North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Jim Fruth" <jimfruth@charter.net>]

Mark Wessel asked, "I understand leaching out excess fertilizer with large 
amounts of water. However I am not sure how gypsum plays a role in this 
process. Could you explain."


   Water alone would likely not remove fertilizers from over-fertilized 
plants.  This explanation will be over-simplified:  As it was explained back 
in my soils class, soil particles and organic matter possess positive and 
negetative polarity/sites that form a weak chemical bond with the cations 
and anions of fertilizer.  Many of the cations of fertilizer have a valence 
(charge) of +1 and the calcium in Gypsum, with its valence/charge of +2, 
displaces  the 1's and bonds to the site itself.  Does that make sense?

Jim Fruth
Brambleberry Farm
Pequot Lakes, MN  56472
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