Calcium - An interview with Robert Parkinson New Ag International
In a recent New-Ag magazine article Bob Parkinson, Phosyn´s Technical Co-ordinator for the Middle East, discussed the potential problems associated with calcium nutrition.
"Calcium is rarely deficient in soils and even leaf analysis will only occasionally reveal a problem. Despite this, calcium related disorders in marketable produce are common, affecting the quality, storage potential and shelf life of many fruit and vegetable crops and costing producers and food industries many millions of dollars every year."
"The problem is the poor mobility of calcium within the plant leading to localised deficiency in fruits and other storage organs. The most effective way of ensuring adequate levels of calcium in fruit and vegetable crops is to make regular foliar applications throughout the season and to carefully target the plant part that is affected. It is standard practice to apply calcium in this way to apple crops and now the benefits of this approach are being discovered on other crops as well."
"It is however vital that any products which are used, have been carefully formulated for foliar application and tested to ensure that they will not cause any damage to the crop. Even a slight blemish will render the crop unsaleable or dramatically reduce its value. Phosyn plc has and continues to see the future in their wide and developing range of foliar calcium products that today are used successfully on apples and other high value crops worldwide. Products must be effective, safe and widely tank mixable with agrochemicals to allow easy integration into crop protection programmes."
Author: Robert Parkinson, Middle East
Published: March 2001