[Sticky] Nitrogen Excess

Nitrogen Excess can have lasting health effect on your marijuana plant. You must be able to recognise the symptoms of a nitrogen toxicity, to ensure the best harvest possible.

Nitrogen is an important element of plant growth. Your cannabis plant will take it from the medium, and use to to build stems, branches, and leaves. It is also a major component in photosynthesis. Without it, your plant will no be able to make chlorophyll, which means, it will not eat.

Even though nitrogen is an important element, too much of it can cause problems with weed plants. If these problems are not fixed before the flowering cycle, your plant will struggle to build flowers, or the flowers will be airy and less dense.

If you think your plants may be suffering with a nitrogen excess, then feel free to ask for help in our cannabis growers forum

Effects of Nitrogen Excess in a Cannabis Plant

With an excess of nitrogen the plant wants to work hard building foliage, and stems, as this is what the plant uses it for. The more nitrogen it has, the more it will try and grow leaves and stems, rather than flowers. Your plant will grow quickly, but it will be weak and spindly.

Because your plant is building so much foliage, it will be very leafy, and the stems will stretch, and become weak. The stems will snap easily, and they will be more prone to bugs and diseases.

What Nitrogen Excess Looks Like in a Weed Plant

• Thick Dark Green Leaves
• Leaves will "Claw" under
• Very Bushy Plant
• Buds will not be dense
• Can leave harvest smelling like grass

How to fix Nitrogen Excess in Cannabis Plants

How to fix a nitrogen excess will depend on the medium you are growing in. It can be as simple as flushing you medium, or, if growing outdoors, you may have to plant crops that will eat a lot of nitrogen. This will help remove some from the soil.

Nitrogen Excess in Coco & Hydro

Flushing your medium, with plain, PH'd water, is always a good way to reduce the amount of any nutrient in your medium.

How to flush your medium

Once you have flushed, or removed your old reservoir, feed your plants again, at lower EC. This will lighten them up, to a healthier shade of green, within a week.

What is EC?

If you dont have an EC meter, and youre growing in hydro or coco, you will need one!

Buy EC Meter Here:

Nitrogen Toxicity in Soils

It will be harder to removed any element in soils than it would in hydro or coco, as the drainage isn't so good and you can risk overwatering your cannabis plants. It is best to do one big flush, to remove as much as possible from the medium. After the flush, let the soil dry out until the pot is light, before watering again.

Once the soil is dry, continue to water your plants, with just water! They will eat the nitrogen that is stored in their plant matter. Your plant will lighten up within a few days, to a week, dependent on how bad the toxicity is.

Cover Crops

If growing weed outdoors, flushing may be an issue. But you can plant some side crops amongst your cannabis plants. Plant a crop like corn, which is a heavy nitrogen feeder. This will make sure there is less nitrogen in the soil.

Use a low nitrogen mulch, such as wood chip, or sawdust, as this will also leach nitrogen from the soil. Just cover the surface of you soil around the plants in a fine layer and let nature do the rest.

Thanks for reading! You can find more information on anything related to growing in our cannabis grow guides. All of our guides are written by experienced growers, and members of our cannabis growers forum. If you have any questions, sign up. It is free, and we are always happy to help!