Why Your Vegetables Aren't Growing (20 Most Common Reasons)

Sustainable gardening is a wholesome, organic way of growing your own food. It is a natural method of planting that provides the means for a garden to stay alive and flourish with extremely little use of chemicals or heavy dependence on outside resources.

By growing your food in this manner, you are helping the environment, plus looking after your own health and that of your family. But what do you do if you’ve done everything you should and still you are faced with the problem of your vegetables not growing?

Worse yet, what if your vegetable garden looks awful? What should you do to make things better?

Well, this means that it’s high time to take a closer look at things and determine what the cause of your garden’s troubles might be. It could be several things. Perhaps there’s not enough sun getting to your vegetable plants. There could be a problem with the soil. It may even be that the reason for your vegetables not growing is because they are the wrong type of plants for your climate.

In this article, we’ll discuss some of the ways you can diagnose what’s taking place when your garden isn’t living up to your expectations, and how to treat the problem.

Usually, when there’s an issue with your plants — maybe they’re yellow, they’re not producing fruit, or they just plain aren’t growing — you need to take a look at various things to see if one or more of them are causing the problem.

Reasons Why Your Plants Aren’t Growing

1. Not Enough Sun

Most vegetables grow their best when kept in full sun for up to 8 or more hours every day. So the first question you need to ask yourself is whether or not your garden is getting enough sunlight. If your vegetables haven’t taken off and begun growing, if they aren’t reaching their full size, or if they aren’t producing as much as they should, lack of proper sunlight could very well be the source of the problem.

. If you determine that this is indeed what’s the matter, then the first thing you should try to do is relocate your garden into an area of your yard that receives full sunlight all day. If this isn’t a practical solution, then you may need to concentrate on growing vegetables that require less sun.

Vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and melons, are referred to as warm weather vegetables because they crave as much sun as they can get. So these plants might not be the best selection for a garden that is partly shady.

You might try planting root vegetables instead, such as beets, carrots, and leafy vegetables such as spinach, cilantro, and kale.

2. Too Much Sun

If you live in a climate that is extremely hot, then you might have difficulty growing your vegetables because of the sun and heat. Some vegetables can’t stand up to these types of temperatures and wilt, or simply refuse to grow.

3. Soil

Sunlight and soil are the two components that are the most essential if you hope to have a thriving garden. Once you’ve established that you have the required amount of sunlight to grow the vegetables you planted, then lack of proper soil nutrients is the next probable cause of your difficulties.

Many gardeners have learned the trick of adding a balanced organic fertilizer to their garden at the same time they do their planting every year. You could try doing this by buying an organic fertilizer at a nearby garden center and mixing it into your soil. It could help.

But it does take soil that doesn’t have the correct nutrients a while to recover. That means that doing so probably won’t make a difference for you this season.

You can also try starting a brand new garden, but that would have to be in an alternate location to be effective.

4. Varying Weather

Particular weather patterns common to your area can cause vegetable plants to behave in peculiar ways.

For instance, cool nighttime temperatures that fall lower than 60 degrees F, combined with hot daytime temperatures that reach higher than 85 degrees F can lead to tomatoes and pepper plants dropping their flowers.

Should that type of weather continue around the time these vegetable plants are flowering and setting fruit, you could very well end up with fewer vegetables.

5. Hot and Dry Weather

If you’ve been experiencing hot and dry weather without any appreciable rain of late, some of your plants might be stressed out. This could account for a poor performance. Be certain that your plants are receiving at least one inch of water weekly, more if your soil is sandy.

It is strongly suggested that you try mulching your soil because it acts to trap in moisture and also aids in regulating the soil temperature.

6. Native Plants

When gardening, you should plant vegetables that are native to your area. What type of each vegetable you elect to grow matters a great deal.

Selecting a variety of plants that grow well in your particular climate is an essential part of creating a healthy and productive garden. Should it be the case that you’ve been growing the same type of plants annually and have not managed to gain success, it could be time to try a new one.

7. Lack of Rotation

Since certain plants take particular nutrients from the soil, you should make it a point to rotate your crops every year so that they will continue to receive the nutrients they need. The new vegetable plants will provide the soil with the nutrients that have been taken up by the old ones. Thus, your soil will be continually replenished.

8. Excessive Watering

Too much water can be just as harmful as not enough. If your garden is located in a boggy area where the soil remains waterlogged, or perhaps you’re watering too much, you may have found the reason for your vegetables not growing.

If you are watering every single day, you could be doing more harm than good. The reason is because most vegetable plants like to have time to dry out a little between waterings, and some vegetables such as tomatoes and squash really dislike being soggy.

9. Improper Watering

The correct way for watering your vegetable plants is to do so at the root of the plant. You should never spray your entire garden daily because this could cause diseases to develop on, or make existing diseases on squash and tomatoes worse.

10. Insects

Attacks by insects on your vegetable plants are especially prevalent during the summertime. If you have a certain vegetable plant in your garden that’s not looking good, maybe all of your cabbages have holes in them, or your tomatoes are turning brown and wilting, this could be caused by the presence of insects.

The way you go about determining if this is the case or not is to spend some time reading about the particular vegetable plant. Learn what the symptoms of insect attack are, and which ones it’s likely to be, what they look like, and what you can do to rid your plants of them.

You should use an organic insect spray, but still be careful about where you spray. Don’t just go randomly spraying throughout the garden. You will regret this.

You need hundreds of butterflies, dragonflies, bees, and other insects termed helpful insects to benefit your plants. Even if you use a natural organic pesticide it will still kill everything it touches, both harmful and helpful insects indiscriminately.

11. Calcium Deficiency

Blossom end rot is a condition that frequently afflicts tomatoes and peppers. The cause is a lack of calcium.

This problem occurs when you have irregular moisture in the soil, or when too much nitrogen containing fertilizer has been put down.

Also, frequent periods of hot dry weather and then heavy rains can lead to blossom end rot too. Be about the fertilizer you use and lay down mulch. This will help keep the ground evenly moist.

12. Humidity

Are your tomato plants remaining small and failing to produce fruit? Well, too much humidity can be the reason. This is because it has a negative effect on pollen production, and broiling hot days for weeks on end can just be more than your tomato plants can tolerate.

13. Too Much Nitrogen

Another reason for tomato plants to become sickly, fail to grow, or to not produce fruit is the presence of too much nitrogen in your fertilizer. This can stunt the plants growth altogether, or result in their foliage thriving, but no fruit appearing.

14. Downy Mildew

Cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower are referred to as Cole crops. While these crops are common enough, they do have a few diseases that can afflict them. One of these is downy mildew.

This disease is brought on by a fungus and can beset both seedlings and even mature vegetable plants. You can tell an infected plant by looking for gray mold on the lower surface of the leaf.

Your first clue will probably be seeing that the upper leaf surface of your vegetable plants has turned yellow or brown. The leaves will proceed to wither and die off. Moist conditions promote the spread of this disease.

. The best way to avoid this problem is to plant types of vegetables that have a resistance to this disease.

. Space your plants widely to keep the leaves dry. Try not to get the leaves when you do your watering.

. Rotate your cole vegetable plants with other types of vegetable plants. Also, be sure to remove any leftover plant debris right after harvesting.

. Should the disease become so bad that you need to use chemicals to control it, mancozeb or chlorothalonil will help, and copper fungicides will also be beneficial.

15. Alternaria Leaf Spot

This is a disease brought on by the fungus Alternaria brassicicola, which appears when the weather is warm, and there are moist conditions. The disease shows itself on seedlings in the form of small dark spots which show up on the stem and that can lead to stunting of the plant. Leaves that are infected will eventually turn yellow and fall off.

. Remove all crop debris promptly after harvesting, because this disease will spend the winter on plant debris. It spreads swiftly by wind, insects, or splashing water.

. Administer seed treatment and be sure to rotate with crops that are not cole crops or greens for a period of about 3 years.

16. Black Rot

This disease is brought on by a bacterium and can attack all vegetables that are in the crucifer family. These would include cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli. It usually assails the parts of the plant that are exposed and not underground.

While symptoms may differ, according to the type of plant, how old it is, and environmental conditions, essentially it is noted by the appearance of yellow, V-shaped lesions on the tips of the leaves, and a sure indication that this is the disease is the fact that the point of the V will be aimed toward a vein in the leaf. Veins will become brown or black.

. Prevention is the key word here, as there are no chemicals that will control this disease. Since the bacteria live through the winter on plant debris and also weeds, so it is important to clear away all plant debris and weeds after harvesting. The bacteria can also be found in seeds that come from infected plants.

17. Wirestem

This disease is caused by a fungus. Plant stems will constrict at the soil line, the plant will become stunted and may begin to rot at the soil line. This particular disease is more harmful to fall cole crops if the soil is warm. Kale, collards, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli are usually affected by this disease.

. Prevention once again is the best way to avoid this disease. Use only plants that have been certified disease-free in your garden, better yet if they are grown in a greenhouse.

18. Fusarium Yellows

While this disease is less prevalent nowadays because of the plant varieties that have been created that are resistant to the disease, it can still be a problem. It is caused by a fungus, and most cabbage family members are vulnerable.

Symptoms are leaves turning yellow, stunting, and even death when it comes to seedlings. It is similar to black rot.

. The only method of controlling this disease is to plant yellows-resistant varieties of vegetables.

19. Viruses

Vegetable plants are vulnerable to a number of different viruses. Those plants which become infected may not grow and remain stunted, plus they will have misshapen leaves. Black spots grow on plant heads.

. Since there are no chemicals that can prevent or control viruses one of the things you should do is to control the insects in your garden. Aphids are responsible for spreading the virus, so you should focus your attention on them.

20. Cutworms

If you notice that your tomato transplants are not growing, the reason could be cutworms. These insects are very dangerous to tomato plants. They chew through the stems of the plants starting at the base. Their main source of food is roots and the leaves of young plants.

Sprinkling Epsom salt around the base of your tomato plant can help to naturally keep cutworms away. Some people recommend using old coffee grounds.