Fertilizer burn can occur for mostly any kind of lawn. This manifests itself by plant discoloration and scorching. However, there are ways to avoid it, while still using fertilizer. The idea is to understand the phenomenon and discover how you can prevent the damage from happening in the first place.
All kinds of plants need nutrients to stay alive. In natural habitats, plants receive the proper nutrition without any kind of outside intervention. But in the case of gardens and lawns, things get a bit more complicated.
As a general rule, fertilizer burn happens when a lawn receives more fertilizer than it actually needs. In other words, poison is in the dose. Weather conditions can also affect the plants’ ability to process the received amount of grass fertilizer. In case of excessive fertilizer use, the fertilizer salts extract humidity from the roots or tissues, which obviously leads to dehydration.
So you should never apply more than the dose recommended on the product’s label. At the same time, you need to properly calculate the actual size of a lawn in order to use the right amount of fertilizer.
You should avoid leaving the spreader hopper open when you are applying the fertilizer. Again, this is to avoid any excess.