Left over drywall

[4wanderingeyes]

I have a lot of left over drywall scraps. I have very little patients to sit and remove the paper from them, but can I still toss it in my food plots? Or what can I do with it all?

 

[willy]

I had the same pile of scraps you have and used them as weed control mats around my fruit trees. It kept weeds down and the clover in the immediate area of the trees was noticeably way greener than the other clover out of the drainage pattern from the tree. One could see this from the ground but it was even more apparent when one looked at the satellite pictures of google earth of the same area before and after the added drywall. The paper and drywall has not been seen for a couple years. It lasted about 2 years. I put it paper down. Don't know if it was better or worse but it worked fine and no negatives noticed.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Weed mats sound like a great idea around apple trees!

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I also use leftover drywall for apple tree weed barriers and it works great.

 

[Charles Clear]

I often wondered about that. I also wondered about health concerns though too. The fly ash so many people are concerned about from coal plants as being toxic is used in the production of drywall.

 

[willy]

Here's a pic showing the greenup difference of the drywall influenced area. One can see the drywall around the trees and then the drainage pattern from them. This is two years after I placed the drywall originally. My guess its the gypsum in the drywall that helped the uptake of nutrients for the clover. My plan is to put down a 200 pounds of granulated
gypsum per acre this spring on my food plots and see what it can do there.

 

[Catscratch]

Talk with sd about sulfur and clover. He's done a lot of experiments with it and has some great info!

 

[TreeDaddy]

Here's a pic showing the greenup difference of the drywall influenced area. One can see the drywall around the trees and then the drainage pattern from them. This is two years after I placed the drywall originally. My guess its the gypsum in the drywall that helped the uptake of nutrients for the clover. My plan is to put down a 200 pounds of granulated
gypsum per acre this spring on my food plots and see what it can do there.View attachment 27415

impressive photo

i also really like the "edge" and contour of your layout

bill

 

[willy]

Thank you treedaddy

 

[hillrunner]

I've thrown a lot of drywall away over the years. I never would have dreamt it had a habitat use.

 

[DrDirtNap]

Here's a pic showing the greenup difference of the drywall influenced area. One can see the drywall around the trees and then the drainage pattern from them. This is two years after I placed the drywall originally. My guess its the gypsum in the drywall that helped the uptake of nutrients for the clover. My plan is to put down a 200 pounds of granulated
gypsum per acre this spring on my food plots and see what it can do there.View attachment 27415

Wow! Really impressive photo. Like others have said I would have never thought about using drywall like this. Just out of curiosity what is your soil pH?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[willy]

what is your soil pH?

5.9

 

[Yarg]

I also use leftover drywall for apple tree weed barriers and it works great.

Sounds tempting but what about vole's.. Have you noticed their tunnels underneath.

 

[ksgobbler]

The guy that my basement took and the drywall scraps and dumped them is his 30 acre farm field cause the soil test said he needed some. I guess it worked.

 

[SD51555]

If anyone hasn't done it, you should really give gypsum a whirl. Get two 40 lb bags from Menards and put them down on a quarter acre of clover. Have an untreated spot right next to it, and watch what happens. Put it down in spring before green up. It's gonna work best on a perennial plot. Where you're tilling, spraying, or otherwise have fallow ground, you are gonna have other issues that hold back your plot and will retard your gypsum results.

$10 experiment.

Sulfur is essential for many plant functions. Some of them are

• A structural component of protein and peptides
• Active in the conversion of inorganic N into protein
• A catalyst in chlorophyll production
• Promotes nodule formation in legumes
• A structural component of various enzymes
• A structural component of the compounds that give the characteristic odors and flavors to mustard, onion and garlic

 

[Jordan Selsor]

When I build my house 4 years ago I put all the sheet rock scraps in a woodland food plot. I was worried it would take the paper awhile to decompose. It sat for several months before I ran a disc over it for a fall annual plot. Literally could not see one sign of it by the time I ran a disc over it a couple times. 100% Disintegrated.
So put down with confidence.
Any time I stumble upon a scrap sheet now I lay it by a fruit tree for weed control and soil benefits. Hill Billy Habitat 101 ;)

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Hmmm I’m a drywall contractor. My crews literally install a couple hundred thousands sheets throughout a typical year. Obviously getting access to drywall is not a problem for me.
So you just throw scraps out in a plot and it eventually disintegrates into the soil?

 

[Jordan Selsor]

Hmmm I’m a drywall contractor. My crews literally install a couple hundred thousands sheets throughout a typical year. Obviously getting access to drywall is not a problem for me.
So you just throw scraps out in a plot and it eventually disintegrates into the soil?

Yep however discing speeds up the process