what is calcium and why is it important for plants how do you apply calcium
products in your home garden answers to all these questions and more and today's
episode of California gardening so what is calcium along with magnesium and
sulfur calcium is one of the three secondary nutrients that are needed by
plants for optimum growth other than primary nutrients like nitrogen
phosphorus and potassium calcium is one of the secondary nutrients that a plant
needs for healthy growth and although calcium is needed by plants they are
needed in lesser amounts compared to the primary nutrients that the plants need
and now let's look at some sources for calcium that you can use in your home
garden the first option is an organic fertilizer like the one you see here
this is a tomato vegetable and herb fertilizer if you look at what's
contained in this fertilizer you can clearly see that it contains calcium and
this type of calcium is a slow-release calcium so it will be absorbed by your
plants as and when it needs it the next source for calcium is garden lime now
garden lime should be used carefully because it's an excellent source of
calcium but it alters the pH of the soil so if you look at the ingredients or
what the garden lime contains you can see a lot of types of calcium that are
there in garden lime and it can be readily used by plants it's quick
release as well as slow release another source for calcium is seaweed or kelp
as you can see here the calcium in seaweed or kelp is listed differently
than the solid products because this is mostly used as a liquid product and this
is an excellent source of calcium because it's available to the plants
immediately and you can even use a foliar spray to apply this and seaweed
or kelp meal is one of the better sources of calcium because it's readily
available for the plants now you also can use calcium nitrate which is a salt
and this is the most readily available source of calcium
and I will shortly show you how to use these products in your home garden now
gypsum is another source of calcium and you can buy gypsum as garden gypsum or
large bags of gypsum and gypsum is generally more expensive because it not
only contains calcium it also breaks down hard clay soil and is very
effective if you're gardening in the ground it's not so effective in
containers for breaking down compacted soil because for containers you mostly
use container mixes now let's look at what happens if your plants have a
calcium deficiency plants need calcium for developing healthy leaves stems and
cell walls and a lack of calcium in your plants will show up like these leaves
which look quite disfigured almost like bubbling leaves and a very common
calcium deficiency can be seen in vegetables like tomatoes and bell
peppers and this is called blossom and rot and as you can see here the bottom
part of the fruit actually is deformed it's almost like it is rotting and this
one of the most common reasons why gardeners use calcium in your home
garden now let's look at how you can apply these calcium products in your
garden beginning with calcium nitrate which is a salt all you do is dissolve
the salt in water I use one tablespoon in two gallons of water and this is a
very readily available source of calcium you just have to be careful that calcium
nitrate also contains nitrogen and you do not want to apply excess nitrogen to
a lot of your vegetables as you can see here we are doing a foliar application
where we are drenching the plant with this solution and as the solution goes
down and into the roots it will be absorbed by the plant as well so I
generally do both I do a foliar application where I am drenching the
plant the leaves and the stem so that the calcium
can be absorbed and I'm also watering the base of the plant now it's important
to remember that calcium is an immobile nutrient which means that you need to
keep reapplying calcium as and when the plant needs it now let's look at how to
apply calcium using organic fertilizers as you can see here we are spreading the
fertilizer on the base of the plant and this will provide enough calcium as the
plant grows let's now look at how to use gypsum now gypsum is available as
pellets and the best time to apply gypsum is to apply it when you are
preparing your raised beds that way it gets into your soil very well and then
you just mix it in or water once you are done and for established plants you can
just sprinkle some gypsum I just eyeball it and put it around the plant and it's
a great calcium supplement for your plants now when you're buying gypsum you
need to make sure that you buy calcium dihydrate which is more readily
available for your plants so I hope you like this episode on the importance of
calcium in your home garden and with so many sources of calcium it can get a
little confusing so if you have any questions about calcium or how to use
them in your home garden do put them in the comments box below if you like this
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we'll see you again soon happy gardening