Soil conditioning/improving - Gypsum

oliveoyl

Has anyone got any experience of using Gypsum?

I've just taken an allotment plot and the soil's a bit 'clayey'... not really bad, it's had good treatments of compost/manure etc. but it's still quite sticky where wet, and quite hard where dry... so if at all possible, I'd like to change the texture a bit more... and Gypsum looks like it might be the answer, but I'd like to hear some feedback if anyone has any?

RAS

Hi

I did this with the bottom corner of my old allotment and it did help. Personally I would add a fair bit of compost/manure/anything with lots of humus as well. The gypsum made it easier to incorporate the humus

oliveoyl

How much of it did you use, and on what size area? The area I want to treat will be about 25' x 40'. I've found a company online that sells 25kg bags for about £30 inc. delivery which seems reasonable.

As I'm just starting out, I haven't got any compost or manure yet... I'm going to buy some compost to start me off and have had a few offers of free manure (fresh though so it'll be towards the end of the year before I can incorporate any of that).

I might add some sand as well to improve drainage, but will see how I get on this year with the above.