Synergistic products for added benefit
(Sponsored) Almonds and pistachios are heavy bearing crops, and the season takes a lot out of the trees. Conventional wisdom is that the dormant period is the time that the tree recuperates and prepares itself for the next season’s workload.
Once inside trees, nutrients are transported to where they are needed, typically to growing points. Once incorporated by the tree, some elements can be immobile while others can be remobilized. Immobile elements essentially get locked in place and that is where they stay. Those that can be remobilized can leave their original location and move to areas of greater demand. Knowing which are mobile or immobile is helpful in diagnosing deficiency symptoms.
OMEX® USA has developed a line of Macro and Micronutrients that, when applied together, act synergistically within the plant, thusly creating nutrition with added benefits. Specifically, SizeN® and Calcium Gold and Calcium Platinum are the perfect combinations to fulfil the needs of newly forming flower buds, without overstimulating the trees.
SizeN® for Nut Crops
Almonds and pistachios are crops where quality and yield sometimes have to be traded off against each other by growers when making decisions on fertilizer inputs.
Nitrogen is needed to push yield, but too much of it leads to excess vegetative growth at the cost yield and quality. This has led to conservative use of N late season and post-harvest with more of a focus on early season applications.
Continuing research shows that the Amine N in Cell Power® SizeN® does not behave in the same way as conventional nitrogen, rather it encourages investment in root growth and reproductive growth directly impacting on yield and quality. This is extremely important when setting up nut trees after harvest for the upcoming year. Amines (NH2) are processed in roots using a shorter chemical process, they encourage production of a different growth hormone called cytokines. Cytokinins encourage root growth and reproductive (flower and fruit) development, critical for next year’s crop.
Calcium Gold and Calcium Platinum for Nut Crops
Unlike potassium and many other nutrients, plants have no capacity to store reserves of calcium. Calcium is stored in calmodulin proteins between the cell wall and cell membrane, once these Ca storage sites are all occupied the plant ejects any extra calcium as it is not beneficial to plants to have free calcium in cytosol. This means that plants precipitate out large amounts of calcium oxalate from leaves, especially after harvest. This is critical even when there are calcium deficiency symptoms on nuts.
Calcium is not phloem mobile, meaning that plants cannot easily mobilize it and move it from one place to another. Instead, Calcium moves through the Xylem with water transpiration. This means Calcium follows water through plants from the roots to the places of highest water loss (usually the foliage at the top of the plant). This is why there is usually a difference observed between the shady half of a nut tree and the sunny half). It is also why any conditions effecting water transport such as drought, waterlogging, and wind can lead to worsening calcium related quality problems.
Calcium transport into cells is directly related to auxin content in plant tissue, as calcium transport is governed by polar auxin transport. This means there are places in crops that cannot absorb calcium properly no matter how much is applied.
Cell Power® Calcium Gold and Cell Power® Calcium Platinum, containing LoCal technology, allows parts of plants low in auxin to properly absorb Ca where they would normally have a low ability to do so. Calcium fertilizers Cell Power® Calcium Gold and Cell Power® Calcium Platinum) that use LoCal technology can supply calcium to flower buds very effectively, preventing disorders that may appear the following year. Best timing on any nut crop for Ca applications is a foliar spray after harvest is complete.
OMEX® USA Cell Power® Calcium Gold and Cell Power® Calcium Platinum are formulated products, we can use as little as 2×1 pint/acre and see better results than any amount of standard foliar calcium products regards correcting physiological disorders. For subsequent bud development late season applications are very effective, where conventional products will see little or no benefit as nut trees can’t adequately absorb calcium from conventional sources after harvest.
Learn more at www.OMEXusa.com.
The product names and brands referenced here are registered and trademarks of OMEX® Agrifluids Inc.
