Fucking plants is essential to make them grow healthy and luxuriant, but what happens if you exaggerate with the fertilizer? The risk of damaging them is higher than you think. Here’s what you need to know to avoid common mistakes.
When you think about how to take care of the plants, you immediately go to the right type of fertilizer. But rarely it really reflects on How much I need it. Here, this is the first mistake. There is the widespread idea that “more fertilizers equal more health”, yet reality is a bit different. Indeed, in some cases it is precisely the opposite. A few wrong doses are enough to make the balance of the plant falter.
Sometimes you notice off leafs, burnt tips, blocked growth … and blame yourself in the heat, light, water. But if the problem was an excess of attention? Learning to dose the fertilizer is not just a technical gesture, it is an act of listening. And no, you don’t need to be experts. Just a little eye and some care.
Too much fertilizer to plants? Here’s what you really risk
At first glance, giving a little more fertilizer looks like a good idea. After all, who does not want to see their plant explodes with flowers or growing visibly? Too bad things don’t work like this. When there is too much fertilizer in the ground, it is as if the plant was “burned” from the inside. What happens is called fertilizer burn: the salts accumulate and remove oxygen from the roots. The pH is busted, the absorption of nutrients is jammed and the roots begin to suffer, sometimes until it rotates.
The result? Leaves with dry edges, brown tips, stopped plants that seem nailed to grow. Some even grow too quickly, but become fragile like paper. Vulnerable, easy to break or attach from parasites. And all out of excess of zeal.
Signals not to ignore and how to prevent
When a plant is bad, he doesn’t say it with words. He does not send alarm signals as a human being would do, but something suggests it. Just stop for a moment, look better: the colors change, the leaves behave strangely, even the perfume can be different. There are those who say that plants speak, and perhaps they do not have all the wrong. It only takes a little patience and a more careful look. Here are some alarm bells that is worth recognizing:
- Yellowed leaves or with dry tips
- White crusts on the ground surface
- Lack of blooms, or flowers that are passionate too quickly
- Slow growth or deformed stems
- Bored Roots, which smell of rotten
And to avoid all this? You don’t need who knows what. Just leave with some good habit: read the doses shown on the label (which often ignore), prefer natural fertilizers or slow release, avoid fertilizing on torrid days or in the middle of winter, and always – always – wet the ground well before and after. A useful thing, even if a little boring, is changing the soil every now and then. Thus the accumulated salt is eliminated and a good breath is given to the plant.
How to remedy if you exaggerated with the fertilizer
It happens, eh. It is not the end of the world. If you notice in time, you can make a sort of “washing” with a lot of water. It is used to rinse away the excess salts. If the damage is more serious, it is better to move on to repotting. New soil, clean pot and starts again.
Then there are other small gestures that help: put the plant in a bright but not too hot point, suspend the fertilizer for a few weeks, often check the humidity and remove damaged leaves and roots. It seems a lot of work, but sometimes a few minutes are enough to give a second chance.
Recovering a burnt plant is not always easy, but it’s worth it. Often it is precisely from these errors that you learn to really know the rhythm of nature. And maybe, next time, you stop for a moment before adding “just a little more”.
Because in the end it is like this: Better little than too much. A rule that applies to plants … but also with many other things.
Photo © Stock.adobe
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