Excess fertilizers result in osmotic withdrawal of water from cells, as they form a hypertonic solution outside the cells. Shrinkage of the protoplast of a cell from its cell wall under the influence of a hypertonic solution is called plasmolysis. Hypertonic solution causes exosmosis or withdrawal of water from cytoplasm and then the central vacuole of cell to outside and hence result in wilting of the plant.
Osmosis is a passive process and happens without any expenditure of energy. It involves the movement of molecules from a region of higher concentration to lower concentration until the concentrations become equal on either side of the membrane.
There are three different types of solutions:
Isotonic Solution is one that has the same concentration of solutes both inside and outside the cell.
Hypertonic solution is one that has a higher solute concentration outside the cell than inside.
Hypotonic solution is one that has a higher solute concentration inside the cell than outside.