Earlier in the week I looked into the dark leathery bottom that is blossom end rot, an unattractive condition caused by insufficient calcium.
So today Saturday Swot Shop is turning the spot light on calcium and the role it plays in plant nutrition.
I didn’t know plants needed calcium ?
- Yes, it ensures good growth and strong structure. Calcium is used by the plant to form cell walls and membrane, the strength and thickness of which are increased by calcium.
How does the plant get the calcium it needs ?
- Calcium is dissolved in water and the plant takes it in with water through its roots. Plant leaves require calcium as does growing fruit.
What happens if the plant doesn’t get sufficient calcium ?
- When the plant and fruit are growing calcium is required in greater concentration for cell growth. Without calcium cell walls collapse. The end point of the fruit is vulnerable as it’s the last point for the water/calcium to reach. The sign this has occurred and the tissue has broken down and died is a dry, sunken spot which enlarges over the base of the fruit; the symptom of blossom end rot.
What’s the connection between increased risk of blossom end rot and lack of water or inconsistent watering ?
- In hot weather the transpiration rate goes up; this is the amount of water a plant releases into the air through its leaves. When water the plant has taken up through its roots transpires through its leaves, the calcium which came with it is left behind in the leaves.
This means the plant has expired all available water through the leaves and none or little is available for the fruit, so the fruit does not receive water and the calcium dissolved within it. This issue is compounded because calcium does not relocate in a plant; it remains where it was transported by the water, in this case the leaves and not the fruit.
So the plant needs a continuous supply of calcium to all parts of the plant through the take up of water, to ensure a sufficient quantity of calcium reaches the rapidly developing fruit ?
- Yes and this doesn’t happen then the plant experiences a localized calcium deficiency in the fruit and this results in blossom end rot.
If only I’d known this when made to drink that horrible, lukewarm, watery milk in morning break. I could have off loaded it on a handy plant, claiming plants needed their daily pinta too.
Could it have been that Humphrey was a quick, slick yukka ?
