Understanding Water Quality Problems and How Gypsum Can Help Solve Them In a new report, Dr. Brent Rouppet, Ph.D., explores how your irrigation water can harm your soil, even when you think it is helping your plants. Learn more about your soil's chemistry, how the irrigation water is damaging the...
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Are California Farmers Water Hogs?
In his commentary in the Wall Street Journal, California Farmers Aren't the Water Hogs, Ted Sheely discusses the blame farmers are asked to take for the water shortage in California. Sheely, a farmer himself in California's San Joaquin Valley, argues that the media is not reporting the full picture. The...
Getting the most from your gypsum application
Correcting poor soil structure conditions with an application of gypsum can have a significant impact on soil tilth and crop yields. However, many producers overlook this practice because they are not aware of the benefits to soil structure as well as a readily available source of calcium and sulfur. One...
Yellowing of crop leaves? It could be iron chlorosis.
Gypsum can help remediate iron chlorosis. Iron chlorosis is a yellowing of plant leaves caused by iron deficiency. However it is not always a true iron deficiency but rather an iron tie-up in plants and soil. Yellow leaves indicate a lack of chlorophyll, the green pigment responsible for photosynthesis (sugar...
The multiple benefits of gypsum in agriculture
If considering a purchase of calcium sulfate dihydrate (gypsum), it is important to understand the many varied benefits and when they take effect in agriculture. As both a soil amendment and a crop nutrient source, gypsum will remediate sodic soils, help manage saline irrigation waters, provide calcium and sulfur as crop...
Organic growers take note: there is such a thing as organic gypsum
Can gypsum be applied on organic farms? Commercial farmers, organic growers, home owners, turf managers and others can benefit from application of gypsum (calcium sulfate) in remediating salinity and sodium issues and improving soil structure. However they can’t all use the same sources or gypsum for all garden soils. Mined...
Phosphorus retention in crops and how calcium can play a role
It’s a dichotomy – the impact of calcium on phosphorus retention and availability. Fields that receive large amounts of manure or litter contain large amounts of phosphorus. Phosphorus that isn't taken up by plants remains in the subsoil and is displaced by runoff. If it isn’t tied up by soil...
What’s your grade? Agricultural or solution?
Agricultural or solution? When reading marketing literature about gypsum, we often see gypsum referred to as solution grade gypsum. This product is primarily targeted for the irrigation market. Is solution grade gypsum any different than conventional gypsum? Gypsum is sold as either powdered ag-gyp or pelletized gypsum. However, ag-gyp can be marketed as...
Gypsum and its role in trapping ammonia gas
Animal manures and composts inevitably release ammonia into the atmosphere. These waste products are rich in nutrients and contain organic forms of nitrogen. They are rich in biological life that feed on carbon and nutrients, and in the process, they mineralize or release nutrients, including nitrogen. A very common problem...
Pellets, prills, or crushed: the differences explained
Ag Gyp is mined from deposits and is marketed as a powder. It can range in purity from less that 60% to more than 90% on a dihydrate equivalent basis. Since it was ground, it will pass through screen tests ranging from 50 to 200 mesh, and each batch will...