No, they wont grow faster, they will die!!!

Agreed, too much fertilizer for any plant is toxic, often fatal. You can't make a plant grow faster that it's naturally programmed to do. Removing/changing anything prohibiting it from growing as fast as possible is all we can do. Growing as fast as possible is not always the best thing, for all plants and their owners.

Recently I fed some aglaonema seedlings and didn't pay too much attention when mixing the food up and only later started thinking about whether or not I'd made a mistake.

The concentration I normally use (when I ever get around to feeding my poor hungry plants) is about fifty percent of what the instructions call for...which is to say that if the instructions said one teaspoon per gallon of water,I'd use half a spoon to the same gallon...but you probably got that. lol

Anyhoo,I'm lucky that I didn't burn up my whole batch of seedlings with that stuff...I really should be more careful.

As an afterthought I figured I'd watch and see what happened.

Notice the yellowing leaf in the cell on the bottom right of my little sixpack? I imagine that one got a stronger dose than the others.

Lesson learned for me!
Always underfeed as opposed to over.

There's a saying I introduced a few years back which is a good guide for fertiliser: "Weakly weekly".

Orrrrrr Feed every time you water with a very diluted solution. :)

It really shouldn't harm the plant, as long as there aren't already excess salts in the mix. It wouldn't make sense for a company to market a fertilizer that would kill your plants.

I've personally used Foliage Pro full strength once a week on Jade cuttings and saw phenomenal growth.

Josh

I use the liquid miracle grow houseplant fertilizer, in the small bottle with the driper attached...I don't follow the directions or count how many drops I put in the container of water, I just drop till I feel like stopping....have seen no ill effects, I think that stuff is so weak it won't burn anything

double post

This post was edited by cooljjay on Wed, Sep 24, 14 at 1:32

I'm on tropicbreezent's side - "a little and often". Fertilizer for plants is like vitamin/mineral supplements for humans - overdoing the amount doesn't necessarily mean the plant tissues or body organs can either absorb as much as is offered, or successfully deal with an overdose.
I grow a few special plants that need special potting mixes that are mostly gravel and bark - they drain very quickly and it would be almost impossible to overfeed a plant, but I still wouldn't increase the dose of fertilizer I use.
Other pre-mixed potting soils often have a lot of organic material/ premixed slow-release fertilizer/wetting agents that are intended to help the plant survive between waterings/feeds. By piling on the fertilizer you can be really adding to the burden by the fact that those soils will absorb and hold the water for longer periods, and if heavy in nutrients like nitrogen, can burn tender roots.
Salts build-ups occur, the organic material starts breaking down quicker and shrinks and then the plant's not getting proper air exchange to the roots.
So, don't "supersize" your plant feed, let then have a "lean meal" sometimes.

2 problems with overfertilizing, it leads to too much salt, often deadly, and not mentioned here is the fact that plants overfertilized send up weak growth that can be prone to aphids and other pest, I never recommend going above the recommended feed, but I do support weakly-weekly

Good advice Teen.

Planto

Josh, the OP seems to be considering using the fertilizer in its fully concentrated form -- without even the dilution ratio recommended by the manufacturer.

To the OP: Even for outdoor plants, manufacturers' instructions always seem to indicate that their fertilizer will need some dilution. As others have pointed out, failure to properly dilute fertilizer can be lethal. And it is better to have the concentration too weak than too strong.

I tend to never measure when cooking. with that said, I was mixing my fertilizer a few weeks ago and was doing it just by sight. I must have gotten it too strong becuase I burned a couple of plants. It caused leaf yellowing in two hoyas. I have learned my lesson on doing it by sight.