From

Location

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Date Posted

Eugene,OR

I have a 5000 suqare foot patch that has not had any ammendments made to is. It is heavy clay soil. How much gypsum should I add to improve tilth and get some beneficial calcium into the soil?

4/9/2004 12:05:00 AM

Puyallup, WA

How thick is your wallet? Minimum of ten 50# bags. This is coming from "Mr. Clay Soil" personified! Ten bags will not geive you "silty soil", but will get you off the ground in the right direction. It takes at least three years to get one's soil to where you wnat it....then the pathogens move in!! It is a continual fight!!

4/9/2004 1:08:46 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Unless a soil test confirms unusually high soil Calcium levels, then over-applying Gypsum is pretty hard to do.

I'm with Stan. Just this week I reviewed a soil test that "had room" for 300 lbs of Gypsum per 1000 sq ft. I just hope the grower has the back, the resources, & the time to get all 300 down. On a patch the same size as yours, that's more weight than the average half ton truck should have to endure.

4/9/2004 7:18:08 AM

Omaha, NE (N41-15-42 )

yep, I agree. I have clay soil as well in a new patch, and I've added 250 lbs to 600 sq ft, and just got back my latest soil sample, and my calcium is still on the low side. Picking up another 160 lbs today.

4/9/2004 7:54:22 AM

Chesterfield, MO

The only thing I worry about with gypsum is the high sulfur levels. Anyone else have problems with abnormally high sulfur levels after using gypsum?

4/9/2004 10:15:02 AM

Montoursville, PA

Yes sulfur should be watched. Once in the patch it stays there! Ballance is the name of the game and less is best. That is why the proper use of natural products usually gives anyone a good deal more room to make an error and still be in the goodness ballpark.

I have at least one organic type author suggesting that gypsum should not be used without professional hands on evaluation. Gypsum billed as a blessing overused could indeed be a fox, in sheeps clothing.

4/9/2004 10:34:29 AM

Appalachian Mtns.

I added 660# to 2000 sq ft in the fall and just got a soil analysis back that said my sulphur was basically what it was before I added it, but my calcium was higher...not tremendously higher, but higher.

4/9/2004 11:45:09 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

I heard in Niagara that several of the New Hampshire Hitters test unusually high for Sulfur. Don't take this as a recommendation to over-apply. But keep in mind that Sulfur is a "medium need" element that borders on Macro by many plants.

Dr Norm Hummel (Cornell) did a Nitrogen fertilizer source study on putting greens. The greens that consistently ranked highest in visual quality & playability also happened to be those treated with soluble sulfur. They also exhibitted fewer of certain diseases.

The "S"ecret element?

I don't know for sure. But I do know that high levels of Sulfur do more good than harm within a reasonable range.

Steve

4/9/2004 2:44:56 PM