Daymsa continues its commitment with EFICAL ^WSP, a nutritional solution to address calcium deficiencies on crop quality and post-harvest life in strawberries.

Calcium deficiency in berries can cause crop reduction and quality loss. DAYMSA presents the new applications of EFICAL^WSP via irrigation for a nutritional solution that facilitates a better absorption of calcium in the plant.

EFICAL^WSP is a biostimulant with high assimilable calcium richness that manages to increase the quality and post-harvest durability of fruit and vegetables. To improve the life of the harvest, it is essential to increase the level of calcium in the cell wall or “bound calcium”. This can be quantified by specific analysis of calcium pectate molecules. “The main difference that EFICAL^WSP provides us, is achieves a significant increase in “bound calcium” or calcium in the cell wall, achieving a substantial improvement in the shelf life of our fruit and vegetables”, comments José Carlos Amor, Sales Director of Daymsa.

Application of EFICAL WSP

The trial of EFICAL^WSP on strawberry via irrigation has been carried out in Moguer (Huelva) on the Strawberry Rábida variety, one of the most common varieties grown in Andalusia. It was carried out by technicians from the testing company ANADIAG.

The objective was to evaluate the content of total calcium and bound calcium in the fruit to see its influence on the quality of the fruit at harvest and post-harvest. The polytunnels in the trial were 85 m long with 800 plants. A total of 9.5 plants per square metre. Four applications of 4kg of EFICA^WSP via irrigation were made every 15 days starting on 1 February.

Similar results would have been expected when spreading the doses of these applications on a weekly basis, for those farms where weekly applications are preferred.

Results

Total and bound calcium content was measured in specialised laboratories on fruit samples at different dates during the trial. On the of 16 February results received their last application of Efical^WSP on 1 February, in 15 days earlier. An increase in the content of bound calcium was measured in the fruit compared to the control, corresponding to an increase of 17%. This is very interesting because the applicatio

 This data is very interesting because the application of Efical ^WSP was done 15 days before the sampling, which means that the extra calcium supply from Efical ^WSP has been long lasting.

The next sampling for calcium analysis was done on the 4 of March (harvest three days after having received an application of Efical ^WSP). It is possible to see an increase in the calcium content bound in the fruit compared to the control, corresponding to an increase of 21%. This is a very positive figure which reflects the fact that the calcium supplied with Efical ^WSP reaches the fruit quickly.

Conclusions

The applications of EFICAL^WSP via irrigation carried out in this trial on strawberry crops show that the effect after application was rapid and maintained over time, with an increase in total calcium and bound calcium content being observed. This resulted in a higher fruit consistency at harvest and a higher strawberry weight (+3 grams on average). In the post-harvest period, a slowing of weight loss of between 17% and 30% was observed, as well as an increase in healthy fruit without rotting.