If we are hoping to grow food for ourselves and our family table, a whole lot of things need to go right. Proper plant care and environment are the precursor to a fabulous harvest. Here are some no-fail rules of thumb for how to make your plants grow faster.
As a gardener, you’d like to see the fruits of your labor faster, but plants don’t want to play ball. It can take months for a simple flower to come up from a bulb, and if you want a mighty oak, you can forget it: you’ll be dead by the time it reaches maturity!
The good news, however, is that there are plenty of things that you can do to make plants grow faster. Try these tips to supercharge the growth in your vegetable garden.
Master These Tips for How to Make Plants Grow Faster
Get these tips into your head and out into your garden, and you will be on your way to starting a successful vegetable garden!
Tip #1: Keep Your Plants Warm
Plants have a preferred temperature at which they perform optimally, from germination stages all the way through setting fruit. Providing that preferred temperature will save your plant a lot of stress, and ensure that your plant arrives at the stage where it can provide fruit for your family.
Some things you can do to provide that temperature are using a heating pad or grow light box during the germination process, making sure to plant seedlings at the right time of the year, measuring the temperature of the soil before planting seeds outdoors, and using a floating row cover when the temperature is too low.
Tip #2: Provide Your Plants With Nutrients
Each type of plant has a specific set of nutrient needs. Thankfully, all-purpose fertilizers will work great for most any vegetable garden. These fertilizers have an equal amount of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, and can provide plants what they need in a pinch.
Still, it is better to understand the needs of the plants you are growing, because doing so will ensure that your plant will experience optimal nutrition, helping it to grow faster than it would without said nutrition.
Part of the nutrients will come from healthy garden soil, and others you will need to provide. Researching and keeping track of this information in your garden planner will go a long way in creating gardening habits that match your plant’s needs, and in turn, your family’s needs.
Tip #3: Research Soil Moisture Levels
Some plants are adapted to arid environments, and others prefer more temperate weather conditions. It’s a worthwhile use of your time to use some of it finding out what soil moisture levels your plants prefer.
In some places, natural rainfall may be sufficient. If you live in the southwestern US, then you’ll be able to grow cacti without any additional water. However, growing petunias with desert levels of rainfall isn’t possible.
Creating optimal moisture conditions can significantly speed the process at which a plant grows. This signals to it that times are abundant and that it’s free to dedicate resources into getting bigger.
Tip #4: Use Soil Of The Correct Texture
Soil comes in many types. Some soils are rough and stony. Others are dense and clay-like. You will want to investigate your soil to figure out what kind you have in your garden plot, and what you need to do to get it prepared to grow vegetables. Learn about different types of soil in this post.
On our property, we have very hard, granite-like soil. Once penetrated, the soil beneath that hard exterior is clay, so for us, it is most prudent to grow in raised garden beds.
Check that the plants you want to grow are suited to the soil on your property. If they aren’t, then you may want to add extra soil or mulch from your local garden center to provide adequate conditions.
The tomato’s are mouth watering! Im yet to find a variety that will endure our Florida heat.
Hi Wendy! Have you ever contacted your local extension office to find out which tomatoes grow best in your area? Another suggestion–there may be a gardening group for your area (county, maybe?) that could give you a few leads on which tomatoes to try. It’s pretty warm where I live, and this year I’m doing San Marzanos, which grow well here. Others that work well for us are Brandywine, which are wonderful slicing tomatoes. Perhaps those might work well for you too!