A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Short Stems what are my plants lacking

I'm noticing a reaccuring situation in my garden. All of my plants with few exceptions are about 1/2 the height they should be. My 4 foot tall black oil sunflowers are about 2 feet tall. My pepper plants aren't even 1 foot tall and the peppers are close to touching the ground. The ornamental onions that were suppose to reach 30 inches are closer to 16 inches. The peonies that should be 30 to 36 inches are closer to one foot. And yet everything blooms the way they are suppose to and look pretty good. Am I short on one of the ingredients in the fertilizer or is this more than likely a pH problem? Or is it something else that I'm doing wrong.

Everything in my garden is short too but I just chalked it up to being so early in the season. Maybe our plants are not fully matured yet? You could pinch your blooms to encourage more plant/root growth, but ... I like my fresh veggies too much to pinch off blooms.

It may be that your plants are deficient in Phosphorous (P) tk. This can be because of a low phosphate fertilizer or from a low Ph or acid soil. Have you ever checked the soil Ph in your gardens? There's a method using vinegar or something i read on here somewhere if you don't have a kit. I wouldn't go ammending anything until i knew exactly what the problem was.

BTW, did you know that if you burn bones, the resulting ash is a good organic source of Phosphorous?

I know my soil is on the acidic side of things. And yes I got one of the testers at the store this year. But I understand the results may not be as accurate as I would have liked it to be. I'm completely out of money now so I can't really do anything to the soil at this point that I haven't already done. I was kind of hoping that of what I have around the house there might have been something I could have added. But there is always next year. I'll have nice tall plants next year. Or at least that's my hope.

Thankyou for the information Longy. It's nice to see your posts. I missed you.

Could be a weather related problem also. The only real way to know if your soil can provide the necessary nutrients is by having a soil test done by a good lab.

Could be water....

If you've got everything right in the soil...
and jusssssst notttttt quite enough water to really make them thrive..
they'll concentrate on making a flower
*to make seed, in their eyes', to preserve the species*
and not really care whether they're tall or not....

Thanks all,

I guess I'll have to figure out how to get a hold of the cooperative extension office.

I wouldn't be suprised if it was more water but they aren't very likely to get that because I can only care so many buckets per day and then I'm done. My legs give out on me. And I end up on my tuss. lol.

just a thought here but what about nitrogen? i thought about that as you said the plants start to put out seed to preserve the species- that's what my corn was doing. it was going to tassle at about 1 ft tall. i asked at the local farm and he said it's depleted nitrogen. this is the 3 year i've had corn and haven't added manures because i thought it lasted longer BUT if i grew corn maybe it used it up faster. anyhow i bought 2 bags of manures from lowes and a box of blood meal and some fish emulsion. i spread the blood meal all around and then dug in the manures between the corn i had already planted and watered with fish emulsion each weekend. so far so good. i pulled the plants that started to tassle and now am just watching the others. it seems to have worked so far. not sure if this could be the same reason as yours- like i said it was just a thought....

tk, is all your soil mostly clay, or just the slope you've mentioned? Compacted soil could be the problem.

Yep everything is clay. I did mix in compost this year so it's better than last year but still pretty much clay.

Pagarden thankyou for the suggestion. It sounds like you and I may be seeing the same thing. I'll diffinitely try adding nitrogen.

I got one of the testers at the store this year. But I understand the results may not be as accurate as I would have liked it to be.
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The Ph testers are pretty accurate TK, for our backyard purposes anyway. The idea is to do a few tests from different areas of the garden and see if they are all pretty much the same. What is the Ph of your soil?

i have the same issue in the clay logged part of my garden, and i'm thinking it is the clay. i have ammnended the soil as well, but i'm thinking that the roots still may not have enough spread out room due to the clay.

just a guess.