Checking for drainage, the most important step when planting any tree 

You probably also have caliche, and a high PH, which gypsum won't address. To get rid of the caliche you do need decent drainage, but you need to lower your soil PH to make it acidic. The acid will dissolve the caliche over time, turning it into CO2. The best way to lower PH is by applying elemental sulphur, which soil microbiology will convert to sulphuric acid

Thats probably one of those things that no one thought about mentioning because gypsum actually works so well it wouldnt be much of a video to make if they added gypsum to thier cause.. Yes gypsum does work very well.. but in the south west you have to dig deep as fat as u can with post hole diggers , line th ebottom with some grave l and gyp and sand,, leave 3 foot for your top soil ect,, before u throw the tree in let the hole set for about 3 months ,, pour 2 gallons of viniger in the hole , to break up and create holes in the clay,, just leave it in the hole ,or you can rinse it out,,

I was looking for this type of video

I need a little help. After gypsom, the drainage test is showing only a very little draining after 36 hours. The holes are mostly still full of water, no wonder the new trees were dying. Do we start to dig in the water? The weird part is that we have one living/thriving tree for the last 4 years in the same line of these new tree holes. Any help is appreciated.

@@sheloveselegance358 i have similar issue

@@sheloveselegance358 Gypsum will only break up clay and nothing else. If your soil is still not draining after gypsum, that means you have a physical obstruction such as compacted soil, rocks, etc. At this point, just wait for the water to drain and keep on digging deeper. Refill the hole with water a test again. Sooner or later it will start to drain. Drainage can vary greatly from one spot to another. This is probably why your other tree is thriving.

Yes, I advocate things that actually work :)

Hello, the tree is doing fantastic! It will be a year since I asked the question about the clay. The tree was planted in late October 2021 and survived a very cold, snowy winter in altitude 6,200, in Colorado! Trust me when I tell you we were worried the hole would become a hole of nothing but ice and water. It actually did great! So the gypsum worked long term! Spring rolled around and the tree grew at least 10". Since that time, we have planted multiple shrubs and trees with the same clay & lack of drainage issue and have used the gypsum with much success. Some holes took longer than others to finally drain though. Be patient, add more if needed. I am happy to report all of those are doing well too! I think the biggest thing we did was really make the holes we dug much wider than normal to give them all a chance to root out in all directions and also mulched really well so we wouldn't have to water deeply all the time and wonder if we were drowning the poor things. The mulch kept the soil moist allowing everything to develop a root system. At least that is what we believe is happening. This video was the best thing that could have happened to us! Otherwise, our yard would be void of some very beautiful shrubs and trees. BTW, we bought our gypsum at Lowes and had to find it on our own out in the garden center area where there are pebbles & other garden material. Several employees told us they didn't carry it. They did! It wasn't expensive considering the fix!

@@catherinekushner4402 Thank you for the info and for updating us on your progress. I lost 2 trees in Utah last year due to drainage issues. So, I'm going to try this. What type of trees did you have success with? I think the type of tree probably matters too. Some are much more tolerant of wettish roots than others.

@@vickipackham7357 Hello, the tree is a Japanese Lilac, and it is still doing very well. We have also planted a Serviceberry, 3 Chokeberry's, 3 Ninebarks, and a Crabapple tree. All are doing very well. Our clay is ridiculous, and the layer is so thick we never broke through it for any of the plantings. I wouldn't go crazy with the gypsum, but I would definitely say making a wide hole has helped. My daughter lives two blocks from us and has the same issue. When we planted her tree Mother's day 2022, (it was a replacement for two previous nursery planted tree's), we pulled the old dead tree out and it had never rooted beyond the little hole they had dug and plopped it in.

Continued. We dug a new, pretty wide hole, slightly deeper than the root ball, filled with water and it sat for two days. We added some gypsum a couple of times, it helped, but didn't completely drain. We went ahead and planted the tree with compost & native soil, (it was kind of a wet mess), mulched well, the tree didn't do much other than stay alive. Oh, and we really opened up the root ball by spending the time to detangle almost all of the roots. The tree was pretty mad! This spring, boom! Flowers, leaves and growth! Neither of the previous nursery planted trees ever grew. They just sat, then died. So, I think the key is really spending the time to see if you can get your hole to drain and use some gypsum, to dig the wider hole, to detangle the roots, use the 50/50 mix of compost/soil, & mulch well (but not volcano style), and hopefully, you will have the same results. Best wishes for success! Catherine

No need to mix gypsum in soil. It dissolves in water and penetrates the soil.

Gypsum will only fix drainage issues in clay soil. Are you sowing these seeds in the ground?

@@qctropicals yes, in the ground.. I have clay soil.

Heavy concentrations of gypsum over decades will form a hard rock layer called caliche. This will mainly happen if you use thousands of pounds of gypsum over decades and stop watering the area in the future. As long as you water the area, you will be good to go. If not, we'll be dead by the time it becomes a drainage problem anyway :).

@@qctropicals thank you for answering my question.

if you have alkaline clay yes

you need to dig deeper until water drains. Backfilling the hole with new soil will not work long term. Otherwise, plant in your native soil, no need to purchase anything special.

ofcourse

ofcourse

I could not find the white powdery gypsum, only EARTH SCIENCE. White and brown pellets, is this just as good?

gypsum fixed my drainage in clay soil. Caliche, you need to physically break thru that layer to allow drainage.

at least he helped someone. Did you?

@@darja25 Yes I did and have been for 30 years