How to Flush Over-Fertilized Soil

Fertilizer is an important part of growing healthy plants and lawns. Unfortunately, applying too much fertilizer will cause the plants to deteriorate and even dieif you do not take appropriate action. Signs of overfertilization are yellowing or dead areas of grass or plant leaves that occur soon after fertilizing. The only remedy for overfertilized soil is to flush it with massive amounts of water to leach the fertilizer out of it.

Shop vac or rake
Hand pruners
Garden hose
Screwdriver or hand spade

Instructions

- 1
  Remove any visible signs of fertilizer that are on top of the soil, such as granular fertilizers. You can suck the excess fertilizer up with a shop vacuum or rake it up and throw it into the trash.
- 2
  Examine the plant or the lawn and remove any portions that are already brown and crispy, since they are dead. You can rake up dead areas of grass and use pruning shears to prune off dead portions from plants.
- 3
  Turn on a garden hose at a steady stream and take it to the area that was overfertilized. Water the soil in the area until it is thoroughly soaked to a 6- to 8-inch depth. You can test this by digging down into the soil with a screwdriver or a hand spade.
- 4
  Wait one hour and re-water the area in the same manner to soak the ground for at least five to 10 minutes. You will not be able to test the dampness again because the soil is already wet.
- 5
  Continue watering the area once per hour for an entire day. Then avoid watering for at least one week to prevent root rot from developing.

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Soil