Sulphur: Important to Crop Development

University of Illinois research assistant professor Connor Sible has been studying sulfur applications to improve crop production. New field trials are underway, and early-season data is already showing varied sulfate responses.

“We go back to the basic biology and protein production. Proteins are made from amino acids, and there are two amino acids specifically that require sulfur, and those amino acids are very important for building proteins. Those sulfur-containing amino acids. So it's both plant structure, just physically building the plant biomass. And then proteins are very important for plant functions. A lot of enzymes and metabolic activity runs on sulfur.”

Sible says that sulfates being tested on corn and soybeans are synthetic sources manufactured into either granular or liquid forms for application.

“From an active ingredient perspective, it's either sulfate or elemental. Those are the two options you have. And then there's a lot of products on market that have the different sources. From a drive perspective, we're looking at ammonium sulfate, which is probably the most common granular ammonium sulfate. And then on the elemental there's a product out there called Tiger 90. So that's one of the more commonly available elemental sources.”

An elemental sulfur is a crystalline solid. He says, although they are not working with liquid sulfur products, there are several that are on the market.