[Eric Vinje]

Hi Mark –

According to the USDA’s National List of Allowed Substances elemental sulfur — the active ingredient used in a sulfur burner — is allowed for plant disease and mite control in organic crop production.

View the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances here.

To stay current with the NOP guidelines that may affect a materials organic status/or a materials use, organic growers should check the USDA National Organic Program website for updates.

Hope this helps!

[Qgl394]

Hi Eric,

Thanks for the reply. Elemental sulfur used as a powder/dust is organic, but, when you burn it you create sulfur dioxide – one of the primary components of acid rain. And, sulfur dioxide inhibits lungs and stomata: not allowing them to process oxygen. Have a look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur

So, elemental sulfur is organic, but is the burning of sulfur allowed?

[Eric Vinje]

All-righty… lot’s of good info here!

So, I ran a quick check on the OMRI and NOP web sites to see if sulfur dioxide is approved for organic use and it is NOT when used for disease control. However, if you’re making organic wines with it… you’re good to go!

Hope this helps.

[mhonnold]

Hey Eric,

I found this on your WSE75 sulfur burner/evaporator page:

The WSE75 is the NEW sulfur evaporator. The most important part of the WSE75 is the patented IR heating element type SSV. The WSE75 offers the following advantages:

• SAFE: Operating temperature of the heating element stays under the inflammability of Sulfur.;
• EFFECTIVE: Because of the high rate of evaporation, it is very effective in the use of Sulfur and less time is needed for evaporation

The key here is that it DOES NOT burn the sulfur, it just evaporates it. Like evaporating liquid water to water vapor, there is no molecular change to the sulfur. Elemental sulfur powder is the same chemical as sulfur vapor. Given this, the sulfur burner (evaporator!) can be used in organic production. Wahoo!

[Author]

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