[aarcticat1]

My yard has some spots were the grass is dying and its white colored i beleive it is alkaline soil, its in areas were water doesnt drain well. What can i do to get rid of the alkalia?

 

[bridgeman]

You need to rely on your high school chemistry-class lessons. "An acid plus a base yields salt and water." Dumping some composted leaves or rotting pine needles usually helps, but if you have a real heavy alkaline build-up, you might just want to hit the areas with a diluted vinegar (acetic acid) solution.

 

[CADplans]

We just treated some acid loving plants, the bag says sulfur.

 

[TWG1572]

I spread sulphur on my alkaline soil. If you have someone locally who supplies commercial lawn companies, you can buy 50 pound bags of pelleted sulphur quite cheaply. It is slower acting and you do need to be careful of overapplying. There's a rule of thumb on application rates out there there if you google it. I'd do it before a rain - it stinks!

I'd also ask if you think your spots have salt in them. Some alkeline soils have sodic spots, which gypsum will help to flush the salts out.

If your grass is turning yellow/white with green veins you might have iron chlorosis, which is also common in alkeline soils. The solution there is applying iron.

 

[aarcticat1]

It is turning the grass white what do u mean by the green veins? The ground is all white also.

 

[aarcticat1]

It is turning the grass white what do u mean by the green veins? The ground is all white also.

 

[TWG1572]

Well, if the ground is white than we probably don't need to worry about the green veins. If it were me, I might have a soil test done to identify if it was a sodic or saline soil. It certainly seems like it's one of these, or both. ND is full of them. A test might help you determine an effective treatment plan - you could probably work with someone in your university's extension office to develop one.

I think gypsum could be a potential solution, one of it's proven uses is leaching salts out of soils. Having never delt with these types of soils in person, I can't give you a recommended application rate. Extension should be able to though.

 

[RDR]

I've been told the same about gypsum. I had spots in my 75 acre field that you could get a 200hp 4wd tractor stuck in. The row crop farmers over the years had made them deeper. I pulled dirt in by going in circles until they were filled in. Before that nothing would grow in that area, not even weeds.