Gypsum is known to help sodic clay soils by latching onto the salts that cause those particular clay soils to bind together. Gypsum does nothing for non sodic clay soils in spite of the hype the sellers of those products use. Since few of the clay soils in West Virginia will be sodic, because of ample rainfall, the use of even liquid gypsum would generally be a waste of your money.
The simple fact is that the single most bestest way to make clay soils workable (or sandy soils) is to add organic matter to them.

Although his explanation of the "how's" and "why's" is a bit off, Kimmsr's take home message is correct. If you don't have an imbalance of sodium to calcium and magnesium, gypsum won't help even a little.

That being said, liquid gypsum isn't gypsum at all. It's calcium chloride and I've seen it burn the hell out of plants. And to answer your other question, liquid gypsum and thrive are precisely the same product. They just use different names in different states; like most con artists.

David.... You mention your age/health issues as a limiting factor in your ability to tend/cultivate your garden. I guess we all mitigate our age/health situations differently. May I suggest a few that have been helpful to me? [1] Re: lugging materials to a higher part of my garden: There are two boys in our church who are eager to help AND to earn some spending money. It seems like a continuation of my child-rearing years, so no pride issues. They haul and tug and TAKE INSTRUCTIONS better than an adult would. [1] When my sons visit, I ask them to haul stuff to the upper level. Once it is there, I can process it [make compost pile, dig/ammend soil, etc] [3] Once or twice a year my sons bring in tree-trim-mulch and spread where I need it. [4] I have a small garden cart - way easier to handle than a wheel barrow - that helps me to move things around. [5] Finally ... after so many years of being stubbornly independent, actually asking for help was a bit of a challenge. But have been just blown away by the cheerful and eager help that folks are willing to extend. Age 'is what it is' as they say. Can't leap tall buildings with a single bound...so 'shrug' OH WELL.

Can't add much to kimmsrs's OM, OM, OM, drumbeat [which I'm sure you know]My soil is clay-based and 35 years of adding OM is in good shape. Hope some of these suggestions will help. Good gardening!

We live in SE Iowa and have heavy clay soil. I love to garden, but this soil makes it difficult to cultivate, pull weeds, etc. Last year I bought a small bottle of liquid gypsum and at the end of the season I watered it into one of my flower beds. I had actually forgotten about it until we tilled some of our beds this spring. That one bed is so soft...even after hard rains! It is so much easier to cultivate...I can do it in a jiffy! And the shrubs in the back of the bed are growing faster than ever. I'm a believer! Thank you Lord Jesus!

You may be skeptical because you don't believe the claim, but I've used it and it worked amazingly well. In 2003 I bought a home with a hill in the back yard. A year or two later I wanted to plant juniper to try to knock down the weeds, but digging just one hole in the dirt and clay took nearly an hour. The amount of clay and rock in the hill makes it extremely difficult to get the shovel past a couple inches.

I went to my local nursery and he recommended Liquid Gypsum. I bought two bottles (hill is 65 feet by 18 feet) and I sprayed the hill as directed. I waited a day or two, and it rained (they recommend soaking the hill with water, I let the rain do it). The next weekend, I planted 50 (very small) Juniper plants in about two hours. One food push with my foot on the shovel and I could dig a hole just big enough for the small plant. It saved me lots of time. I'll always recommend it, even to the skeptical (which I usually am).

Today, I went to plant a tree and after about 20 minutes trying to get past the rock and clay I gave up. Now I'm trying to find Liquid Gypsum locally because I know it will work. it's not permanent... especially after 10 years, but it worked good enough to make a solid believer out of me. You can even see the bare spots where nothing got planted...even weeds aren't growing there but look at that juniper!

I can almost guarantee the 'liquid gypsum' was not what caused the soil to loosen up. It was the rain. That's how they fool you.

Yeah, right. Because in the three years that I lived here, it had never rained until the day after I used the product.

The stuff is for sodic soils. If you have sodic soil than it will help loosen it up. If you don't have sodic soil then any loosening of the soil is from the water. Moist soil is simply easier to dig than dry soil.

There is a chemical in the stuff that can work in the way that it is purported to do. But I'm not sure that anyone wants polyacrylamide in their garden soil.

The labeling" is borderline "fraudulent", adding the quotation marks around "gypsum" because it isn't gypsum.

The company knows that you won't buy polyacrylamide for your garden, so they figured out a way to dupe you.

I doubt that it's labeled for vegetable crops; it certainly cannot be used in an organic garden.

People, be careful!

Whether or not polyacrylamide loosens soil seems debateable too. It will increase water infiltration which would lead to a looser feeling soil though. But yeah, let's not dump a ton of something that degrades into a potent neurotoxin. Just add organic material and mulch.

I really don't need to sit here and debate with you about your skepticism. The Juniper plants I planted have all basically taken off and filled the hill and I'm not disappointed. Don't use it if you don't want to. It worked for me and that's all I care about.

I have no experience with the product so I will not say that it doesn't work. As far as 'neurotoxins', I think this is a big stretch based on what I've read. The stuff is used in cosmetic surgery and potable water treatment, for cryin' out loud. Highly unlikely it's unhealthy when added to soil - particularly since we don't eat soil. An apparently you don't use 'a ton' of it in the first place. I'd still rather use compost and mulches, but come on, let's not make it worse than it is.

Polyacrylamide degrades in the soil to acrylamide which is both a neurotoxin and a carcinogen. Now whether that poses a health risk to humans is debateable because as you said, we don't eat soil. But considering that there are better less dangerous ways to get the same results why even bother with it?

Also, the traditional uses for polyacrylamide are irrelevant to this discussion as they don't create the condition under which it will degrade into acrylamide.

I'm certainly not going to advocate for using it in soils, but the info I saw indicated that acrylamide doesn't really form in soil, but would come from residual monomer in the polymerized product. And if it forms, is readily biodegraded in soil and does not accumulate. the former is from a journal article dating to '94, and the latter from EPA's Tox Profile for acrylamide. I didn't do an exhaustive lit search, so maybe you have other info (please share). I probably shouldn't be debating it because it obscures the main point - compost - a thing that we agree on.

this product work 100% why? It help me to keep the water down not up with 80% 90% of rain this is my goal even if i put down a compost soil this year still holding water and run off the hard clay is at the bottom i loose it by hand the hard clay and mix it with compost soil and add another layer of compost on top still not drain good

the problem is the hard clay soil the soil may have salt too i live in the north PA the salt is the problem some time you have to try a product if it work good if not don't spend it also i use dry Gypsum it take long time to work in the soil

i mix the dry Gypsum with the hard clay soil but is to long to work so i want something to work fast so i spend it on the liquid Gypsum i use 2 only now i will get third one

If, lunytunes, you were to talk with the people at your local office of the Penn State Cooperative Extension Service they would tell you that gypsum does nothing for Pennsylvania soils. Of course you are free to not believe anything people that have studied those soils for many years have to say, as well.

kimmq is kimmsr

There are other ingredients besides the calcium chloride though, and one has to wonder if they are actually doing something to the soil.

Liguid Gypsum?

I don't understand. Gypsum is calcium sulfate. This has no calcium sulfate.

If calcium chloride was the same thing as calcium sulfate, why won't gypsum melt the ice on my steps?

"The amount of usable calcium in one quart of Liquid "Gypsum" is equivalent to 200 pounds of dry gypsum."

Elemental calcium has a known molecular weight. 200 pounds of dry gypsum contains about 38 lbs of calcium. How do they get 38 lbs of something into a quart bottle? And a gallon bottle would weigh 152 lbs. AND the 2.5 gallon bottle, my goodness!!! How would you get that off your porch after the UPS guy delivers it? How would the UPS guy even get it on your porch? What if you drop it on your foot?

I don't understand. I just don't understand.

Marketing, my good friend. Marketing.

This product works great! I'vel used it in fertigation sysems and by sprayer application

I just read some research on clay soils. https://www.irrigationaustralia.com.au/documents/item/276

The conclusion was that liquid or granular gypsum applied to the soils surface was effective at improving clay soils. Wallace Laboratory in El Segundo concurs. If you have your soil tested by their lab, they will make recommendations on how to improve your soils. Garn Wallace was quoted in the research.

Gypsum is Calcium sulphate dihydrate. It replaces sodium in the soil and increases infiltration rates and decreases dispersion/erosion of clay particles. There are formulas on how much to use. An expensive solution to heavy clay soil is to excavate it and replace it with Sandy Loam soil with 20% compost. The expense is in the labor to remove the clay.

Or build an 18" berm/little hill of Sandy Loam on top of the clay soil and plant on the berm. Be sure to till a little of the sandy loam into the top few inches of clay first.

Adding compost, not mulch, to the soil also will help. Adding mulch, on top of the composed clay, to keep the soil covered is beneficial. Adding cheated iron helps to release the calcium in the soil so the plants can 'drink' it.