Calcium nitrate fertilizer can be applied to plants in three different ways: topically as a foliar spray, as a top dressing, or as a side dressing.
Calcium nitrate fertilizer is a water-soluble chemical solution that supplements plants with calcium and nitrogen, both of which are necessary for strong, disease-resistant plants.
What is Calcium Nitrate Fertilizer?
Calcium nitrate fertilizer is a widely-used fertilizer in gardens to promote plant growth and combat common plant diseases. Not only does it have numerous advantages for plants, but it’s also highly effective at preventing them from becoming too stressed out in the first place.
Calcium nitrate fertilizers can be applied as either a soil or foliar spray. You may also mix it into your topsoil before planting.
What Are the Benefits of Using Calcium Nitrate Fertilizer
Strengthens Cell Walls
Calcium is one of the essential nutrients for plants to thrive. Not only does it strengthen cell walls, but calcium also helps guard against certain plant diseases.
Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plants, as it helps them convert sunlight into sugars that fuel growth. Without nitrogen, plants cannot complete their synthesis of amino acids and proteins.
Nitrate nitrogen is the preferred form of nitrogen for plants due to its ease of availability. Furthermore, it increases calcium absorption – essential for building strong cell walls – promoting plant growth.
Calcium is one of the primary signals plants use when they sense danger from their environment. When a plant detects this threat, it initiates a series of signaling cascades that increase calcium concentration in its cytosol.
This signal then gets decoded by other components into an effective protective response for the plant, enabling plants to act quickly and effectively when confronted with biotic threats.
Improves Soil Aeration
If you’re growing tomatoes, peppers or any other crops, adding calcium nitrate fertilizer to the soil could be beneficial. This water-soluble fertilizer improves aeration and strengthens plant cell walls.
Additionally, this fertilizer helps prevent diseases like blossom-end rot and rust spot on fruits and vegetables.
Calcium nitrate fertilizers, unlike nitrogen fertilizers, are easily absorbed by plants. This makes them an ideal choice for foliar feeding applications.
By adding this fertilizer to your soil, it encourages photosynthesis and reduces soil acidity – encouraging nitrogen fixation. Furthermore, adding this fertilizer increases plant growth as well as increases their turgidity (firmness).
Calcium is an essential nutrient for a flourishing garden. Without enough calcium in your soil, plants will suffer; this is especially true if there isn’t enough magnesium present as well.
Increases Turgidity of Plant Cells
Calcium is an essential plant nutrient for plants to build strong cell walls that can withstand biotic and environmental stresses.
When calcium levels fall low, cell membranes become leaky and cells are disrupted – leading to twisting and cupping of young leaves, commonly referred to as leaf deformation.
Calcium plays a key role in the regulation of inter-cellular processes. When these membranes become compromised, plants become more vulnerable to pest attacks and diseases.
Based on a Wikipedia article, Cabbage, lettuce and brussels sprouts are some of the plants that are most susceptible to calcium deficiency.
Calcium is essential for plants in order to create rigid cell walls, protect them from environmental stresses and defend them against pest attacks. Unfortunately, calcium can be difficult to transport within the plant itself.
Moisture, air humidity and transpiration all play a significant role in affecting calcium ions’ mobility. When plants experience stress due to lack of water, excess moisture or high air humidity levels, their calcium ion mobility decreases significantly.
Prevents Pests
Calcium nitrate fertilizer is an essential combination of two essential plant nutrients: nitrogen and calcium. Nitrogen helps plants absorb water, while calcium strengthens cells for increased growth.
Nitrate also helps maintain soil pH by helping to neutralize acidity that could otherwise lead to various issues for plants.
Nitrate can also prevent cluck root disease in brassica crops. It is especially helpful for vegetables that are sensitive to calcium deficiency.
Tomatoes, peppers and apples can all benefit from foliar spraying with calcium nitrate during critical growth stages. The calcium helps stabilize cells to prevent blossom end rot and fruit splitting during these critical periods.
Nitrate-N, combined with calcium for strength-building, promotes long-term growth of fruits and vegetables while protecting them against black rot, rust and mites in cucumbers. It can also promote the size, strength and aesthetic appearance of produce.
How to Apply Calcium Nitrate Fertilizer to Plants
Calcium nitrate fertilizer is a water-soluble chemical solution that provides plants with additional calcium and nitrogen, both of which are necessary for strong, disease-resistant plants.
Calcium nitrate fertilizer can be applied to plants in three ways: topically as a foliar spray, as a top dressing, or as a side dressing.
To apply calcium nitrate fertilizer as a foliar spray, mix 2 to 4 tablespoons of calcium nitrate with 1 gallon of water and fill a pressure spray bottle with the solution.
Liberally spray the plant or tree leaves to correct calcium deficiencies. This method is the most effective for treating blossom-end rot, bitter pit, and cork spot.
To apply calcium nitrate fertilizer as a top dressing, use .10 of a pound for every 10 feet of soil. If you’re applying your fertilizer as a side dressing, you can use 1 lb. of dry fertilizer for every 100 ft. length of vegetable rows.
Simply sprinkle the calcium nitrate around the base of the plant for dry fertilizer application. For liquid fertilizer application, mix the calcium nitrate with water according to the package directions and then pour it around the base of the plant.
One green thumb rule is to treat each moderately sized plant with one tablespoon of calcium nitrate. It is important to store calcium nitrate fertilizer at room temperature after use.
What Are the Alternatives to Calcium Nitrate Fertilizer
Calcium Nitrate is a widely used fertilizer in agriculture, and there are alternatives available for hydroponic and fertigation systems. These include limestone, micronized limes, gypsum, and YaraLiva calcium nitrate fertilizers.
Limestone and micronized limes are sources of calcium that can be used to prevent calcium deficiency or replenish a plant’s calcium levels.
Gypsum is another source of calcium that can be used to improve soil structure and drainage. However, according to cropnuts.com, there are no realistic, long-term alternatives to Calcium Nitrate for soil and plant nutrition.
Calcium is an essential nutrient for soil health, microbial diversity, soil structure, heavy metal protection, and other soil properties. Soil growers can use soil amendments as alternatives to Calcium Nitrate.
YaraLiva is a range of Calcium Nitrate fertilizers that provide fast-acting nitrate-N and strength-building calcium.
YaraLiva fertilizers increase the size and strength of fruit, tubers, leaves, and lettuce at harvest, as well as improve their appearance.
The formulation includes nitrates, which is the preferred N form, and is more mobile in the soil and immediately available to the crop.
Crops treated with YaraLiva fertilizers are naturally healthier and less sensitive to stress during growth, resulting in longer-lasting fruits and vegetables with improved inner health and outer beauty.
