The Effect of Excess Fertilizer to Root Cells

Plants Decline Uniformly

• Excess fertilizer applied to your plants does not just impact one of them; it impacts every over-fertilized plant. This helps you differentiate between problems resulting from fertilizing too much verses dying plants due to disease or pests. According to The University of Arizona, seeing a uniformity of damage impacting several different plant species can indicate chemical toxicity.

Growth and Appearance Changes

• Plants given an excess of fertilizer exhibit symptoms of stress related to water and nutrient deficiencies, such as reduced growth and wilting. This can occur even if the soil is wet in severe overfertilization cases, according to The University of Arizona. Leaves tend to wilt from the bottom, initially, with higher leaves drying out later. Your plants can appear stunted, since the root is unable to provide nutrients to maintain plant health and size.

Excess Growth

• When you over-fertilize your grass with nitrogen fertilizer, instead of stunted growth, you get excessive grass growth. The University of California says that when grass roots are over-fertilized, excessive grass stem and leaf growth results and can lead to conditions that support fungal penetration. Fungal penetration isn't your only problem, however, as it can lead to one of several diseases, including brown patch, leaf spot and Pythium blight. In addition, the extra growth requires you to mow and water your lawn more often.

Destruction of Food

• Using too much fertilizer can result in the loss of your food crops, too. As with grass, when too much plant fertilizer is administered, it can impact a plant's ability to take up other needed nutrients. One example is tomatoes, in which an excess of ammonium, magnesium, potassium or sodium salts results in a reduction of your tomatoes' calcium intake, leading to blossom-end rot.