Abstract
Sulfur is an essential nutrient—along with nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium—for plant growth and development. Sulfur is mostly supplied to crops through soil fertilizers. However, chemical fertilizers are overused to increase crop yields despite environmental threats. The proper use of chemical fertilizers positively affects crop growth and yield increase. Regardless, residues from misuse threaten not only the soil ecosystem, but also the marine ecosystem. Therefore, the need to minimize chemical fertilizer abuse is imperative. This article reports that sulfur can be applied to crop leaves as nontoxic sulfur (NTS) in trace amounts to positively affect plant hormones, chloroplast content, and ROS scavenging system, thereby promoting growth, and increasing crop yields. Furthermore, NTS and microelements, the micronutrients calcium and magnesium, produced a synergistic effect when applied together, and NTS enhanced the expression of auxin and gibberellin-related genes. Additionally, chlorophyll content was increased, and ROS scavenging ability was greatly improved. Therefore, NTS can effectively deliver potent growth-promoting functions of plants faster and safer than did soil fertilizers and consequently increase crop yield. This finding is a new strategy to replace soil chemical fertilizers in supplying sulfur. It is potentially valuable for increasing crop yields and can be applied to other crops.
Highlights
In agriculture, chemical fertilizers and pesticides are used to improve crop productivity
We examined the effects of nontoxic sulfur (NTS), Ca, and Mg on promoting growth in leaf lettuce
One week after the first to the fourth treatment of the leaf lettuce, each treatment group showed an increased leaf length compared with the nontreatment group
Summary
In agriculture, chemical fertilizers and pesticides are used to improve crop productivity. Their use is one of the easiest ways to optimize plant nutrition and control pests, diseases, and weeds [1]. The excessive and long-term use of chemical fertilizers can pollute the environment and deteriorate soil health [4,5,6,7]. To alleviate this problem, many farmers use organic fertilizers, which are naturally available mineral sources containing essential plant nutrients. Organic fertilizers can be obtained from many natural sources, including animal manure, slurry, blood meal, and fish-minute seaweed [8]
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