Gypsum

clemmo

Member
is anyone using it as a soil conditioner?

If so why do you use it?
And what differences have you seen?

Particularly interested in usage on heavy clay soils with high rainfall
 

nonemouse

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North yorks
Only used it for first time this year, not had time to see any effect on soil structure, SEEMs to be less slug s on min-til land that had gypsum on
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
What are your magnesium levels in the soil? Gypsum is a good balancer for the Mg which makes clay sticky. There's enough sulphur in it for the following crop too.

Do be careful about where you get it from - some of the recycled plasterboard needs EA deployment licences or the RPA will be taking some of your Basic Payment.
 

nonemouse

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North yorks
What are your magnesium levels in the soil? Gypsum is a good balancer for the Mg which makes clay sticky. There's enough sulphur in it for the following crop too.

Do be careful about where you get it from - some of the recycled plasterboard needs EA deployment licences or the RPA will be taking some of your Basic Payment.

We are on clay soils with high mg levels (index 4+).

Gypsum coming from www.agricore.co.uk
 

Wastexprt

Member
BASIS
They look like a pretty professional lot. They do mention PAS 109 for gypsum & PAS 110 for digestate.

@360farmsupport knows much more about this & other industrial products than most.

PAS109 is the Quality Protocol for recovered gypsum, but the end destination does not include agriculture. Currently, there are only two recovery routes to land for recovered gypsum, that is either by a Low Risk Waste Activity Position Statement that allows gypsum to be applied at up to 1t/ha http://1ur6751k3lsj3droh41tcsra.wpe...uploads/2015/02/Low-Risk-Gypsum-Statement.pdf or by a land spreading deployment. I am part of a small group working on a third way of getting it to land legitimately ;)

Scotland, via SEPA, has a different approach https://www.sepa.org.uk/media/154220/recycled_gypsum_from_waste_plasterboard.pdf
 

PSQ

Member
Arable Farmer
In a previous thread @York posted a cryptic message insinuating dire consequences from over applying gypsum.
I suspect its to do with damaging Mg levels, but can anyone expand on this?
FWIW, I applied 1t/acre on some index 5 Mg ground about 6 years ago and it didn't change much. Texture still poor, Mg still index 5, and no detectable difference over (poor) pre gypsum S levels when re tested 12 months later in the following crop. I would like to repeat the application but I'm wary that these Macbeth like prophecies might come to pass.
 

Wastexprt

Member
BASIS
In a previous thread @York posted a cryptic message insinuating dire consequences from over applying gypsum.
I suspect its to do with damaging Mg levels, but can anyone expand on this?
FWIW, I applied 1t/acre on some index 5 Mg ground about 6 years ago and it didn't change much. Texture still poor, Mg still index 5, and no detectable difference over (poor) pre gypsum S levels when re tested 12 months later in the following crop. I would like to repeat the application but I'm wary that these Macbeth like prophecies might come to pass.
Personally, I don't think that 1t/ac would have much effect on soils. Currently the EA pretty much accept up to 6t/ha without too much hassle. Higher rates need more justification as PTE levels can start to creep up and analysis can be very variable due to material inputs. Many years ago we used to put Tioxide 'gypsum' at 10t/ac, with some heavy coastal plain land at 20t/ac, which used to have a fairly quick response. Please bear in mind that the S in recovered plasterboard is only about 2% available.

And as said above, gypsum is around 20 -25% Calcium.
 

franklin

New Member
PAS109 is the Quality Protocol for recovered gypsum, but the end destination does not include agriculture. Currently, there are only two recovery routes to land for recovered gypsum, that is either by a Low Risk Waste Activity Position Statement that allows gypsum to be applied at up to 1t/ha http://1ur6751k3lsj3droh41tcsra.wpe...uploads/2015/02/Low-Risk-Gypsum-Statement.pdf or by a land spreading deployment. I am part of a small group working on a third way of getting it to land legitimately ;)

Scotland, via SEPA, has a different approach https://www.sepa.org.uk/media/154220/recycled_gypsum_from_waste_plasterboard.pdf

Is there a difference between recycled and mined gypsum then as per paperwork? Is one waste, and the other fertiliser?
 

franklin

New Member
Sorry, I was thinking in terms of paperwork for use on soil. I can understand all this PAS qualify protocols for recycled and the like, but surely mined gypsum in simply a fertiliser rather than a waste?
 

Wastexprt

Member
BASIS
Is there a difference between recycled and mined gypsum then as per paperwork? Is one waste, and the other fertiliser?

Recycled plasterboard gypsum needs deployments as it is a waste at present. Mined gypsum is a product and doesn't need any paperwork to be applied to land.

Generally plasterboard gypsum originates from power stations, FGD Gypsum, as part of controlling sulphur emissions. Interestingly, as the big power stations start to close down this source of gypsum is projected to decline along with the plasterboard industry accepting more recovered plasterboard in to plasterboard manufacture. FGD Gypsum is a synthetic product derived from flue gas desulfurization (FGD) systems at power plants. Sulphur dioxide emission control systems used by coal-fired power plants remove sulphur from combustion gases using "scrubbers." One particular type of scrubber that uses lime or limestone reagent (i.e., a substance used in a chemical reaction to produce another substance) and a forced oxidation (i.e., a chemical combination with oxygen) system produces "FGD gypsum," which is chemically nearly identical to mined natural gypsum.
 

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