Gypsum

[ozd12005]

So we had a party yesterday and a distant relative who is just starting in the business tried to talk my ear off all day about the great text book knowledge he has. At one point in the conversation he started talking about putting Gypsum down to rid of yellow spots from dog urine, never heard of that before and was wondering if anyone has tried it and what the results were? Hate to think I could learn something off a snot nose kid that has had everything handed to him but maybe this old dog can learn a new trick. Lets hear some feed back on this gypsum

[GreenI.A.]

I've heard it aswell. I worked for 5 years for one of the distributors and lots of customers would come in asking for gypsoum for that reason. Mostly homeowners who heard it on a radio garden show or tv. I have not seen anything documenting that gypsum will repair the damage caused by the urine

[Leo the Landscaper]

I am going to go out on a limb and say maybe it helps with the excess salt in the form of Sodium Chloride that is in urine? Gypsum is routinely used to flush sodium from sodic/dispersed soils.

However, I don't think it is the Sodium Chloride that does the buring of the turf, that would be the high concentration of urea.

So in a theoretical sense gypsum can alleviate some of the negatives caused by dog pee. But so will water!

[DA Quality Lawn & YS]

Gypsum is used to condition the soil.
As far as treating dog wizz, ??
I always find treating wizz spots humorous. People treat some spots, pat themselves on the back at the renovation job they did, meanwhile their mutt wizz'es another 10 spots right next to the other ones. Lose/lose proposition.
I have always said, you can either have a good dog, or a good lawn. Not both.

[GreenI.A.]

Or you just train your dog not to pee on the lawn, or atleast to only do so in one particular spot. During the warmer months my dog drinks well over 5 gallons a day, you can bet your a$$ he's trained to not pee on the lawn

[phasthound]

Originally Posted by GreenIndustryAssociates

Or you just train your dog not to pee on the lawn, or atleast to only do so in one particular spot. During the warmer months my dog drinks well over 5 gallons a day, you can bet your a$$ he's trained to not pee on the lawn

One dog drinks 5 gallons a day!?!

[jbturf]

i think the real problem is if a customers expectation is
that after gypsum is applied to a dead pee circle, that the
grass will miraculously come back to life


and yah, i wouldnt ever want to piss off greenindustries dog

[phasthound]

Originally Posted by jbturf

and yah, i wouldnt ever want to piss off greenindustries dog

It's better to be pissed off than pissed on.

[GreenI.A.]

Originally Posted by jbturf

i think the real problem is if a customers expectation is
that after gypsum is applied to a dead pee circle, that the
grass will miraculously come back to life


and yah, i wouldnt ever want to piss off greenindustries dog

180lb Newfoundland who insists on staying outside all day weather its 5 degrees or 95 degrees.

From the research i've done on gypsum it looks more like it is just simply conditioning the soil which in turn yields a better turf, and not that it brakes down the urine

[CJFDFF]

As far as using gypsum, I have been using it on all of my yards for about 3 years, 5 years on my own yard and my parents yard. I started using gypsum first on our family farm and have noticed huge improvements, with drainage and with soil structure, and with the high levels of calcium it helps put a stop to broad leaves. I have been told by a great number of turf and ag professors that gypsum will not work unless you have a high sodium level in the soil, but I have the results to prove it dose work and works well. Any how as far as dog spots are concerned, you either have one of two problems, one being the urine is very high in acid, or it has a high sodium concentrate or even worse it has both, combine that with a high concentrate of nitrogen and your going to have a problem. I often treat these spots with a mixture of gypsum and hi-calcium lime and water it in. My customers that insist on have the best lawn, that have dogs get a 5 gal pale of that mixture and are willing to spot treat right after the dog urinates. I have two condo associations that mandate this and keep records of how much mixture is used by each home owner that has a dog. I was a little bit on edge and thought that the home owners would not go for it, but they did and it has been working for me on a lot of my properties.