Calcium Nitrate

About This Product

Calcium nitrate, usually supplied as the tetrahydrate Ca(NO3)2.4H2O with CAS number 10124-37-5, is a white to pale grey granular or prilled solid, very soluble in water and strongly hygroscopic. Its position in horticulture rests on solubility. Soils often contain plenty of calcium as carbonate or sulphate, but those forms are barely soluble, and calcium moves through the plant only in the transpiration stream, so it reaches leaves readily and fruit poorly. The result is disorders such as blossom end rot in tomatoes and peppers and tip burn in lettuce, which are failures of calcium delivery rather than of soil calcium. A fully soluble calcium source applied through irrigation or as a foliar spray addresses that directly. The nitrate form also helps, because nitrate uptake promotes cation uptake alongside it, whereas ammonium competes with calcium at the root. Outside agriculture it is used as a concrete set accelerator and corrosion inhibitor, and in wastewater treatment, where dosing nitrate gives bacteria an alternative electron acceptor so they do not generate hydrogen sulphide. It is used in fertigation and foliar feeds, hydroponics, concrete admixtures, wastewater odour control and latex coagulation. Bio Green Chem supplies calcium nitrate to specification on nitrogen and calcium content, moisture, insolubles, chloride and heavy metals.