Why is road salt bad for grass?

Question

Is it something about concentrations? I've always wanted to know.

Answer 1

the biology reason is that when you add a lot of salt to the soil it overwhelms a plant's or microorganism's ability to maintain their osmotic pressure. They lose water, crenate, and die.

This is the reason why you can preserve foods with high salt (beef jerky) or high sugar (jellies).

Acid (vinegar) also preserves foods by making the pH so acidic that almost every enzyme and protein in the cell either denatures or is inactivated.

Answer 2

It can burn the lawn because of the high concentration. This is why people often wrap their hedges in burlap in the autumn so that they don't get splattered by salty slush and damaged during the winter.

Answer 3

all salt is bad for grass. salt dehydrates the grass like it does to everything else.