shade conditions with just dappled sunlight coming through but most vegetables like full sun so if you're growing in containers or raised beds that happen to be shaded by a large tree or maybe a house you might want to shift your garden to a new location or perhaps you're still indoors and you're starting your plants from seed it's very common to have poor slow growing plants if you're growing them in a sunny window versus under grow lights here's a good example of the difference between grow light grown plants and growing in a sunny window the plants just don't have as much energy to work with to grow as quickly as they can what can also happen is you'll Place lower growing plants behind taller plants so we threw a couple of lettuce starts into our garlic bed because there was an open area but the lettuce is actually getting shaded by the garlic because the lettuce is on the North side so the rule of thumb is to plant smaller plants on the south side of your garden and taller plants on the North side so if you have tomatoes or cucumbers or anything that climbs you want to put those on the north side of your garden so that they don't cast shade on your smaller plants another possible cause of stunted growth is naturally smaller varieties this is known as the medusa pepper and it matures at about eight inches in height so while it is pretty small it's not doing all that bad for this time of year in early summer take a look at your seed packet to figure out what the mature height is of your plant every variety seems to be a little bit different for example last year we grew some pink zinnia flowers that grew to be over three feet tall but this year we have an apricot variety that is just around 12 inches tall so this applies to pretty much everything including flowers Tomatoes lettuces every plant really has its own natural final size unfortunately spring is also a common time for the pests to be arriving so we always deal with aphids and thrips and white flies on our plants and they seem to be attracted to some types of plants more than others but it's always important to check underneath the leaves of your plants and check for any signs of curling or misshapen foliage which would indicate pests the best solution is always to companion plant with flowers and other beneficial insect attracting plants things like the alyssum you see behind me zinnias Cosmos and basically any other type of flower now a pest infestation is actually one of the best ways to attract those beneficial insects they know that those pests are there they're going to lay eggs nearby the pests so that those young larvae have something to feed on so if you see a few aphids on your plant don't freak out do what we do and allow some time for nature to take its course another reason plants get stunted is poor drainage or compacted soil so first off you never want to walk on your garden beds you always want to keep keep the soil nice and fluffy and never walk on the soil especially when it's wet but also test your soil for drainage container plants are not very much of a concern here as long as there are drainage holes or you're growing in grow bags which naturally have great drainage plants grown in pots will probably not have drainage problems where you may have an issue is with in-ground beds or even raised beds the type of soil that you have will really dictate how fast water can drain out of it if you have heavy clay soil which almost feels like mud when it's wet that soil is more likely to have drainage issues the ideal soil has some sand silt and Clay basically different particle sizes allowing for good aeration and drainage but also holding on to nutrients so if your plants are showing yellowing leaves wilting even after you water and generally look unhealthy then you may want to test to see if your soil drains well you can perform a very simple drainage test by digging a deep hole in the ground about a foot deep filling it with water and timing how long it takes to drain out essentially you don't want that water to sit for very long because almost no plants that you grow in your vegetable garden like having wet feet or soggy soil don't forget to like this video And subscribe to our channel for more content like this and thanks for watching geeky Greenhouse

Channel: Geeky Greenhouse

Views: 372,554

Keywords: gardening, plants

Id: 5UyAm0AQ_aE

Length: 8min 42sec (522 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 24 2023