How to Spot & Fix Nutrient Burn

Nutrient Burn: Symptoms and Solutions

Plants grown in the wild, including weed plants, can generally survive without added nutrients or fertilizer, but houseplants or potted plants are very different. Because the soil is stagnant, they need routine feeding to grow healthily and happily. However, giving your plants too many nutrients can have an adverse impact on your weed plants, causing nutrient burn. What does nutrient burn on weed plants look like? When diagnosed, how do you fix nutrient burn? This post will shed light on these questions.

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What Is Nutrient Burn

Nutrient burn, or nute burn, is what happens to your houseplants when they absorb excessive nutrients, leading to toxicity. When nutrient burn happens, the plant is unable to take in as much water and cannot photosynthesize properly, which further leads to stunted growth, hinders bud development, and reduces both yield quality and cannabinoid content. In extreme circumstances, excess fertilizer can even kill the plant.

What Causes Nutrient Burn on Your Plants

When it comes to nutrient burn, the first culprit that comes to your mind is fertilizer, right? Indeed, too much fertilizer is the top 1 suspect when encountering nutrient burn. Besides, incorrect pH levels and excess salts can also ruin your plant growth.

  • Over-fertilization: Using too many or highly concentrated nutrient mixes can overwhelm the roots and cause significant damage. This often happens when growers add extra mix during the fast-growing stages ,such as the veggie and flowering stages.

  • pH imbalance: Incorrect pH levels in the growing medium can make nutrients unavailable, prompting the plant to absorb excess fertilizer and leading to nutrient burn.

  • Salt buildup: Excessive salts from over-fertilization can interfere with nutrient absorption.

How to Spot Nutrient Burn Symptoms

Spotting nutrient burn in the early stages is essential if you want to fix the problem and save your plant. Firstly, your plant can only be suffering from nutrient burn if you’ve recently fed it fertilizer or bottled nutrients in the last 1-4 weeks.

Secondly, your plant will start showing visual signs of damage, including both leaf damage and root damage. These symptoms appear because the plant is desperately trying to remove the excess nutrients from its soil and roots.

Symptoms of nutrient burn include:

Note: It’s easy to confuse nutrient burn symptoms with overwatered plants, especially when the leaves are yellowing. However, the major difference between these two is that, the leaf tip of nutrient burnt plants will start yellowing first before spreading to the rest of the leaf. In contrast, overwatering your plant can cause the entire leaf to become yellow. That's to say, the leaves will respond differently and tell you the answer.

How to Fix Nutrient Burn in Plants

Fixing nutrient burn in plants is relatively simple, provided you’ve spotted the problem early and work quickly to resolve the issue. You’ll need to act differently depending on whether your indoor or greenhouse plant suffers from nutrient burn in hydroponic or soil growing. Meanwhile, observing new, healthy growth is a key indicator that your plant is recovering from nutrient burn.

How to Fix Nutrient Burn in Hydroponic Plants

Fixing nutrient burn in plants grown in hydroponic growing systems is relatively quicker and easier. When growing hydroponically, you can dilute the nutrients in your system by adding plain, pH-balanced water - use a pH pen to ensure accuracy. If you discover you’ve used the wrong nutrients, it's easy to swap out the entire water solution and start fresh with the correct fertilizer at the appropriate dilution.

For a more detailed guide, here’s how to fix nutrient burn in hydroponic plants:

  1. Remove dead or infected leaves using clean shearers.

  2. Pour pH-balanced water into the containers to dilute the current nutrients properly.

  3. Use a pH pen to test the nutrient levels.

  4. Continue diluting the water gradually until it reaches an optimal level.

If your water is beyond saving because you’ve used the wrong type of fertilizer for your plants, change the water entirely and start again. Don't rush and give your plants time to recover.

How to Fix Nutrient Burn in Soil

Saving soil-grown plants from nutrient burn can be slightly more difficult. Nutrient burn in soil-grown plants is often caused by artificially nutrient-enriched soil, which leads to over-fertilization. You can save them if you catch the issue in an early growth stage, but there is a chance indoor plants won’t recover, especially when root and leaf damage is spotted.

Here’s how to fix nutrient burn in soil:

  1. Cut the dead or infected, burnt leaf tips with clean garden tools.

  2. Take your potted plant outdoors or place it in a sink or bath.

  3. Flush the plant with pH-balanced water.

  4. Use a pH pen to test the soil and ensure it's at an optimal level again.

  5. Leave the plant in a warm place to help the soil dry out.

  6. Avoid watering again until the soil dries out (depending on the watering needs of your plant).

Additionally, tracking Electrical Conductivity (EC) helps assess nutrient concentrations in the soil, helping to avoid over-fertilization. If EC levels rise too much, reduce the strength of the nutrient solution and increase the frequency and volume of irrigation to boost drainage.

Verdict: Diagnosing & Fixing Nutrient Burn

To summarize, identifying nutrient burn as soon as possible can increase the likelihood of saving your plants. As nutrient burn progresses, symptoms of nutrient burn can become more severe, leading to stunted growth and potential plant death. By recognizing symptoms of nutrient burn, such as browning leaf tips and curling leaves, you can take swift action to mitigate the damage. Addressing nutrient burn by diluting or flushing out excessive nutrients, while closely monitoring pH and EC levels, will help your plants recover. Prevention is always the best strategy, so carefully managing nutrient levels and feeding schedules can ensure your plants grow strong and healthy, avoiding the risk of long-term damage or reduced yields.

FAQs about Nutrient Burn

1. Can cannabis recover from nutrient burn?
Yes, indoor plants can recover from nutrient burn if caught early. The key is to flush out excess nutrients with pH-balanced water and adjust your feeding schedule to prevent further over-fertilization. Remove any damaged or burnt leaves to encourage healthy new growth, and monitor your plants closely for signs of recovery.

2. How to tell the difference between light burn and nutrient burn?
Light burn typically causes leaves to bleach or turn white at the top of the plant, especially those closest to the light source. In contrast, nutrient burn results in browning or yellowing at the tips and edges of leaves, starting from the bottom or middle of the plant and progressing upwards. Light stress is related to proximity to grow lights, while the nutrient burn is caused by overfeeding or nutrient imbalance.

3. What does a pH burn look like?
pH burn appears as discolored or twisted leaves, often accompanied by nutrient deficiency. The leaves may exhibit dark spots, yellowing, or curling edges. This happens because improper pH levels can block the plant’s ability to absorb nutrients, leading to symptoms similar to nutrient burn, but caused by incorrect pH levels rather than excess nutrients.