Will plants recover from fertilizer or nutrient burn? Signs and symptoms you can’t afford to ignore

So, you’ve noticed your plants are struggling a little bit. Think your plants have fertilizer or nutrient burn? Maybe you were a little heavy-handed when applying fertilizer to your cannabis plants or others. Now you want to know how bad is nutrient burn. Will your plants recover? Don’t worry, we have all the information you need here.

Below, we’ll discuss nutrient burn, list some of the early signs of nute burn, and talk about if your plants will recover from it.

What is nutrient burn? Is it the same as fertilizer burn?

Nutrient burn is a common problem growers experience with their plants. It happens when a plant is fed too much fertilizer, when applying soluble fertilizer too often, when drainage of media is poor or when growing in dry conditions, among other things. This causes plant damage. It’s also referred to as nute burn or fertilizer burn.

How bad is nutrient burn? Over-fertilizing your plants with nutrients can negatively impact growing productivity and hence your profitability.

It happens because plants are not equipped with the ability to discard excess nutrients. They cannot handle overfeeding. Therefore, it’s essential for you to regularly monitor your plants for early signs of nutrient burn.

What are the early signs of nute burn?

What does nutrient burn look like? Here are some of the early signs and symptoms:

Leaves bending at the tips
Deep green colouring of the leaves
Slight brown or yelling at the tips of leaves

These are the early signs. But there are also more advanced symptoms to watch out for:

Twisting leaves
Leaves wilt or curling under
Brown or yellowing moving up the leaf
Very slow growth

Generally, fertilizer burn starts at the tip of the leaf and works its way back toward the plant. Plants move nutrients through branches to leaves and when it has nowhere left to go (when there is too much fertilizer) it starts to burn the tips.

To prevent and manage overfeeding, use the application rates stated on the labels and regularly measure soluble salt levels in the media.

There can be some confusion between nutrient burn and other potential issues. Some may question if the issue is nutrient burn or something else.

For example, how can you tell the difference between potassium deficiency and nutrient burn? Potassium deficiency and nutrient burn are often mistaken for each other. Often the first signs of the issue look just like nutrient burn. However, you’ll know the issue is potassium related when the leaves turn yellow in the margins, primarily near the burn edges.

Will plants recover from nutrient burn?

If your plants do in fact have a nutrient burn, don’t panic. If you catch it early on, you can remedy the issue and save your plant. But unfortunately, you’ll still lose the parts of your plant that have been burned. You’ll need to cut those areas out of the plant.

Related to this, many people often ask if you can reverse fertilizer burn. No, you cannot reverse nutrient burn. The parts of your plants that have turned brown will never turn green and be healthy again.

How long does it take a plant to recover from fertilizer burn?

If you’ve overfed your plant, the first thing you’ll need to do is stop feeding it. Continuing the fertilization will only prolong the issue and it could even kill your plant. Be sure to remove excess fertilizer and flush out excess with water. You may even need to replant in new soil if the soil is over-saturated with fertilizers.

How long it will take your plant to recover will depend on the plant. It generally takes a couple of weeks to recover. Keep a close eye on your plants and look for signs of recovery.

Prevention is always the best cure when caring for your plants. Make sure you fertilize your plants based on their specific needs. Water-soluble fertilizers can help in this area.

Want to cut your fertilizer costs and increase grower profitability?

Learn how high-quality fertilizers can help you cut fertilizer costs, labour costs and increase your growing productivity here.

For more fertilizer productivity tips, check out these blog posts:

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What You Need to Know About Fertilizer Prices in 2023

Like many other things, where we saw a dramatic increase in price over the past few years, fertilizer prices skyrocketed in 2022. While they have come down in early 2023, they continue to be higher than normal.

Increases have affected all types of fertilizers – regular fertilizers, water-soluble fertilizers for flowers, vegetables and cannabis, micronutrient fertilizers and many others. It has particularly affected potash, phosphate and potassium nitrogen fertilizers. The question everyone wants an answer to is, will fertilizer prices go back down to normal in 2023? While we’re already seeing some softening in prices early in 2023, if you’re expecting prices to return to pre-pandemic prices, the news doesn’t look as promising.

“With natural gas prices still high and major market disruptions due to the Russia-Ukraine war, we don’t expect fertilizer prices to normalize in time for farmers’ 2023 crop planning,” said FBN Chief Economist Kevin McNew on Agrinews.

Why were fertilizer prices so high in 2022?

Fertilizer prices are market-driven. They are typically determined by supply and demand. There are a lot of things that happened globally that affected supply and demand. There was and continues to be a war between Russia and Ukraine. The other major event was China restricting exports. This has led to supply chain costs being historically high. And we mean significantly higher than pre-covid times.

Prior to the pandemic, the cost of a container of fertilizer from China was $3,000. By May of 2022, it was closer to $30,000 per container. Now it’s back down to normal. But in Europe, the cost of a container was $2,500-3,000, then went as high as $20,000 during the pandemic, and now it is approximately $7,000 so it is not back down to normal. This has a big impact on costs because fertilizer is a heavy commodity. You can only ship 24,000kg per container, so the cost per kilo was driven almost as high as the cost of the raw material itself – and, in some cases, even higher!

Finally, because of the spike in price, businesses started to stockpile supplies. Then the demand became unprecedented because clients were stocking up and usage was high. It’s a similar effect that happened to other products during the pandemic – toilet paper, formula, children’s Tylenol, and many others.

Will fertilizer prices go down in 2023?

So, will prices normalize in 2023? There will be a softening in the market – we are seeing it already – but they not return to pre-pandemic levels.

The Ag market affects the horticultural market. Manufacturers look at the net back on each. So, if Ag goes up, horticultural goes up within 2-6 months. The same is true if it goes down.

Currently, the commodity markets are down about 30% from their peak, however, they are still not at pre-Covid levels.

Also, food pricing is very high at the moment. So, farmers will not pull back on inputs as their profit supports fertilizer inputs.

The good news is we don’t anticipate any type of fertilizer shortage this year unless there is another significant global event.

Summary: key issues affecting fertilizer prices in 2023 and in the future

U.S. and Canadian fertilizers come from all over the world. There will continue to be a variety of factors that will affect its pricing in the short and long term future. So, it’s still uncertain when prices will go down and how long they will stay at their current levels is unclear. Here are the key things to keep an eye on this year:

China: The country continues its restrictive fertilizer exports policy in 2023
Russia: They have increased export tax and export quotas.
Natural gas prices: EU natural gas prices continue high
Freight costs: They are going down but are relatively high historically (sea and land) from Europe
Supply chain: Congestion in transportation ports is easing
War: Continued uncertainty from the Russian/Ukraine conflict
Commodity market: Strong Ag fundamentals

Want to cut your fertilizer costs and increase grower profitability?

Learn how high-quality fertilizers can help you cut fertilizer costs, labour costs and increase your growing productivity here.