Your lawn needs nutrients to stay healthy and resist diseases and damages. Calcium is a great micronutrient that will provide your lawn with some important properties! In this blog, you will learn about calcium and the benefits of this nutrient in your yard.
What is Calcium?
Calcium is a micronutrient that acts as a barrier between a plant’s cells and pathogens like viruses and bacteria. It also encourages the division of cells and helps a plant’s stem and roots achieve optimum developments!
Why does Your Lawn Need Calcium?
A calcium-rich lawn contains more nitrogen. Without nitrogen, your yard will not thrive. Because of this, calcium is responsible for stimulating the lawn and the plants’ metabolism as well as its enzyme activity!
Calcium is considered to be an essential plant nutrient. Here are some wonderful benefits that calcium adds to your yard:
- Strengthens cell wall integrity
- Maintains soil pH
- Improves soil structure
- Enhances overall nutrient availability
- Stimulates plants’ metabolism and enzyme activity
- Reduces pest and disease challenges
Pests and diseases can wreck a lawn. With enough calcium in your lawn, these challenges are less likely to happen. Why? Because calcium acts as a barrier between a plant’s cells and pathogens. It protects your lawn from the ravages of pests and diseases!
What Causes a Calcium Deficiency?
If you find that you may have a calcium deficiency in your lawn, it’s probably because your soil is too acidic! The pH level in the soil is instrumental in calcium availability. Here are some signs of plants with a calcium deficiency:
- There are dead tips
- The leaves are curling inward
- Stunted plant growth
You can also perform a soil pH test to check for the level of acidity in your lawn! If the pH is too low, you can take proper measures to increase it.
Calcium in Central Texas Lawns
Over the years, we’ve performed plenty of soil samples. We typically find that lawns are already higher in calcium.
With hard water found in lots of our service areas (Austin, San Antonio & Temple) and limestone found in Blackland Prairie soil composition (which is a “calcium bearing carbonate“), we typically find that we are working to lower the pH level of the soil rather than increase it.
