Mar 29, 2017

Calcium improves tree health, fruit production

{Sponsored} It’s no secret: calcium plays a vital role in fruit production. It improves tree health and improves fruit storability and shelf life.

Calcium is also important to cell health and cell wall strength — both of which improve fruit quality.

CaTs® from Tessenderlo Kerley (TKI) Crop Vitality, is a clear, liquid fertilizer with 100 percent soluble calcium that improves soil health, solubilizes nutrients in the soil and delivers soluble calcium more efficiently to a variety of crops, especially fruit trees.

“All crops require calcium for normal physiological processes, the fruit included,” said Mike Troutman, an agronomist at TKI Crop Vitality. “The key to calcium use by the plant is solubility. If the calcium isn’t soluble, it won’t get into the plant.”

“CaTs is 100 percent soluble,” he continued. “The fertilizer solution also offers another advantage: its attachment to the thiosulfate anion. It is an efficient way of delivering calcium to the plant in a highly soluble liquid form.”

CaTs is known to offer the following benefits.

• CaTs improves the density, firmness and appearance of the tree fruit.
• The fertilizer extends fruit storability and shelf life.
• CaTs allows the tree to receive an added form of calcium and sulfur without adding excessive nitrogen.
• It conditions soils by leaching out harmful salts and increasing water infiltration around your fruit trees.

According to Troutman, CaTs is typically applied to the tree through drip irrigation or micro jet sprinklers. Because the fertilizer is soluble, the irrigation system is said to be the best way to apply it.

“Soluble Calcium is soluble calcium, as far as the plant is concerned,” Troutman said. “However, CaTs is unique because of the thiosulfate attachment and no other calcium on the market has this attachment.”

He said the combination — calcium and thiosulfate — delivers soluble calcium to the tree better than other forms of calcium.

The sulfur in CaTs is also an added benefit, since sulfur is used in the formation of proteins. A lack of sulfur will inhibit protein synthesis and reduce tree growth.

“If you are growing fruit, you know you need calcium for tree health, quality and shelf life,” Troutman said. “Growers who use CaTs generally talk about increased fruit size with less internal quality problems and greater shelf life.”

CaTs can also be blended with a variety of fertilizers, including UAN. The American Association of Plant Food Control Officials designated CaTs as a “Nitrogen Stabilizer.” When applied with a urea based liquid fertilizer, especially in a band application, CaTs can reduce the amount of ammonia loss as urea is converted to ammonium carbonate in the soil. This is a chemical reaction with the calcium in CaTs that stabilizes the nitrogen.

For more information about CaTs, also known as Calcium Thiosulfate Fertilizer Solution, visit www.cropvitality.com or contact your local TKI Crop Vitality sales representative.

C. 2017 Tessenderlo Kerley