EC Nebraska | LawFarm - 11/17/2012 21:18
These farms are old hay farms that were converted. Even with row cropping the OM levels are slowly increasing. I like the idea of gypsum, might help open up those tight clays and improve water infiltration. Wont the sulfur lower my pH though?
Gypsum loosens up tight soils if they are tight because of too much Magnesium. (on clay soils Mg should be less than 12% of the CEC) It does that by helping the Mg leach out and replacing it with calcium. That will lower the pH some because Ca doesn't raise the pH as much as Mg. As for amounts, it depends some on how much you want to spend and on what you want to do. 100 lb/acre/year will help the crop but won't affect the soils much because the crop will use all the sulfur, none left to leach away Mg. 500lb/acre/year would be about as much as you want to put on tight no-till soils. If you worked it in, you could put a ton on but that's a onetime thing. I'd just stay with no-till and put on 250-400 lb/acre/year. Redo the soil tests every couple years and cut back on the gypsum when the Mg drops to 12% of the CEC.
A ton of water treatment lime would be good, but you just don't want anything that adds more Magnesium. If you can get pel-lime with no Mg I'd consider just throwing 100 lb/acre/year pel-lime in with the gypsum.
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HIll Farm Soil Results - Lime? Recommendations?
