As plants develop, they need to be fertilized regularly to help its overall health and vigor.
While there is no “hard and fast” rule for fertilization because the requirements are different by plant, it is a good idea to learn some general fertilizer rules so you don’t over fertilize, which can be very damaging to plants.
Also, over fertilization can reduce growth and pest and disease tolerance for the plant. It could also eventually kill the plant.
You can avoid over fertilization by following the instructions carefully. Remember that the amount you are using is relative to the specific plant and the fertilizer you are using.
Most fertilizers need to be applied every 6 to 8 weeks on the average. That being said, here is how you can tell if your garden is over fertilized and what you can do about it.
What Are the Major Symptoms of Over Fertilization?
Some of the symptoms of over fertilization are pretty obvious, while others may not be so easy to spot.
Here are some of the most common symptoms of an over fertilized garden:
- Plants grow very slowly or do not grow at all.
- The plant surface has obvious fertilizer crust.
- Leaf tips and margins are turning brown.
- Seedling death is common.
- Lower leaves are yellowing and wilting.
- Roots have a brownish to blackish color, and are limp.
- Defoliation or loss of above ground plant material.
7 Tips to Reverse Your Over Fertilized Garden
It’s not too tough to fix a garden that’s been over fertilized, based on the amount of fertilizer applied and just how quickly you respond to the fix.
You’re going to want to be sure to follow the suggestions below to save your plants.
1. Plant Cover Crops
One method for rehabilitating overfertilized soils is to use cover crops, which may also mine the soil for excess nutrients.
For example, tillage radish and other deep rooting cover crops can be especially effective by recapturing nutrients leached to lower depths.
In addition, cover crops provide the soil with organic matter and nitrogen in slowly available forms that plants can utilize, and there is less nitrogen volatilization.
And beyond that: cover crops can also serve as mulches if they are properly managed, altering the physical properties of the soil through just variable seasons of growing cover crops. Cover crops may also help entice beneficial insects and pollinators to your garden.
2. Get Rid of Any Visible Fertilizer
You really just want to take that fertilizer out when you can see, it has become visible powdery state level.
If you see fertilizer salts have made a white crusty substance on top, you want to take that out too.
Be gentle and not injure plants or roots while scooping out the fertilizer from around them.
If your plants are big enough, you may be able sprinkle some out with a spoon or a small shovel. But take out any revmainants.
You want to get any and all chunks out, otherwise, when you next water after they potentially work their way much deeper under the suface, and you have more troubles.
3. Leach the Soil with Water
Watering down helps to leach and remove excess salts.
If you catch burned plants early, watering will do the trick. You may be wondering how long to water the damaged plants.
The fact is, you should water the garden until the soil will not absorb more water.
Moreover, don’t just water the damaged areas. Water all of your plants including the “healthy” areas. Doing so, will help to leach salts from all areas of the garden.
And you want to avoid allowing runoff because the runoff is carrying chemicals and it can be dangerous. This contaminated runoff can damage surrounding areas, especially creeks, rivers, and lakes.
Instead: Soak the soil thoroughly to allow it to take up all of the water.
4. Eliminate Damaged Leaves
It’s also important to remove any dead, discolored, or dying leaves.
The plants can’t revive these dead or dying leaves, and they’re wasting energy hanging around!
Now that your plants have recovered from the shock of over-fertilization, your plants can make some new healthy leaves.
Just because you can rehabilitate an over-fed plant doesn’t mean you’ll save the damaged leaves.
So, it’s important to remove them so that you can help the plant become healthy in the future and if they linger, your plants may uitlimately become infested with pests or diseases.
5. Don’t Fertilize Your Plants
If your plants are not thriving, please avoid using fertilizers or organic additives (e.g., compost).
A soluble salt test may also be warranted to prevent premature coating failures due to salinity contamination.
To explain: Soluble salt can be detrimental to any plant if soluble salts are higher than 0.6daS/m, and it can also inhibit plant growth.
6. Replace the Topsoil
Another way to reduce excess fertilizer in your garden is with the soil replacement method.
This will help the recovery of your plants, be sure to change out the top layer of soil by the plant in question with dirt that has zero nutrients.
It may also been beneficial for you to relocate your potted plant to a different container with new soil to help recover the plant and roots.
7. Replant if Possible
If you’ve way overdone the fertilizer and burned your plants really badly, transplanting to new, fresh soil once you have leached out the excess, will give your plants and roots a chance to get better.
So, you can re-pot a plant in fresh soil or change its location somewhere else in your garden away from where you fertilized.
If your plant is equally too large to transfer or you don’t have sufficient space in the container or plot, replace the soil.
Final Thoughts
Plants need nutrients to live and grow, but they need the nutrients in the right amounts; just not too much or too little either.
Plants can experience harm from over abundances and lack of nutrients just as humans can. So while most fertilizer burn is recoverable, it is better to avoid it altogether.
And if the seriousness of the damage is already done, we hope you’ve found our tips useful enough to revive your plant back to life.