Agronomically and Environmentally Sound Fertilizers

Sulphur is an integral part of plant nutrition and is used by all plant types in varying quantities. The primary source of plant available sulphur comes from the soil's organic matter. Organic matter mineralizes into plant-available sulphate sulphur. As such, every year that a crop is harvested, a portion of the available soil sulphur is depleted and a portion is returned to the soil as crop residue that is recycled back into organic matter.

As the years go by without supplementing the soil with sulphur fertilizer, the cropping systems tend to remove more sulphur than is being replaced, leaving many soils worldwide in a sulphur deficient scenario.

Another significant factor affecting soil sulphur levels are environmental concerns. sulphur is being continually "cleaned" from fuels such as gasoline and diesel fuel, coal burning plants have become more efficient and emitting less sulphur into the atmosphere. Due to these two major factors, atmospheric sulphur being returned to the soil by way of acid rain has been reduced globally.

Elemental sulphur has the potential to be a very large and effective product for satisfying global plant nutrient sulphur requirements. Elemental sulphur fertilizers' agronomic availability (conversion from S to SO4) is dependent on soil moisture, bacterial activity, temperature, and particle size.

Particle size may be most crucial. Elemental sulphur can be easily converted to plant available sulphate sulphur if the particle sizing is in the 50 to 200 mesh range. Particle size can be controlled via operational procedures and swelling clay selection, and as such, rate of conversion from S to SO4 can be controlled.




R&D Research Farm – Washington, Louisiana



Alberta Agriculture, Alberta Canada


Controlled Release

Controls are widespread in Europe to control volumes of water soluble fertilizer leaching losses. North America and other parts of the world are heading in the same direction. The Mississippi and Rhine river watershed are two good examples of major agricultural regions environmentalists are targeting fertilizer leaching losses. Much attention is being paid to the 'dead zone' in the Gulf of Mexico - which in part is attributed to fertilizer leaching losses.

Because elemental sulphur bentonite formulations convert to plant available and water soluble sulphate sulphur over a period of time, the sulphur is available to the crop throughout the growing season and is much less likely to be lost due to leaching.

Most elemental sulphur formulations can be certified as Organic as well.