Polysulphate: Plant uptake and relationship between sulfur and selenium

Jiang L, Young S.D., Broadley M.R., Bailey E.H, Graham N.S. and McGrath S.P. (Nottingham Univ. UK)
Start: 2017 –  End: 2020

Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient for both human and animal health and the need for selective biofortification of crops and fodder is becoming increasingly clear.  However, there is also an increasing need for sulphur nutrition of crops and there is evidence that sulphate suppresses uptake of Se applied as selenate.  This is likely to be most severe when a highly soluble form of sulphate is applied along with Se.  A possibly solution may be to use a slower release form of sulphate, such as Polysulphate, so that Se uptake is suppressed to a lesser degree in the crucial few weeks following Se (selenate) application and before it (Se) is inevitably fixed into stable, unavailable organic forms in soil humus.  We propose a series of experiments aimed at understanding the interaction of selenium and sulphur in biofortification of crops and resolving possible advantages of using polysulphate in place of more soluble forms of sulphate fertilizer.