How to work with gypsum?
You need to get your soil tested to find out what you’re working with, & what your soil needs. Your Agricultural Extension agent could really be helpful in letting you know if you actually need to use gypsum …& if needed, can inform you on how much to use & the most effective way to apply it (for your situation). Gypsum can remove sodium from the soil & replace it with calcium, so it is useful where soils have a lot of salts, such as arid & coastal regions. Gypsum can improve clay soil structure & fertility, but it doesn’t do much for layered soils except add calcium. It won’t improve the fertility of acid or sandy soils, & can have negative effects on mycorrhizal inoculation of roots. Gypsum can also increase leaching of iron and manganese, leading to deficiencies of these nutrients. It can induce magnesium deficiency in plants on acid soils & can depress phosphorus, copper and zinc transport on sandy soils.
