To study the possibility of using ion-exchange resin to extract available sulphur from soil samples as have been used for P,K,CaP,K,Ca and MgMg extraction in routine analysis in Brazil, an experiment was conducted with soil samples taken from a citrus orchard, medium-textured dark-red latosol (Typic hapludox), located in Botucatu, State of São Paulo. In July of 1988 phosphogypsum was applied at rates of 0, 1, 2 and 4 t ha-1 to establish increasing levels of sulphate in the soil. The amounts of sulphate in the leaves and in samples taken along the soil profile at the depths of 0-5, 5-10, 10-20, 20-40, 40-80 and 80-120 cm, using five different extraction procedures: CaCl2, 1,5gL-1; NH4OAc 0,5 mol L-1 in HOAc 0,25 mol L-1; Ca(H2PO4)2 500 mg of P L-1 in HOAc 2,0 mol L-1, and ion-exchange resin in two soil resin:extractor (5:2,5:25 e 10:2,5:25) were determined 6,12 and 24 months after phosphogypsum application. The amounts of sulphur extracted by ion-exchange resin in either of the studied ratios were very close to those extracted by the ammonium acetate method. The ion-exchange resin methods also presented good correlations with other extractors traditionally used for sulphur availability determination. The results showed that resin, at soil:extractor ratio of 1:5 is a promising method for extracting available sulphur from the soil and hence, should be considered in future studies of sulphur availability in the soil.
Index terms
sulphur availability; ion-exchange resin; phosphogypsum; Sicilian lemon