How does excess fertilizer burn the roots of a plant?
In: Biology
The same way that too much of any vitamin will cause you to overdose. Depending on what the fertilizer is composed of and how the plant process and stores it, an excess of a nutrient could overwhelm the plant’s ability to process it. Since plants can’t really get rid of excess nutrients, they have to store them, and when it has too much then the nutrient can become toxic.
What I remember from a gardening school is that it’s because instead of osmosis causing the roots to absorb water the too fertile ground starts taking water away from the roots due to having higher concentration of stuff than the roots. Osmosis basically meaning that certain stuff is allowed through a membrane until both sides of it have equal amounts of stuff.
Of course there are other effects lot of fertilizer can cause(what exactly the effect will be depending on if it’s nitrogen, phosphorus or potassium or some less common nutrient that there is too much of) but I’m pretty sure root burning was about osmosis.
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