It is unnecessary to give your plants an overabundance of nutrients for their health. Keeping it light is the best way to go for optimum growth. Nutrient burn is one of the most frequent issues newbie growers have, which happens when the plant’s roots absorb an excessive amount of bottled nutrients.

Read this article and learn how to identify and prevent a nutrient burn in your marijuana plants

What is nutrient burn

Nutrient burn is also known as cannabis “Nute Burn”. This occurs when seedlings or plants are grown right in soil that already has a lot of nutrients. Nutrient burn causes your leaves to lose necessary meat that it needs.

This overabundance of nutrients leads to yellow or brown burnt tips on the leaves. The amount of nutrients must be reduced, or else the problem spreads from the burnt tips inward causing the leaves to become crunchy and curled. For example, if there is too much potassium, nutrient burn will show up as brown spots near the edges of the leaf. When there is excessive nitrogen, the leaves will tilt/curl downward.

Download my free marijuana grow guide at this link for more on nutrient problems

If all you have is a little bit of nute burn than that is not much of an issue, however, if it is not properly treated this will seriously reduce plant growth and yields. Another thing is, this could lead to your marijuana having a bad chemical taste that you don’t want. It doesn’t matter what kind of nutrient burn your plant has, the steps to resolve it are the same.

How to fix nutrient burn

Bottled Nutrients – Usually you have nute burn because you are putting too many additional nutrients in the water. Always use nutrients that were made for cannabis plants. Remember, if it is good for tomato plants than it works for marijuana.

Be sure you are using the proper nutrients for the particular growth period your plant is in. There are different requirements for the vegetative and flowering cycles. By not following this appropriately, you could potentially be putting your plant in danger.

Coco Coir and Soil Systems – When growing your marijuana in hand-watered systems, flush it with pure, pH’ed water at any time you see the first sign of nutrient burn. Now, if you haven’t given your plant additional nutrients, then just give the plant time to use the extra nutrients in the soil. Once it does this, your plant will automatically recover from nutrient burn. While older leaves will not recuperate, no new cases of this will occur.

Hydro System – One way to cut down on the nutrients in your water is to add pure, pH’ed water to thin out the nutrients. You can also try mixing a new batch with fewer nutrients in it.

Download my free marijuana grow guide at this link for more on how to solve nutrient problems

Always make these changes slowly with hydro systems. With this system replacing the water and reducing the nutrients accordingly, will result in instant positive changes. The nutrient burn expansion should cease.

The tricky thing about hydro is that certain strains work fine with a different level of nutrients. Even if you give your plants the same quantity of nutrients, one may still get nute burn and the other may have a different level of deficiency. The plants take in nutrients differently.

Also, keep in mind that your plants will consume a certain amount of water based on the humidity and temperature in your grow space. To make things much easier for you when growing in hydro, use a tool called TDS meter to assist with manage the nutrients in the water. It will literally let you know the amount of nutrients in the water and make you aware of whether the levels are going up or down every time you look at it.

Nutrients during flowering stage

Flowering is the second phase of a plant’s life when they start producing buds. Marijuana plants are far more susceptible in the flowering state because they are unable to recuperate from any damage. Basically, the closer it is to harvest time, the lower the chances are that the plant will recover since it is putting all its energy towards making buds.

So, your marijuana plants require more tender loving care when it is in the flowering state. Don’t let the nutrient burn get out of control.

Marijuana plant symptoms

– Brown spots
– Top/lower leaves or new/old growth is damaged
– Edges of the leaves are burnt or brown
– Leaf tips look burnt
– Plant growth is slower
– Leaves are curled under

Don’t fall victim to the false information out there that says burnt leaves is a sign your plants are getting plenty of nutrients, or the belief that more is better when it comes to nutrients. This is all wrong and could lead to some serious problems. In fact, a good balance of nutrients is always better than overdoing it. At the first sign of nute burn take the necessary precautions to bring your plant back to optimum health.

Remember that plants with strong genetics have less change of getting sick and are less vulnerable for diseases, deficiency’s, pest and environmental stresses. So make sure to buy marijuana seeds from a trusted seed bank.

Thanks for reading. Please leave comments or questions below and don’t forget to download my free grow bible

Robert