Has anybody heard of or used calcium as a wetting agent before?
Regards,
Bob
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Calcium in what form?
Chris
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Never. I use calcium nitrate as a granular feed because it doesn't lower the ph on my grass block.
If it did acting as a wetting agent I would be very happy. As getting moisture into a cricket block is an ongoing effort 4 days a week!
More info if true please...
There was a programme on BBC2 the other night about what Australian farmers are doing to cope with the drought conditions they are having.
One of the items was about a guy who is helping to save an orchard that is suffering badly.
Basicaly he applies a Calcium solution to the soil (they didn't give any details about it as it is his special solution) which apparently allows the plates in clay soils stack on top of each other so allowing more water down deeper into the soil profile.
They took out a couple of cores with a hand auger on treated and untreated areas after a couple of hours and the water in the treated areas had penetrated deeper than in the non-trated areas. It was also a lot easier to get the auger into the treated area as the solution had also softened the ground.
I can't remember the name of the programme but it is a series presented by Jimmy 'the pig farmer' Docherty it was interesting a produced a lot of food for thought.
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Rightly so Bob. I remember as a young greenkeeper using soap as a "wetter" we would also mix calcium nitrate into this mix which in turn aided the calcium to slide into the profile in order to reduce sodium salts and the build up of magnesium.This reduction helped open pore spaces in the soil profile for better water infiltration and air movement. Whether still used I simply can't give you a definitive answer! and I do hope my insertion is of some help. Regards, Ian Mac
Interesting comments chaps. I will now consult with our agronomist. Thanks.
19 Jan 2010 by Anthony Asquith Last edited 19 Jan 2010
Ca is great to reclaim sodium saturated soils that is 'dispersed' and improve structure, reduce compaction, crusting, improve root growth, hydraulic conductivity and yield quality. The Ca2+ displaces Na+ due to it's higher valancy with it being divalent in the cationic exchange.
Sodium has a huge hydration sphere and Ca reclaims this
Cheers
Ant
21 Jan 2010 by Barry Pace Last edited 21 Jan 2010
Bob, it was Jimmys Global Farming (no. 2), available on bbc i player and was in last quarter of programme. I would guess it was a mixture of gypsum or cal nitrate with wetting agent.
In my simplistic (its all I know) understanding Calcium content/based materials are available in many forms, calcium carbonate (sea shell/chalk/rock) calcium nitrate (a salt form used in fertiliser) calcium sulphate (gypsum) calcium chlorate (salts) calcium oxides (limes) etc etc etc and can be found in various products or materials.
The most common form of 'calcium' used to treat soils is gypsum and the effect of gypsum on clays soils is that, as I understand, a reaction occurs when the calcium and sulphur is released, like all 'flocculants', allowing the small fine clay particles to 'clump' together, stack, or aggregate. This is caused by moving salts that are present, surrounding each clay particle and 'binding' them up individually with minimal spacing between and once the salts are shifted this allows the clay particles to stack together creating larger voids between the clumped soil with increased pore spacing allowing water to move more freely. The 'science' of this is all to do with + and - ions and the way this affects particles.
Some forms of calcium can be high ph so caution should be in mind as to the effects of adding. Gypsum is circa 7-7.5 I think
Wetting agents are generally surfactants and work by reducing waters surface tension in several ways, making water more 'slippery' so it is easier to move through soils
There are other newer forms that work on the way water is transported through soils by the way molecules link and interact.
So as far as I understand calcium will improve the soils ability to absorb water and allow it to move by improving its pore spacing, wetting agents as sold will improve the way water is physically able to move, allowing it to be absorbed quicker.
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Thanks for that Barry,
In my very simplistic thinking then would applying calcium also help the roots to spread and grow in a similar way to aerating?
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Theoretically yes, if you have clay soil it will improve the structure allowing better root development by the improved environment although you need to look at quantity required and speed of improvement, to be honest do both you will help the absorbtion of the calcium deeper quicker.
I do not think that anyone should expect the application of materials like these would mean you do not need to do any physical aeration anymore but that each will help improve the efficiency or longevity of the other.
Gypsum is easily available and used widely in agriculture so can be applied as a surface dressing as well as a lot of the seaweed based products and soil conditioners which have calcium to various levels within the makeup.
The free calcium and sulphur after flocculation are also meant to be great stimulants to the soil environment.
Plastic.... it's The End I tell you... THE END!!!!
The use of gypsum, lime etc flocculates the soil into aggregates thus increasing pore space size. It has been used in agriculture for many years. I certainly would not recommend it in a fine turf situation unless you wish to attract worms, weeds etc. If you think back to the days of using lime to mark out football pitches how the lines were always a row of plantains and wormcasts.
Chris
You will never see a statue in honour of a committee.
22 Jan 2010 by Barry Pace Last edited 22 Jan 2010
Morning Chris, agree that ph is key to use especially with lime which (depending on what product) can range between 8-13 ish. Gypsum is much lower but still just in Alkaline range. Farmers will use lime where soils are acidic and need pulling back towards neutral and gypsum where less ph shift is needed.
If you watch the programme that Bob saw the Calcium mix used on you will see what grabbed his interest and why he asked, although, as I said, I imagine that there was more than just a calcium base in the goo they applied and this was applied through a fruit crop irrigation system so may well have had other things in it to counteract the ph or in the subsequent feeds they applied.
Hope your well
Barry
Plastic.... it's The End I tell you... THE END!!!!
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