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Agronomist says adding sulfur can replace lost nutrients from tough spring

An agronomist with one of the largest U.S. manufacturers of ammonium sulfate (AMS) says adding AMS during a challenging spring can replace lost nutrients. 

AMS is a fertilizer that’s a source of nitrogen and sulfate sulfur that can be applied directly to the ground.

Mercedes Gearhart with AdvanSix says AMS makes sulfur immediately available to plants and becomes increasingly important for higher yields. “Sulfur plays a key role in nodulation so it plays a key role in allowing the soybean crop to get free nitrogen from the atmosphere and this roughly represents 50 percent of the crop’s total nitrogen needs,” she says.

She tells Brownfield without AMS sulfur maybe unavailable when the crop needs it. “Elemental sulfur cannot be taken up by roots until it is oxidized to sulfate sulfur, a biological process that may take two or more seasons to complete, depending on the conditions.  The beauty of AMS is that all of its sulfur is in the sulfate form, the only sulfur form roots can take up” she says.

She says AMS is very flexible since both its sulfur and nitrogen are in readily plant-available forms.

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