Gordon Johnson, Extension Vegetable & Fruit Specialist; gcjohn@udel.edu
Consultants are reporting that tissue tests of vegetable crops such as watermelons have lower than normal levels of calcium. Fields have been well limed. Calcium moves in the transpirational water flow in plants. In cloudy, wet weather, transpiration is reduced and calcium uptake is low. As weather returns to sunnier conditions, calcium uptake will improve. In vegetables sensitive to calcium deficiencies, foliar applications of calcium may be advised where tissue tests are low and plants are still in early fruit set stages.