CALCIUM

Plants take up Ca as the Ca²⁺ cation. Once inside the plant, Ca functions in several essential ways.

Calcium Deficiencies

Calcium deficiencies occur most often in acidic, sandy soils from which Ca leaches via rain or irrigation water.

Balance Organic Acids

Calcium helps balance organic acids within the plant as well as activates several plant enzyme systems.

Cell Walls

Calcium helps form the compounds that make up part of cell walls, which in turn, strengthen the plant structure.

Building Yields

Calcium builds yields indirectly by improving root growth conditions and stimulating microbial activity, molybdenum (Mo) availability and uptake of other nutrients.

Form Nodules

Calcium helps enable nitrogen (N)-fixing bacteria that form nodules on the roots of leguminous plants to capture atmospheric N gas and convert it into a form plants can use.

Stimulate Development

Calcium stimulates root and leaf development, and affects uptake and activity of other nutrients.

Calcium deficiency symptoms

Symptoms of deficiency can vary across crop species, but similarities exist for how nutrient insufficiency impacts plant tissue color and appearance. Nutrient deficiencies are commonly associated with the physical location on the plant (i.e., whether the symptoms are primarily observed on older versus newly formed plant tissue), but these symptoms can spread as the severity of the deficiency progresses.