ASSESSING RESPONSE OF FOUR ECONOMICALLY SIGNIFICANT VEGETABLE CROPS TO GYPSUM AS A SUPPLEMENTAL SULFUR SOURCE IN NEW YORK

Abstract

Sulfur (S) deposition rates have decreased in the past several decades. In this thesis, we evaluate the response of economically significant vegetable crops English pea (Pisum sativum), snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), sweet corn (Zea mays) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) to gypsum. Gypsum was chosen as a supplemental S source because it is cheap, widely available, and is easily inserted into fertility programs. By conducting gypsum fertilizer trials with three economically important processing crops and one fresh market crop, a broad overview was available to answer whether sulfur deficiencies were already a widespread issue in New York vegetable production. Throughout all off our trials and data collected in 2018 and 2019, no statistically significant results were found that gypsum had a positive effect on any of the vegetable crops tested. Thus, we conclude that S is not limiting production of the crops evaluated, on fine textured soils in New York.