What Happens After Fertilizing a Lawn?

Application

• Once fertilizer has been applied to the grass, it begins to break down. Watering helps speed the process of breakdown, enabling the fertilizer to enter the soil more quickly. Chemicals that remain on the surface of the grass can cause problems.

Plant Use

• Once the nutrients in the fertilizer have entered the soil, plants begin to take in the nutrients and utilize them as food during the growth process. Light, water and the nutrients from fertilizer all form necessary parts of lawn growth and photosynthesis.

Considerations

• Excess fertilizer causes plants to become burned. Chemicals from fertilizer that remain on the surface of the grass blades dry it out and damage it. Severe cases of fertilizer burn can kill off grass.