Canola nutrition and sulfur

Key Points

• Recent research indicates that blanket early applications of 20 kg/ha of sulfur (S) to soil in central/northern NSW and southern Qld are not warranted.
• Sulfur deficiencies can be significant when they occur but occurrences are rare.
• Growers can adopt a watch-and-see approach. Be ready to fertilise in-crop if signs of deficiency occur as 100% of yield and oil percentage can be recovered, if sulfur is applied before stem elongation.
• Savings from S fertiliser costs may be better used to increase Nitrogen (N) rates.
• Most soils in the regions researched would have sufficient S in the profile to meet the requirements of most crops.
• Conducting KCl-40 soil tests before growing canola may be useful, however the currently recommended critical soil test levels are, in most cases, higher than needed.
• Soil requirements for sulfur should be determined by deep soil tests. Shallow soil tests are unreliable.

Region North

• 459.34 kb Tips and Tactics Canola Sulfur (Formatted for web accessibility)