How to prevent hydroponic nutrient lockout

Added on 19 March 2025

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How to prevent hydroponic nutrient lockout

COURTESY OF PURE GREENS CONTAINER FARMS

A common problem that growers of all experience levels experience is nutrient lockout. While some plant problems can be solved relatively easily, nutrient lockout can be tricky.

Nutrient lockout is a frustrating occurrence in hydroponic crop cultivation, causing decreased harvest yield, wasted nutrients and lost time.

In this blog, we cover the reasons why nutrient lockout occurs, how to identify nutrient lockout conditions, the difference between nutrient lockout and nutrient burn and how to flush grow media when your plants experience nutrient lockout.

Why Nutrient Lockout Occurs

Whether it’s caused by improperly mixing nutrients into your solution, or adding too many nutrients, nutrient lockout can cause your plants to become shut off to additional nutrient intake, which over time slowly starves the plant of the ingredients it needs to grow.