Scots sulphur need

12 July 2002

Scots sulphur need

SULPHUR has long been needed to get the best from Scottish spring barleys.

That is the reaction of Agrovistas John Hughes to new HGCA/Kemira trials to assess the elements value on the crop.

"As far back as the 1980s we started dressing with sulphur for spring barley," says Mr Hughes. "Its an essential input once the soil level reaches the critical 10ppm."

Atmospheric S inputs have never been high in Scotland, he notes. "Sometimes we have been getting down to 4ppm in the soil."

A typical dressing, based on soil analysis, is 15kg/ha of S. "Once you go over 20kg/ha you risk running into copper deficiency problems."

Maltsters have no objections provided it does not go on too late, he adds. &#42