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Fertilizer burn
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Q.
My
spreader was not working properly and I burned my lawn with an
application of weed and feed. What can I do to help it recover? |
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A. While the
over-application of herbicide did not help matters, over-application
of the fertilizer may be the worst problem.
Fertilizers are salts, much like table salt, except that they
contain plant nutrients. Too much fertilizer in a single application
can “burn” a plant to death. This occurs when tender plant roots
grow close to the fertilizer particles. The fertilizer actually
draws water out of the root. |
More about over-fertilization
The individual plant cells in the root begin to dehydrate or “burn.”
If too much fertilizer is applied,
causing too much water to be drawn out of the grass plants, they
will dehydrate to the point where they cannot recover. This is very
likely what has happened to your lawn.
To remedy the problem, clean up any visible piles of weed and feed (wearing chemical-resistant gloves). Be sure to broadcast the cleaned up weed and feed in another part of your lawn rather than throwing it in the trash. Then try to leach the excess fertilizer out of the soil by running a sprinkler on the area for two or three hours a day for a week to ten days. Depending on the severity of the misapplication, that may be sufficient to take care of the problem. Lawn repairs
Try re-seeding the area and see how well the new grass plants grow.
If they grow for a while, then start to die out, there is still too
much fertilizer in the soil. You will have to remove the top two
inches of soil from the affected area and replace it with fresh
topsoil. Then re-seed the area with grass seed that matches the rest
of your lawn as closely as possible. MORE |
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Landscaping
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