TOPIC: Planted another 1/2 lb - excellent morning to be out

Hey Guys,

I ordered another 1/2 lb seed Sunday, got it in Wednesday, planted it today Friday.

The ground was lightly frozen last week / early this week but it has warmed up nicely now and is supposed to rain tonight.

This morning it was in the upper 40's and now it is 62 outside - very nice. I started off with a tee-shirt under a hoodie but soon had that hoodie off and worked in a tee-shirt the rest of the morning.

The ground worked real nice with nothing but my leaf rake, and the seeds I got looked to be in real good shape too. About 1/3 were cracked revealing that nice white smile but they did not look to be much more advanced in sprouting than the first batch I got back at the end of October.

I think here in Middle TN you could keep an eye on the weather and time your seed delivery with those warm ups between cold spells and plant seed a good part of the winter months.

I am running a bit low on gypsum though and will need to get some more of that. I have enough left to plant another 1/2 pound or so but that's about it.

You guys that are supplementing with gypsum - where do you get it ?

None of our local stores carry gypsum. I found the two 40 lb bags I bought over in a neighboring county at a farmers coop and it had been special ordered and the buyer never came and picked it up.

We don't have a Lowe's or HomeDepo in town but not sure if they carry gypsum either. I could make a trip to a nearby city and visit one of those stores if they do.

I may just have to get a local nursery to order some for me.

If any of you know of a good source for gypsum - let me know.

Thanks

TNhunter

TN,
My son and I got out at 11:30 Am and finished up at 2:30 PM today as well. The temps hit 57 here and it was a great day to plant. The leaves were wet and made it twice as hard to rake. It wore this old man out! We got 3 lbs in today and I was hoping to get 5 or 6 in.

I am not sure where to get Gypsum

Here is one of the planting beds below where I got 1-lb planted in these beds. The beds totaled up to be about 1,700 square foot in this pic.

We planted 3 different spots like this each one about 1,600 sq ft per pound of ginseng.

One more pic of the same planting bed different angle with my youngest son in the pic.

I have seen gypsum at our local local Lowes. Don't know who else might carry it.

mhowa

TNhunter and Latt

Great job getting those seeds in the ground.

Sounds like Spring weather. We had about 40 degrees yesterday and the snow pack went from 10\" down to 5\". Should be in the 40's today. This is really unusual weather we are having.

Hey Latt, do you mark your beds with anything? Or do you just go by memory?

Thanks for sharing guys!

classicfur

Classicfur,
I just remember where I put them. I do write some info down on paper sometimes. But rarely do I mark the beds.
Thanks,
Latt

Latt,

Since you don't know where to buy gypsum and you are not marking the exact locations of your beds - I assume your soil test good for ginseng without adding any supplements.

If my soil did not need ammending I would not be marking the exact locations of my beds either.

mhowa - I checked the Lowes over in Columbia TN and they have 10 lb bag of gypsum for 9.99. They said they will have some 40 lb bags in before spring but the guy I spoke with was not real sure what the price was.

www.usagypsum.com/category/1.aspx

I found a usagypsum supplier online (see link above) where you can get it at reasonable price for the material, but the shipping is quite expensive (18.00 per bag) ouch.

The pulverized gypsum at 3.95 per 50 lb bag should do nicely, but then agian the shipping will sure increase the cost.

If you ordered more than 10 bags sounds like it could be shipped differently and they would give you a freight quote.

I may have to call them and just see what the freight cost might be on 20 bags of that pulverized gypsum product. That would be 1000 pounds and that would last me quite a while.

It would sure be nice if there was a local supplier where you could get it at that price without the shipping.

TNhunter

TNhunter

I have been using the granular gypsum for applying on top of the leaves. The granular seems to find it's way through the leaves better than the powdered gypsum and is easier to broadcast. The powdered gypsum is great for applying directly to the soil, but when applied on top of the leaves in the spring time, it seems to just stay stuck to the top of the leaves. Rain will eventually wash it down into the soil, but not as quickly as the granular.

Here's a couple of ebay auctions for granular gypsum.

cgi.ebay.com/Gypsum-Calcium-Sulfate-Dihy...;hash=item5194c881b8


cgi.ebay.com/Garden-Pearls-25-Lbs-Gypsum...;hash=item19c204e54c

It cost me $12 for a 25lb bag of the granular gypsum from the local Farmers Co-op. After trying both the powdered and granular gypsum. I feel that the granular is the best all around application for soil and when applied on top of the leaves.

classicfur

Classicfur,

I looked at the details on all 4 types of gypsum offered by usagypsum and the only difference seems to be the size of the material.

On the pulverized gypsum it says this:

Fast acting and soluble
Incorporates into the soil without tillage

It is also the lowest cost product at 3.95 per 50 lb bag.

The ultra fine gypsum product says that it is the most soluble product and can be used with irrigation systems, so I suppose you could even mix it in a tank and spray it if you wanted.

They do have a granular gypsum product but it is 4.95 per 40 lb bag (more expensive). Looks like it may be processed in such a way to end up with larger uniform size bits of gypsum for use with a fertilizer spreader type application.

It appears to be the exact same material though but more expensive, I suppose because they have to form those size pellets to be a specific size.

I am not sure why that would work better then the more fine pluverized product.

If anything it looks to me like the ultra fine product would get washed down thru the leaves and into the soil faster.

If you are paying 12.00 for a 25 lb bag of granular product that seems like a reasonable price. Wish I had a local store offering it for that.

For 50 lbs that would be 24.00

If you bought the pulverized gypsum from usagypsum and ordered small qty (less than 10 bags).

50 lbs pulverized - 3.95 + 18.00 = 21.95

If you ordered a larger quantity - like 20 bags which would ship by freight, I expect you would cut the shipping cost quite a bit. Might even get the cost down in the 10.00-15.00 range per 50 lb bag.

I will try to give them a call on Monday and see how the freight charges work out. Will ask about the granular vs pulverized or ultra fine (as far as which would be best for broadcasting on top of leaves).

Will let you know what they say.

TNhunter

TNhunter

After trying out both powder/pulverized and granular, I found that the granular mostly falls further down into the leaves and just one rain will start to disolve it. Its not necessary that it all gets into the soil immediatly but that it gets into the soil eventually, usually within a month or two.

classicfur