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Little River, TX | Find out what the regulations say about using it and the long term monitoring requirements.
Some may also have heavy metals in the mix and require eternal soil or plant analysis done using EPA approved methods, rather than conventional soil testing.
Some years ago on these pages as well as the agriculture.com pages there were extensive discussions. A few who looked closely at the regulatory requirements decided it was more work than benefit. There were also a good crowd of farmers who were strong advocates of gypsum. I know my soils, and not other soils so will not make any blanket statements as to it's effectiveness in other soils or other climates.
I sort of understand the theory of using gypsum to moderate soil structure, but have strong misgivings.
The traditional and well proven uses for gypsum is to add sulfur to acid soils with out lowering the pH, and for displacing and leaching off sodium in alkaline soils.
There is one professor at Perdue University who has done research on the subject, who is also an advocate of scrubber byproduct use. Unfortunately he has zero credibility with me, as he made some statements about my soil that I know are not true.
As a matter of fact my soil has an 8 pH and has excessive calcium and is moderately deficient in magnesium. I find I need to use Potassium, Magnesium, Sulfate fertilizer for added Mg. If higher calcium and lower magnesium equated to good soil tilth and water infiltration, my virtic clay soil should take in water faster than dry beach sand.
Edited by Hay Wilson in TX 10/7/2007 09:09
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