21 Aug Benefits of Gypsum
Gypsum has two primary uses in lawn care; remove excess sodium from the soil, and add calcium to the soil. Gypsum is a natural mineral that overall does not affect the pH of the soil, nor does it add or detract from existing minerals found in the soil. Gypsum’s most useful quality is its ability to dislodge salt from the soil and reduce soil compaction, which allows your turf to grow thicker and healthier. Healthy turf is more tolerant of drought, heat, and stress from traffic. You might be asking yourself, why is there excess salt in my soil? Have no fear friends; that is what we are here to explain!
Our Nebraska seasons vary from one extreme to another. While summers are steamy hot yet often dry, our winters greet us with snow, wind, and ice. To combat winter weather hazards, salt, sand, and other ice-melting chemicals are used on our roadways and sidewalks. While they are essential to winter safety, the salt and chemicals get into lawns, whether spread by salt trucks or piled on the lawn by a snowplow and are very damaging to our lawns and plants. In the summer, we irrigate our lawns often with city water, which causes a salt buildup in the soil over time. When excess salt gets into your lawn, the salt damages the soil by displacing other key elements needed by the turf. Gypsum binds to the salt molecules and flushes them out and away from the root zone to help with soil compaction and improve soil structure, which helps increase air movement to help water adequately be absorbed into the soil.
Are you tired of brown spots from pet urine? Gypsum neutralizes the mineral salts, and sulfur found in pet urine and helps eliminate odor as well as green up the brown spots left behind from your pet.
For established lawns, the best results achieved when Gypsum is applied in the fall after the lawn has been aerated. The process of aeration removes small plugs of soil from your lawn, creating holes about the size of your little finger. (To read more about aeration, click here) Applying Gypsum in the fall directly after aeration allows better access to the root zone and benefits from winter’s repeated freezing and thawing of the soil, which allows for it to gradually be mixed and incorporated into the soil properly.
Fall is knocking on our door, don’t miss out on the perfect time to prep your yard for the spring ahead! Calls us today for your free fall aeration with a 2021 lawn maintenance contract, and don’t forget to add Gypsum to your fall application schedule!
Photo by Melissa Jansen van Rensburg from Pexels