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[email protected]

Okay folks, my first year with the calcium soaked towels, and I read how people leave them on for a day or more before resoaking them in calcium solution. My question is this, I used 2 towels and a cover, all soaked in calcium, and they were completely dry in about 2 hours. Does anyone resoak the towels when they are dry, or is once a day enough to help with the elasticity of the fruit? I have been having 80 degree days (not as hot as last week) and cooler nights (55-60 at night)so what is the consensus on resoaking more than once a day?

8/9/2006 12:54:09 PM

Berlin,mi.([email protected])

This is my 1st year useing them also. What i have are those bed cover or seat cover mats they use in retirement homes. I'm not sure exactly what you call them, but they hold the moisture all day for me. I took them off last night and there were beads of moisture under them. I'm not sure if this is good or bad. I took them off for a while and let the pumpkin dry before i put them back on. I will be watching this post to see what experienced growers are doing.

8/9/2006 1:09:37 PM

Jaffrey NH

I used the calcium soaks last year and I found that when I soaked the towels, by +/- noon the towels would need another soaking. I did soak them like this before I became suspicious of the towels making marks on the pumpkin's color. Well... okay, there was a little bit of a change in color but I was more lazy than suspicious. I couldn't see any results so I decided to stop in the middle of september. But it turned out that the pumpkis went over charts and they were lovely surprises.

DK

8/9/2006 5:44:27 PM

[email protected]

Rock,

I don't think anyone really knows the answer to this question. Huge numbers of fruit would need to be compared before we could draw any solid conclusions. On humid days I've noticed the wraps stay wet longer & no ill seems to come of it. So dowsing the towels again probably wouldn't hurt.

8/9/2006 10:04:43 PM

Long Island,New York

So how many people are growing seeds they think hold heavy genetics when in reality the grower just used calcium wraps?

8/9/2006 10:32:30 PM

NEPA [email protected] KB3QKV

How old should the pumpkin be before you use a calcium wrap? Could you feed the plant calcium during the season?

8/9/2006 11:42:00 PM

[email protected]

Can I refer to calcium as the steroid of AG's? I am going to rename my fruit on the Knauss 898 if this is the case to "Floyd Barry Bonds Landis".

8/9/2006 11:49:01 PM

San Jose [email protected]

would gypsum be good to add to soil during season?

8/10/2006 12:24:01 AM

Mill Creek West by god Virginia

rock you kill me lol only in america!

8/10/2006 12:31:11 AM

Ontario, Canada.

I have stopped using them this year. I had splits with them last year. I could not find any evidence that they did or did not work to prevent blossom ends splits. I'm not saying they don't work! The towels didn't hurt my fruit. Moisture control seams to be more effective in split reduction. However, some studies with other fruit point to increased size, taste and quality.

It may be better to apply calcium directly to the root zone. During drying days, drip feed irrigation and controlled even moisture levels can reduce root zone stress. Ca is water soluble, therefore any drying stress in the root zone reduces movement of ca into the roots.

8/10/2006 2:50:46 PM

Lymington UK

I find this calcium ? very interesting I grow lilies for a living and some varieties get big problems with calcium deficiency esp one called Muskadet . We see all the top leaves getting tip burn because of lack of calcium. So to stop the leaf burn I give this variety a calcium nitrate feed about three weeks after planting and calcium nitrate being able to be taken up thro the leaves is available to the young leaves. So we get very little leaf burn and this is all because calcium is not very mobile in the plant and very important in water uptake. So as pumpkins are mainly water and calcium can be taken up thro leaves can it be taken up thro pumpkin skin ?

8/10/2006 4:41:08 PM

St. Thomas Ontario

Does anyone in canada know what can be purchased here as a calcium supplement?? I live near London Ontario and am having problems with my fruit cracking at and around the stem. Any suggestions much appreciated.

8/10/2006 7:47:23 PM

Abbotsford, B.C

IanP,

Calcium needs to get to the fruit, so obviously it does get there. However, as you pointed out, calcium moves through the plant quite slowly. This is apparently why the blossom end is usually has the thinnest walls, due to the fact that it takes so much longer for calcium to get to the far side of the pumpkin. I too am interested in the effects of calcium nitrate and how it is taken up by the plant. I wonder if it is chemically modified once it gets into the plant, sending the nitrogen in one direction and the calcium into the fruit? Or does it not change chemically and move entirely to the leaves? I am not entirely sure what form of calcium is in the actual pumpkin. Does anybody know this?

Cameron

8/10/2006 8:53:13 PM

[email protected]

Gypsum can be applied in-season. But just try to make an even application with all of these leaves in the way!

Check out this page at the Nutri-Cal website:

http://www.nutri-cal.com/qa.htm

They do a fair job of simplifying the chelated versus complexing debate.

It has long been debated whether a pumpkin's skin can even absorb Calcium. I spoke with the Presidents of both Nutri-Cal & their primary distributor about this subject. The truth is, no university has ever received the necessary funding to study this subject. Nutri-Cal doesn't need studies like this to sell their product since our small-scale use is such a tiny niche market they just don't care. I don't mean this in a negative way nor do I intent to impunge their character. But Nutri-Cal's business won't suffer without us so they won't spend the money on "silly reasearch".

There are some heavy hitters who do use this technique because they feel it works for them.

The again, I suppose if a grower had a banner year spraying anti-perspirant on his pumpkin he'd never stop doing it. And as soon as the rest of us found out, there'd be a run on Right-Gard the very next day.

8/10/2006 11:48:21 PM

Lymington UK

I thought I might help the calcium thro the skin of a gourd debate interesting going, by doing my own experiment. I spoke to the people who do our soil and plant samples today and have come up with a small trial. You can all follow the trial on my diary which will start some time over the weekend. So good or bad we might (and I mean we might) get an idea if calcium blankets work.I am no scientist and this is being done in a light hearted way just for fun and I hope it is helpful for all who are interested.

8/11/2006 4:02:17 PM

Mocksville, NC

I spray mine with Organic calcium 0-0-0 Humic acid derived from vinager, and seaweed extract, and the vinager also acts as a disinfectant 2 for one, thats nice! No Calcium wraps here, i spray every morning entire fruit, and ad some to foliar when needed.

8/11/2006 8:34:39 PM