Chives are tasty herbs that make great additions to meals and snacks. Most hobbyists and gardeners grow chives outdoors, or just in pots indoors, on their kitchen windowsills. In this post, you will find causes why chives are not growing vigorously, how to make chives grow faster, and will discover additional tips on ideal chive growing conditions to promote growth.
Chives are easy to grow herbs and can adapt to different conditions. However, sometimes they suffer from various physiological aliments and environmental stresses, resulting in chives not growing correctly. Additionally, these problems interfere with the plant’s average growth cycle and development.
Following are the factors that negatively affect the growth and development of chives in your garden and can make your chives stop growing properly:
- Overwatering and under-watering
- High water salinity
- Insufficient light exposure
- Inadequate temperature
- Pest infestation
- Nutrient Deficiency
- Weeds
- Disrupted growth cycle
- Lack of space
- Rootbound plant
- Lack of harvesting
Reason 1: Chives are not growing due to overwatering or underwatering
Chives are a member of the onion family. These herbs adore growing exponentially in well-draining and moist soils. Knowingly or unknowingly, we tend to overwater the herb. This negatively affects the bulbous chives’ growth and development in the garden or pots. Overwatering is the number one villain that interferes with the herb’s normal growth cycle.
Various scientific studies have shown that excess water in the herb’s soil and root zone reduces the oxygen content and ultimately leads to the suffocation of roots. Like you and me, chives roots require an adequate supply of gases like oxygen and nitrogen to function correctly. Reduced gas supply in the chives root zone means less growth of the herb.
Overwatering can also cause bacterial growth and root rot, as well as the collapse of the whole plant. However, underwatering can drive stunted growth and flavorless chives.
So to avoid overwatering your chives, make sure to keep the soil moist all the time, but never too wet or soaking. Waterlogged roots are the chives’ worst enemy. Make sure that chives’ are planted in pots/containers with drainage holes. Place a saucer under the container and empty excess water when watering indoor chives.
How to know whether you are overwatering or underwatering your chives?
To test the herb, check the leaves and soil in the garden periodically. Yellowing of the leaves is often an indication that you are overwatering your chives. Yellowing and drying of leaves can also happen with too much sunlight.
Most importantly, test the chive leaves with your hand. If the leaves feel soft and limp, then it often means you are overwatering the herb. Check the soil with a needle or toothpick. If the soil is wet enough, do not water it at the moment. You can also use a soil meter like this, which will help with watering levels, sunlight, and pH.
To check if you are underwatering your chives, feel the herb with your hand. If the leaves are light and crispy, then it means you are underwatering. Check the soil moisture with a meter or a toothpick and water more often. Make sure to adapt your watering schedules according to the season and temperatures.
Unfortunately, there is no specific schedule for watering the herb. Watering the herb depends on various environmental and soil factors. If the soil is high-draining, water the chives frequently during hot summer days; if the ground is moderate to slow draining, water the soil less often. Always check the soil before watering.
Reason 2: Excess water salinity
Apart from over-watering and under-watering, high salt content in water negatively affects the herb’s natural growth in your garden. According to scientific reports, salty water has the power to ruin a perfectly growing chives herb.
If you are using water from unknown sources, then it is recommended to check the water for salt content. White salt crusts can be visible on the soil when salinity is high. Change the water you are using if you see this. You can also test salt content in water if you have a refractometer or a hydrometer.
Reason 3: Insufficient light exposure
Chives are light-dependent herbs, and sunlight is a sort of the catalyst of photosynthesis. In general, chives like open spaces with lots of sunlight. But their flexibility and hardiness mean that they can greatly adapt to indoor conditions. Because chives are adaptive, they can get used to low light to full sun! However, lack of light will affect how fast chives are growing. Chives require at least six to eight hours of daily sunlight for proper growth.
If you are growing chives indoors, make sure to put them on a sunny windowsill. But always avoid North facing windowsills that don’t get much light. South-facing windows receive maximum sunlight during the daytime.
If you are growing the herb in a spot in your garden with limited sunlight exposure, you might look into replanting it to a different location. Also, avoid garden spots that stay very wet after a strong rainfall because it will cause rotting.
Reason 4: Inadequate temperatures
Unlike other herbs, chives prefer to grow in cool to moderately warm temperatures. Please note, your chives might not be growing properly due to very low or high temperatures.
The ideal temperature to grow chives falls between 40 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit (4-29 Celsius). At this temperature, chives will thrive. When the temperature drops below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, the herb will go to a dormant state, and its growth and development will cease. If you have chives in the garden and get low temperatures in winter, you can divide a clump (if possible) and take it indoors for a winter source of fresh chives.
Moreover, temperatures above 85 degrees Fahrenheit are favorable for chive development and growth. In cases of extreme heat, make sure to water chives regularly. This practice keeps the plant protected from sunburn and other various problems. If growing outdoors, make sure to keep them a bit away from windows, as glass can cause significant spikes in temperature (hence burning the plant). Open windows for good air exchange.
During freezing temperatures, make sure to cover the herb with a plastic bag or a horticultural cover like this. This practice keeps the chives herb protected from unfavorable climatic conditions during the winter season.
Reason 5: Pest Infestation
Pest infestation is another major issue that can interfere with the chives’ natural growth. Onion maggots and thrips are significant pests of chives.
These pests suck nutrients from chives leaves and spread other secondary diseases. Onion maggots look similar to common flies, but they are lighter in color. These pests suck nutrients and create tunnels in chives’ bulbs, causing root rotting and secondary diseases. Chives are also susceptible to thrips. These tiny insects physically look like aphids, and they suck fluids and plant nutrients from the scapes of chives. These insects can cause the infected area to die.
How to protect your chives from a pest infestation?
The following are the best practices against pest infestation in your garden.
- Plant-insects sticky traps: This is an effective non-chemical strategy for controlling black bug attacks on your chives.
- Shake them out or use water: To remove thrips and other pests, you can shake the herb back and forth or use water to remove them manually.
- Apply insecticides in severe infections: Use natural insecticides such as neem oil, horticultural oil, or insecticidal soap like this to control thrips and many other pests.
- Replace the soil: Sometimes, thrips and onion maggots lay their eggs in the ground. Once your herb is infected with thrips or onion maggots replacing the soil is the best practice to control future insect infestation.
- Use Organic Neem oil: You can use organic neem Oil like this to protect your herb against insect infestations. This organic oil is very effective against repelling insects from the herb’s vicinity.
Reason 6: Nutrient Deficiency
Chives need nutrients to grow and thrive. If your chives are not getting enough nutrients, then it means that herb’s normal growth and development can be stunted. In general, chives don’t need much fertilizer to grow. But you can look into fertilization after the chive plant turns two and over, and after you have done 2 harvests. If your chives are growing in a big pot or a garden, they will need less fertilization. Indoor potted chives will significantly benefit from fertilization.
To keep your herb healthy and happy, you must apply organic or synthetic fertilizers whenever leaves have started to turn yellow. The yellowing of leaves is a clear sign of a lack of nutrients in the soil. Applying fertilizers at recommended rate helps the chives to produce high foliage and a robust root system. Once you have applied nutrients in the form of fertilizers, your chives’ growth should improve.
Avoid fertilizing more than 1-2 times a year. Too much fertilization, especially using fertilizers that have high nitrogen ratios, can burn the chive plant and cause weakened roots. This will in turn, lead to more infestations and disease.
Reason 7: Lack of space
Chives like open spaces to grow and thrive. Even though they can adapt to smaller spaces, they need some adequate space to grow properly. If you are growing chives in pots, make sure to repot them when they become root-bound. This will provide fresh nutrients and space to a growing plant.
Each season, check your chives’ roots – are they coming out of the drainage holes or circled around the rootball? If yes, they need repotting into a larger pot. Rootbound (no space for roots) chives will not grow, as roots just can’t supply nutrients to the plant when compressed forcefully in a small area.
What is more, you need to divide chive clumps each season, after they turn around 3-4 years old.
Reason 8: Lack of harvesting
Believe it or not, you need to harvest chives to make them grow faster. If your chive produces large clumps, it will have less space to grow further. To promote growth in chives, harvest regularly. Don’t expect much growth during the first year, and avoid snipping too many leaves. However, once your chives are growing well, you need to harvest them 1-3, even 4 times in a season.
You can start harvesting your chives once they reach at least 6″ (15 cm) high, but a bit more is preferred (around 12-16 inches/30-40 cm). When harvesting, make sure to cut chives close to the ground with sharp scissors, only leaving 2-3″ (5-8 cm). Don’t ever pull chives from the ground, as it will destroy them.
You can read all about harvesting chives correctly to promote growth in this post (new tab).
Reason 9: Disrupted growth cycle
Chive plants are perennials and grow, bloom, and rest depending on which season it is. Just like a biological clock, it tells the plant when to grow and when to rest. Chive plants need to rest in winter, so if you are growing chives indoors, they might have their cycle disrupted. Chives like this will look very thin and start drooping.
If you are growing chives indoors all year round, and they look tired and are not growing, you can try this trick. Trim your chive plant and only leave around 2″ (5 cm) of growth and let the soil dry out. Then, put it in a paper bag and place in a fridge for 14-15 days. Take your chives out and water them slightly after they warm up a little. You should then see some growth appear after a week or so.
If you don’t see any growth in chives, you can try fertilizing them a little. If fertilization doesn’t help either, try refrigerating it again for another 12-15 days.
Another great tip – if you want a source of fresh chives during winter, you can divide a mature plant and take one clump indoors. Place that clump into a pot with fresh soil and grow it indoors in winter. The plant will continue to grow as it will think that it’s a growing season with warm room temperatures.
Additional suggestions and tips for improving growth in chives
- Harvest the one to two-year-old chives regularly to boost growth and development. Harvest 2-4 times a year during the growing season.
- If you are growing the chives in pots or containers, use sterilized jars and sterilized soils.
- Remove weeds from your chives garden. Weeds compete with herbs for light and nutrients.
- Use well-draining, organically rich soil. Chives thrive in well-draining loam soil. Loam soil is a mixture of less than 50% sand, less than 27% clay, and 30 to 50% silt.
- Maintain 6 inches’ distance between the bulbs of chives. Maintaining proper distance reduces over-crowding and limits the chances of the development of diseases.
- Repot your plant when you have issues of unknown causes.
- Only use the best quality seeds, preferably from the same season. Older seeds have less chances of fertilization. Bad quality seeds can lead to growth of flavorless chives.
- Avoid using chemicals to get rid of pests and disease. Choose natural options.
Thank you for reading this post on why chives are not growing and how to make them grow faster. To learn more about growing and caring for chives, see this page.