Diagnosis of sulfur availability for maize: soil and plant analysis

CARCIOCHI, WALTER D.; WYNGAARD, NICOLÁS; DIVITO, GUILLERMO A.; REUSSI CALVO, NAHUEL I.; ECHEVERRÍA, HERNÁN E.

Cambridge

Conferencia; 2018 IFS Agronomic Conference; 2018

Context: Sulfur (S) deficiency affects maize (Zea mays L.) production in many countries around the world. The frequency and magnitude of S deficiencies have increased in recent years. Therefore, it is necessary to develop and calibrate S availability diagnostic methods. Typical S diagnostic methods based on soil analysis (SO4-2-S content) have a low predictive capacity of yield response, probably because of the unaccounted available S derived from mineralization during the growing season. In this sense, it is necessary to develop easy and reliable methods to estimate soil S mineralization and calibrate them on field conditions. On the other hand, there are not available methods that allow S diagnosis status based on plant analysis at early maize growth stages. Thus, the development and evaluation of new tools to characterize maize S status due to plant analysis is a relevant scientific research gap