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Sun, Dec 25, 11 at 20:56
| I have low-S leachable soil, tends to be acid due to 45-50 inches of rain and rapid water movement through the soils. Should gypsum be ruled out as an easily available source of sulfur?
The link lists a huge number of benefits for gypsum, though probably only for heavy clay soils. |
Here is a link that might be useful: wow
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Gypsum is a terrific source of sulfur and is commonly used by farmers of high sulfur crops such as the cole crops (cabbale, kale, collards, etc.) When such crops are grown and harvested, the sulfur (and other elements) they have taken up into their plant bodies must be replaced. Gypsum does the trick for the sulfur, without lowering the pH. |
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- Posted by fortyonenorth (My Page) on Mon, Dec 26, 11 at 7:37
| Do you know your soil's various nutrient levels? If you need calcium, and don't want to affect your soil pH, gypsum is a good choice. If you have adequate or high levels of calcium, it would not be appropriate. There are other sources of sulfur. For example Sul-Po-Mag (sulfur, potassium, magnesium) is ideal if you need to add potassium and magnesium (in addition to sulfur). Elemental sulfur would be a better choice if can tolerate a lower soil pH or if you have excess nutrients. (Sulfur can help to drive-off excess magnesium or calcium, for example). |
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| Some of my plots do need Ca, but they also probably could benefit from an increase in ph. Even though Garg has explained that low Ca is not the cause of acidity the two invariably co-exist in this area. |
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- Posted by gonebananas 7/8 (My Page) on Mon, Dec 26, 11 at 8:47
| Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) is relatively cheap and widely available (every drug store, most grocery stores). It would not be cheap for field-wide and heavy application, but for individual woody plants or say foliar application for row crops or vinyards it is relatively so. It is used here more as a magnesium source (e.g., for muscadine grapes and certain other common plants) and thus is also available in 20 & 40 pound bags in feed & seed stores. |
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- Posted by gonebananas 7/8 (My Page) on Mon, Dec 26, 11 at 8:51
| Ammonium sulfate fertilizer is another option, and potassium sulfate fertilizer if you can find it. I think I have even seen urea sulfate for sale (to eliminate the potential for urea's use in terrorist bombs). |
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| I was just reading that urea sulfate is useful in testing to distinguish between S-deficiency and N-deficiency. One fertilizes a row with urea sulfate and another row with a non S-bearing N fert; if both rows improve the problem was N deficiency and if the urea sulfate row only improves then the problem is low S. I think this only applies to severe deficiencies. |
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- Posted by Strawberryhill 5a IL (My Page) on Mon, Dec 26, 11 at 14:00
| Thank you, all the above posters, for great info. My roses came with the instruction of putting gypsum in the planting hole. I find the info. from fortyonenorth to be useful. Ammonium sulfate is high in salt, attached is a link on the salt index of various fertilizers. |
Here is a link that might be useful: How much salt is in the fertilizer?
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- Posted by prairiechuck1 Michigan (My Page) on Mon, Dec 26, 11 at 16:47
| This sounds like a good experiment for my Newaygo county (Michigan) acidic leached out soil. Are these two fertilizers commonly available ? |
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- Posted by TheMasterGardener1 none (My Page) on Wed, Dec 28, 11 at 3:28
| Ammonium sulfate is good but will lower ph. Gypsum is safe for the most part and won't effect ph. I am wondering this same question for my soilless containers garden. I use Lime to balance ph but I am missing S from my fertilizer program and medium. I want to use both lime and gypsum so I cover S but am wondering if too much calcium will be an issue. I cant see why it would hurt if I only used a little. |
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| Gypsum is great for Peanuts/ground nuts. |
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- Posted by gonebananas 7/8 (My Page) on Mon, Jan 2, 12 at 10:42
| For peanuts, it is mainly as a calcium source, though the S must help in general too. |
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