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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