S05 FEAG 3 2021 Crops_FEAG Master Template 23/06/2021 15:48 Page 13
CROPS
FAR EASTERN AGRICULTURE • Issue Three 2021
Image credit: Dr Terry Mabbett
CalMax for coffee: new product from Omex boosts yield and the brew
Foliar sprays of Omex CalMax reduce berry drop to give more coffee cherries per cluster.
Calcium nutrition minimises coffee berry drop and maximises the resilience of the coffee berry to pests and diseases. Dr Terry Mabbett reports. EW IF ANY farmers are faced with a more complex set of crop priorities than those who grow coffee. Crop yield potential is paramount but so is bean quality, including bean size and strength, and not to mention post-harvest, on-farm processing (wet or dry) of coffee berries and beans. Required to achieve the green coffee commodity, they represent some of the most mechanically rigorous crop processing methods, and from which coffee beans must emerge physically intact. Last but not least is the flavour and aroma of the coffee cup infusion, largely governed by chemical profile of the roasted coffee bean but potentially prejudiced by off flavours caused by a wide spectrum of bean defects. Coffee crop nutrition and the full gambit of essential plant nutrients play a pivotal part in achieving high yields of top quality coffee cherries and green coffee beans, but one nutrient, in particular, is
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credited with an over-arching role in achieving these goals. This nutrient is calcium, which minimises coffee berry drop and maximises resilience of the coffee berry to pests and diseases, and the bean to a range of well-known commercial defects. Calcium is rarely deficient per se as a soil
Foliar sprays of calcium delivered under strict timing and concentration schedules allow crop nutritionists and plant physiologists to more accurately predict and pinpoint the strengthening roles of calcium.”
nutrient, but maintaining sufficient levels of soluble calcium in the soil and in plantavailable form is an entirely different matter. Laboured movement of calcium, within the soil and into plant roots, and up the plant as divalent calcium ions (Ca2+) for use in the growth of shoots, leaves, fruits and seeds, is well established and appreciated. And the reason why savvy growers use foliar sprays of soluble calcium to boost low levels of plant-available soil calcium, and to maintain the tissue strengthening attributes which calcium can provide. Calcium is essential in the formation of cell membranes and plant cell walls. It has a specific and prominent role in cementing plant cell walls together, to form strong plant tissue, via the inherently gelatinous (adhesive) middle lamella composed of calcium pectate. Foliar sprays of calcium delivered under strict timing and concentration schedules allow crop nutritionists and plant physiologists to more accurately predict and pin-point the strengthening roles of calcium. And the minutiae of how these are expressed in specific aspects of plant growth www.fareasternagriculture.com
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