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Ontario, Canada.

I was doing some research last night and I stumbled upon this interesting article about boron. I have found that boron is also taken up in the xylem with calcium and is part cell wall pectate. The puzzle is much more fuzzy though. I was wondering if anyone has found low boron or done boron testing of soils? If low soil deficiencies are present it may explain the some our splitting(BES) problems.

The article listed below is a mouthful of science jargon but it is pointing the arrow to another direction. Calci-max is a product many of have used in the past me included. It has boron and I never new why until last night. I came across another article about pumpkins that suggested a spray application of boron at first blossom can help cell wall elasticity of fruit........Seams to be a partial answer?

Boron (B) deficiency results in inhibition of pumpkin (Cucurbia moschata Duchesne) growth that is accompanied by swelling of the cell walls.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=117168

2/4/2007 9:30:36 AM

Picton,ON (j.vincent@xplornet.ca)

Great Article Russ. I use several foliar products containing Boron. I used a lot more of them this past season then the previous one. Two years ago I lost 5 to blossom end splits, this past year I didn't loose any to Blossom end splits.....hhhmmm.

2/4/2007 9:58:04 AM

Ontario, Canada.

Yeah, John thanks. I thought is was pretty interesting too. Boron is relatively unavailable in alkaline soils and its relationship to the uptake of calcium is similar. I suspect that our high organic matter soils in combination with pH levels may be restricting our developing blossom ends more than we think.

I have also found some information that lends itself to closer inspection. It is thought that boron helps to make fruit sweeter. This equates to sink and sugar storage. Is it possible that boron is the main element responsible for ultimately cell wall thickness, elasticity and sugar concentration?

As with calcium, boron is relatively immobile. It is moved by the xylem in the transpiration stream and travels to the highest areas of demand along with calcium. Uptake stress seams to once again be the problem as with calcium it is highly mobile in the soil and dry conditions exacerbate a plants deficiency.

I have more questions than answers.

But I would bet that most growers with low pH levels below 6.5 don't have split problems of someone who grows in alkaline soil. It sure lends a closer look.

What of the link with Calcium availability and high OM soil which produces ammonium nitrogen and further competes with cations in the soil making the problems all the more worse. I said there were more questions then answers.............

2/4/2007 12:34:08 PM

Long Island,New York

Russ...going back to all of your BES...after day 40 how many of the splitters were indented blossom ends vs the protruding or flush ends? How many of those were on days with over 30lb gains plus?

2/4/2007 1:31:16 PM

Ontario, Canada.

Read down to the part on boron page 15 of 27. sure sounds like BES.

"It has been demonstrated...................................cell walls split..........."

http://www.spectrumanalytic.com/support/library/pdf/relationship_between_nutrients_and_other_elements_to_plant_diseases.pdf

2/4/2007 1:43:58 PM

Ontario, Canada.

I have had all types of shapes from normal to indented with BES. I believe it can also be associated with dill rings and sag lines or rib splits too.

I don't know about the daily pound gains. However on such days fruit elasticity is not able to with stand the sudden influx of photosynthate byproducts.

I think what the science is telling us is that weight gain and BES prevention is dependant on adequate availability and uptake of not only calcium but boron as well.

The more I read the more I become convinced of the problem being compounded by high organic soils(greater than back ground)in combination with pH above 6.8. On such soils it is apparently necessary to maximize the availability of these two elements.

2/4/2007 1:58:18 PM

How many of your BES came within 72 hours of a t-storm and rainfall?

2/4/2007 2:18:07 PM

Ontario, Canada.

I'm trying to look beyond the weather event. What we need to ask is why some fruit survive storm events and others don't. I know that rainfall events can trigger the actual split but what we don't know is the leading up events that allow this to happen. Rainfall is not the cause it is simply the trigger being pulled.

2/4/2007 2:41:05 PM

Picton,ON (j.vincent@xplornet.ca)

My parent soil PH is 8. I applied 35 lbs/1000 ft2 90% sulfer in the fall of 2005. By spring my PH was down to 7.7. I suspect that it continued to drop throughout the season, and I looking forwad to testing this spring to see what it is now. This may have contributed to less BES this year.
From my experiance as a crop advisor, Boron deficiency is often called the dry "weather disease". Alfalfa is extreamly suseptable to Boron deficiency. It usually shows up after a prolonged period of drought. This has to do with its mobility in the soil.
Even though we do a lot of watering, I suspect that its not the same as rain.
Russ, do you think youve seen more BES during droughty seasons?
Boron can also be extreamly toxic and does build up in the soil fairly quickly Extream caution should be used if planning to soil apply this material.

2/4/2007 3:04:26 PM

Ontario, Canada.

John, I agree on the dry weather stuff but there is more going on here than what appears. The OM and pH are contributing factors playing an even larger roll than we imagined. They are also restricting uptake of both elements even before the dry weather pattern occurs.

2/4/2007 3:16:58 PM