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Organic Gardening

Use of Liver of Sulphur in Garden

10 years ago

I hope this falls into the Organic Gardening category....please redirect me if its not...

I recently purchased some Liver of Sulphur for some patina experimentation and decided not to use it. I read somewhere that diluted Liver of Sulphur is very good for plants and the garden (specifically tomatoes which I have lots of). Can anyone tell me more about this? Such as how much should it be diluted? Is it truly safe?

Any advice is very helpful--thank you!

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Comments (4)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
10 years ago
Have you researched this at all? Of any of the possible vague formulations of what exactly comprises liver of sulfur, the only ingredient I would see of any value to a garden is potassium thiosulfate. All the other possible combinations of potassium and sulfur that could be included (potassium sulfide, potassium polysulfide and potassium bisulfide) in liver of sulfur are either highly combustible, caustic or with an ability to produce toxic gases.

Potassium sulfate is a fertilizer - potassium sulfide is used in the manufacture of pyrotechnics or fireworks. Not the same things at all and cannot be used interchangeably.

Personally, I would not consider this material safe nor would I consider applying it to a garden, let alone anything edible.
jojodi
Original Author
10 years ago
I watched a YouTube video about the proper disposal of Liver of Sulphur and the person recommended disposing of it (diluted) on plants. This post begins my research :)

Here is what Wiki says: Liver of Sulfur is a poorly defined mixture of potassium sulfide, potassium polysulfide, potassium thiosulfate, and probably potassium bisulfide. Synonyms include hepar sulfuris, sulfur, sulfurated potash and sulfurated potassa.

Not gonna go ahead and do anything brash!
Just curious.

Thank you for your info.
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Thanks for all the replies - I do use seaweed extract - like once every 3 weeks. & our humidity here on the Gulf of Mexico is generally very high. This is a new bed - I used bagged compost, alfalfa pellets (rabbit food) & cracked corn to prepare it.It is mulched w/ rotten hay & straw (another outside source). I'm a bit suspicious of all 4 of the bed 'ingredients' - Lord knows what was in 'em = S I'm pretty sure it should've sat longer before I planted it, but time was pressing & the tom.s did great until recently. & I wonder whether there might also be a climate factor going on as well - our weather patterns have been becoming more & more extreme - drought, heat, tropical storms & hurricanes.I've never even seen red spider mites in all the years(10+) I've been gardening in this yard. OTOH, all my brassicas (& fennel & beans) did beautifully this year w/ nary a pest in sight = )
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Kimmsr
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Its primary use appears to be as a fungicide. there are, however, better and less toxic materials to use. Not something I would use in my organic garden.
jojodi
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I am going to refrain. Not a place I want to take chances like that.

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