calcium nutrition
How to Boost Calcium
Nutrition in Hydroponics
58
feature
increases transpiration
from the foliage.”
calci
Since transpiration and calcium
flow within the plant is so heavily
influenced by the environment,
lowering humidity and increasing
airflow across the foliage assists with
boosting moisture loss and calcium
incorporation into new cells. However,
while lowering humidity from high
levels does boost transpiration, a very
low humidity can result in other problems.
Very low humidity increases transpiration
from the foliage, particularly of large leafy
plants, so that the calcium carried in the
transpiration stream is rapidly deposited
in the lower leaves of the plant, leaving
insufficient amounts to make it to the tops of
the plant. Since leaves have many stomata,
they have a higher rate of transpiration that
attracts proportionally more calcium than fruit or
flowers, which have very few stomata (and hence
a low rate of transpiration to draw in calcium). In
extreme cases of low humidity, particularly during
the warmest part of the day, the transpiration rate
is pushed so high that the plant comes under water
stress, a condition that restricts calcium-rich water
flow in the xylem and up into the plant. Maintaining
the correct humidity levels, particularly when plants
are grown in warm conditions that favor high rates of
tissue development, becomes an important aspect of
optimizing calcium nutrition.
“
VERY LOW
HUMIDITY