If you are wondering why your snake plant not growing, it can happen if the plant is exposed to frigid temperatures, low light conditions, inadequate warmth or pest infestations.
The reasons may be several and identifying the right cause is essential to get the plant back on track.
In this article, our experts help you identify the exact cause of why your gorgeous snake plant is not showing enough plant growth.
We not only guide you to narrow down the actual reason but also give you insights on how to fix the plant problem successfully, making this guide an absolute must-read.
Contents
Why Is Your Snake Plant Not Growing?
Your snake plant is not growing because of several reasons such as exposure to extreme temperature conditions, inadequate light, mechanical damage, dormancy in winter seasons, and even infections or infestations. The plant is a typical succulent and requires its ideal growth conditions to thrive as dense foliage.
On average, the snake plant leaves growing straight to about four feet tall. The complete list of reasons for making your snake plant develop exceptionally slowly or not at all is mentioned below.
– Low Light Conditions
The snake plant’s inability to grow could be due to low light levels, which is intolerable and stressful. While intense indirect light promotes more remarkable snake plant growth, too much darkness might stunt the growth of your snake plant. You will find the snake plant not growing but not dying as well.
At the same time, excessive direct sunlight tends to burn the leaves. Shorter-day lengths hamper the growth of the plant, especially during the winter. The days are much shorter and there is less light; hence the snake plants are more likely to go dormant.
– Low Temperature
A snake plant’s requirement to thrive is at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius) in a typical room environment. The snake plants grow slowly or not at all if it is kept in an ordinarily chilly room in your home.
– Leaf Tip Damage
The leaf blade may stop growing if the pointy leaf tips have been injured. This damage may occur if the snake plant is tall and top-heavy, which increases the likelihood that it will topple over.
For those who have a large snake plant at home, make sure to keep it away from young children and pets that may play with the plant and damage its leaves. This might cause the plant to stop growing or to become unhealthy.
– Lack of Fertilizer
Although snake plants are not heavy feeders, a nutrient deficiency can significantly slow down or even stop new development. Find your snake plant not growing tall?
Know that when snake plants are kept in the same container for a long time, the soil can deplete nutrients, limiting the growth rate and making the leaves appear not growing. Additionally, remember that adding extra fertilizer won’t help!
While a bit of fertilizer helps speed up the growth of your snake plant, too much might harm the leaves and plant roots and even prevent further development. Using too much fertilizer is much more likely to prevent growth in your snake plant than using too little.
Watch for indications like brown spots and turning yellow on the tips of the leaves even when other plant care requirements are being met. These are traces of fertilizer salts piling up on the soil surface.
– Seasonal Dormancy
Seasonal dormancy prevents the snake plant growing. During the winter, snake plants frequently go dormant and stop growing. This occurs because vital variables like temperature, light intensity, and the duration of sunlight per day affect the growth of your snake plant.
Whether or not the leaves of your snake plant grow depends on the amount of light and the hours of sunlight.
Thus, your snake plant may not grow in any obvious way for several months if you live in a cooler temperature or possibly in a northern latitude with shorter day lengths in the winter. This occurrence is natural, as the snake plant only responds to its surroundings.
– Size of the Pot
Snake plants’ growth rate may be slowed by pot size. A small pot is not inherently harmful to the health of your snake plant. Still, it can ultimately limit development because snake plants are hardy and want their roots to be somewhat pot-bound.
Smaller pots might not be the only reason your snake plant isn’t growing, but they could be one of the contributing factors since such pots hold less soil and the roots have less access to nutrients.
– Root Bound
Snake plants that get rootbound won’t sprout new growth unless their roots are strong enough to support the new plant. Your plant may be unable to generate new growth if its roots have filled the entire pot.
A rootbound snake plant will eventually reach a point where there is no more room for new foliage, even though snake plants tend to maintain their densely packed vegetation. Under this situation, it’s also typical to find the snake plant not growing roots.
However, a common notion is that repotting a rootbound snake plant is unnecessary; many people prefer to keep them rootbound to control their development and maintain the ideal size.
– Underwatering
Despite being incredibly drought-tolerant, snake plants drastically slow down their growth when they don’t receive adequate water. When the soil is almost entirely dry, symptoms of stress in snake plants usually appear several weeks or months after the soil has dried out.
The primary signs of underwatering include dry soil, curling leaves, dark leaf tips, and lack of growth. To ensure you water snake plant only when it needs it, check the ground every few days by digging a finger into it and testing for moisture.
– Overwatering
Overwatering is the opposite side of the watering coin and can prevent your snake plant from flourishing. Snake plants do not require frequent watering because they are drought-tolerant.
Unfortunately, overwatering causes root rot, which makes snake plants grow slowly and typically results in plant death. When watering your snake plant, always err on the side of caution because underwatering is considerably less hazardous to your plant.
– Acclimation
Most plants require some time to acclimate when you initially bring them home. The conditions in your home are probably not as ideal as those in which snake plants are typically grown in their native habitats.
Your snake plant may initially cease developing for a month or two as it gets used to the new environment, so it would be best to wait, especially if the snake plant stopped growing after repoting.
Wait a little while and you should soon notice new growth. You will have a healthy snake plant when you are giving it all the necessary care conditions it requires.
– Diseases and Pests
Both pests and diseases can put your plant under a lot of stress and altogether stop its growth. Overwatering is the primary source of most diseases that snake plants contract, and thus proper care is the key to avoiding issues.
On the other hand, common garden pests such as mealybugs and scales can inflict harm on snake plants, significantly impacting their growth and health.
Regular inspection and early treatment of your snake plant is the best defense against all pests. Look closely for any evidence of plant problems on the undersides of the leaves, all the way to the point where they emerge from the soil.
How Can I Speed Up the Growth of My Snake Plant?
To speed up the growth of your snake plant, you can tackle pest infestations, if any, place your plant in a brightly-lit area, use the right fertilizer, water it correctly, use well-draining soil, give it space to breathe, and make sure it is warm.
Want to know how to boost growth of snake plant? Optimizing the care conditions and avoiding stress can help your snake plant develop as soon as possible. Now that you have identified the actual cause of the slow growth in your snake plant, let us learn how you could speed up its development and make the plant grow faster.
Find ways to ensure your plant grows healthy and thriving in the section below.
– Tackle Pest Infestations
Use these steps to solve the issue if you find any pests. Remove your plant from the rest of your indoor plants as soon as possible. Removing them with a cloth or spraying them with water from a shower head or hose will work, just make sure to manually get rid of as many pests as possible.
Apply a treatment such as diluted hydrogen peroxide, neem oil, or isopropyl alcohol spray to the plant thoroughly and if necessary, repeat the treatment every 5 to 7 days for 3 to 4 weeks to ensure that all pests have been eliminated.
Once you are sure that your plant has been adequately cared for, you can return it to its original location. Typically, a severe pest infestation would prevent your snake plant growing.
Your Snake Plant won’t normally develop if there is a giant insect infestation, and it may take many months to see plants grow after treatment. If you are patient, you might be rewarded.
– Place Your Plant in a Bright Area
A snake plant nearly always needs extra light if it is generating growth slower than you anticipated. Only the sun can give it this extra light required to grow new roots and leaves.
In addition, snake plants are more resilient than other indoor house plants and can thrive in low-light conditions. You can be assured there may not be a new development of leaves in any dark home corners and they will take much longer to reproduce in low light.
You can place your Sansevieria on a porch or balcony during the growing season, but only let it receive up to 5 to 6 hours of direct sunlight daily. If you relocate your snake plant to a more sunny location, it might be more likely to have growth.
We advise you to use a window that faces east if you are growing it indoors. Consider keeping your plant a few feet away, especially if it is southern or western exposures, which can also be beneficial.
– Get the Right Fertilizer Use
Fertilizer, frequently referred to as “plant food,” is more akin to a dietary addition. Of course, this does not imply that it is not significant; after all, we are trying to encourage your snake plant to grow well.
Just keep in mind that sometimes less is better. Giving your snake plant more fertilizer than it can consume will result in the soil retaining many undesired minerals that, over time, can dry out the roots and harm them.
A once-monthly half-strength fertilizer application with a 3:1:2 NPK ratio should be sufficient. A balanced mix formula will also work; remember to dilute it to half the suggested strength.
When your snake plant isn’t receiving enough light to flourish, avoid fertilizing it. It would help if you began reducing the dosage as summer turns into fall and finishes by mid-autumn.
– Water the Plant Properly
Don’t let the roots of your snake plant dry up. At the same time, remember that overwatering is also the greatest threat to snake plants.
You may risk having its roots eaten by ravenous moisture-loving bacteria if you leave its soil wet for an extended period of time. However, as photosynthesis needs water and sunlight, being underwater will impede its growth.
You can achieve the ideal equilibrium by watering when there is just a trace of moisture in the soil remaining around the roots of your snake plant. The most straightforward test is to poke your finger into the ground, and your snake plant is ready for another drink whenever the top 2 to 3 inches feel dry.
A soil moisture meter will provide you with even more accuracy. Regardless of your approach, you should check on your snake plant every five days to ensure it goes with water for a short time.
A snake plant should be watered once a week for better growth. While larger snake plants may need watering every two to three days, smaller snake plants may go up to two weeks without needing it, so it really depends on the size and type of your plant. Every few days, feel the soil to check if it’s dry or crumbly. It’s time to water your snake plant if the soil is dry to the touch.
– Use Well-draining Soil
By keeping your snake plant in swiftly draining soil, you may significantly lower the chances of overwatering and improve the growth of the leaves. The secret is to use a lot of components with massive particles that take a while to decompose, including chunks of rock and bark.
A mix of 40 percent coarse perlite, 30 percent orchid bark, 20 percent coconut coir, and 10 percent vermicompost should make up your standard mix.
There is sandy succulent potting soil such as miracle gro potting mix or perfect plants 4 qt. organic carnivorous plant soil tscs0004 for those who would prefer to purchase something already produced.
When watering, soak the soil of your snake plant until a trickle emerges from the pot’s base. This will not only quench its hunger but also aid in washing away any excess fertilizer, decreasing the likelihood that the plant’s roots will burn.
Ensure your snake is planted in a container with a sound drainage hole, and empty the saucer underneath after it has completely drained.
– Make the Space Larger
A plant’s growth might stall if it gets root bound, which occurs when the roots have taken up all the possible space in the pot. The roots interfere with one another, reducing the water and fertilizer they can absorb.
To prevent this, you should transfer your snake plant into a larger pot every three to four years. It shouldn’t grow too much; an additional 2 inches in width should be plenty.
More significant than that will make it more challenging to avoid overwatering because the extra soil will take longer to dry. Use your fingers to gently spread the roots of the Snake Plant apart as you move it into its new container, which will motivate it to settle in the new area rather than remain bundled up.
Early to mid-spring is the optimal time to make the change. After you relocate your Sansevieria, it needs to rest and recover for about a month; hence you should shield it from direct sunlight and refrain from fertilizing it during this period.
– Give It Warmth
Although snake plants are tolerant of temperature changes and can survive in various temperature ranges, a warmer environment is preferable for their best growth. Keep snake plants out of draughts and in a light area to promote their fastest growth.
The snake plant can develop in the right indoor conditions from early spring to late summer, reaching a mature height of around four feet tall (albeit at a somewhat slower rate, as is characteristic of succulents).
Also, it’s better to gradually expose them to more warmth and light than to abruptly move them from a shaded area to a sunny location because the sudden contrast risks scorching the leaves.
– Prune Leaf Damage
If your plant leaves have faced mechanical damage, prune the section with a sterile garden pruner. To encourage more significant development, trim damaged leaves that are not returning to the plant’s root.
Additionally, it is frequently a good idea to promote growth and keep your snake plant from tumbling over by repotting it after three years in a larger pot with new potting soil. This is because snake plants frequently become top-heavy.
Snake plants produce two to four new leaves and can grow two to twelve inches per year during each growing season, depending on the variety. Roots form on snake plant cuttings in three to five weeks. The plant is moderately slow in its growth, typical of most succulents.
To answer the question “Do snake plants grow new leaves?” after potting the snake-plant cutting, you should witness growth after four to six weeks if you first allow the roots to grow one to two inches in length.
FAQ
– Why Aren’t My Snake Plant’s Pups Growing?
Your snake plant’s pups aren’t growing because they need extra light. Only the sun can give plants the energy they need to grow new pups, roots and leaves. Move the plant to a warm and sunny spot to tackle the snake plant problems.
This is the best solution if your snake plant isn’t generating offspring as quickly as you anticipated or if you find the snake plant not rooting in water.
Conclusion
Now that you have read all about the snake plant’s growth rate and understand its causes, you will be effectively tackling the plant in your garden.
Here is a quick summary of everything this article has covered.
- If your snake plant is not developing, it may be because there aren’t enough hours of bright light, it’s too cold outside, or the leaf tips have become injured, which can prevent the leaf from growing.
- During the winter, snake plants go into dormancy when there is less light, fewer days, and colder temperatures. The snake plant should typically begin to grow in the spring due to extra daylight hours.
- A snake plant nearly always needs extra light if it isn’t generating offspring as quickly as you anticipated. Trim any damaged leaves that are not returning to the plant’s root to boost growth.
- If the container is too tiny, the snake plant may run out of nutrients, which would cause growth to slacken and eventually stop. The plant cannot tolerate excessive water, but it is intolerant of bone-dry soil as well.
- When sprayed in the spring and summer, a small amount of fertilizer for succulents and cacti can aid in promoting the growth of a snake plant. Because your Sansevieria could require some time to acclimate, gradually change from darkness to light.
Snake plants are succulents that grow somewhat moderately slowly, depending on how well their growing conditions are. With the proper care, you can fill your garden with these dense plants that typically grow between one and three inches monthly.
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