Silica Toxicity in plants caused by too much DE? Is it possible?

[DarthFader1]

Hi peeps,

Ive just recently increased my diatometeous earth usage in my soil mix. Ive gone from about 1/5 of a cup per 8gallons of soil (approx) and increased it to about maybe just under 1/3 cup.

Ive had this bizarre phantom light green discolouration come up on an entire room of blue kush clone LEAVES just after they were transplanted into this mix. Ive been going through all the various options as to what it may be; virus (still unconfirmed), pests including mites (definitely not this confirmed through powerful microscope observations. Environment is the same as usual, everything is stable.

Im just wondering if anyone has experienced silica toxicity before, and if so, how did it present itself in their plants? The growth of these blue kush clones is vigorous and no different from previous runs. The only thing thats changed really is increasing the amount of DE mixed into soil.

Anyone that has experience with this PLEASE chime in. This issue is really bothering me. There is fk all information out there on this ive discovered, just amazing!

many thanks in advance
Darth

 

[Dropped Cat]

Very interesting, although I grow in coco Hempy, I keep
diatomaceous earth in the res section of my pots.

I'll be checking into this also.

 

[GreenDream]

Here is a nice writeup on Diatomaceous Earth: HERE

It basically states that DE can be beneficial, as long as it is of high quality. If it doesn't meet all the requirements, then it is essentially useless, but will not cause problems. Thus, I would look elsewhere for the reason the plants are yellowing.

As a side note: (This might not apply to you but I figure I'd mention it regardless)
This time of year I hear a lot of people coming into the shop complaining that their plants are acting differently, and 9 times out of 10 it's because of the climate change. Even in sealed rooms the atmosphere acts differently, and if you don't adapt your watering regimen you can start to see problems occur. This is especially pronounced in rooms that utilize fans for cooling. Even changes that seem insignificant (like a few degrees lower nighttime temp, or the room taking longer to reach temp when the lights come on) can actually have pretty major effects on your crop if the watering and nutrient cycles aren't adjusted accordingly.

 

[DarthFader1]

Thanks the for the link holmes, it was a good read.

Unfortunately it mentions nothing of silica overdose and seems to focus more on crop fields rather than soil in containers or pots. This is what ive found in all the literature ive read so far, it's all like "yeah DE its good" but doesn't go into any scientific details.

Also, the plants are NOT yellowing, they are getting a light green "mosiac" discolouration on some of the leaves (very similar to TMV symptoms or at least what ppl think is TMV lol). The good news is things are seemingly improving as the girls get bigger. It seems like if it was silica toxicity, as the plants root system gets larger it can handle it more (if indeed this is the problem). Temps and environment are really nice in all my rooms this is definitely not a factor and has been ruled out, but for sure worth a mention.

I have a bunch of the same blue kush clones that have just grown roots, and are due to be transplanted up in the next week or 2. What im going to do is completely leave DE out of the soil mix this time, and see what happens. If it mysteriously vanishes it would be a pretty safe assumption it was indeed silica toxicity.

I will keep this updated as more info comes into play as hopefully it will help some ppl in the future. There seems to be very little info out there on this topic

I hope some more ppl reply to this that have experience with DE. If you do use DE can you please mention HOW MUCH you are adding into soil mixes.

thanks

 

[DarthFader1]

Update.. Whatever this mystery ailment was the girls grew out of it (thank fkkkkk) and are now back to healthy lush green growth.

It's all good but i still wish i knew what the problem was. The way it grew out of it does lend itself to a slightly hot soil mix. We at day 9 of flower now and things are charging

 

[Ichabod Crane]

I pulled this from Wikipedia:

"Zeolites have a porous structure that can accommodate a wide variety of cations, such as Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and others. These positive ions are rather loosely held and can readily be exchanged for others in a contact solution. Some of the more common mineral zeolites are analcime, chabazite, clinoptilolite, heulandite, natrolite, phillipsite, and stilbite. An example mineral formula is: Na2Al2Si3O10·2H2O, the formula for natrolite."

DE is a zeolite. You may be seeing the results of this in your plants. Once they get big enough they can get the minerals back from the DE.

I top dress with NAPA 8822 which is DE in pebble form. I use 1 to 2 inches as a top dress and get this same discoloration and my plants out grow it as well.

 

[DarthFader1]

Well, like i mentioned above, i left the DE out of the soil mix in new clones, transplanted them a week ago and there is zero signs of any leaf discolouration.

It seems like you most definitely can overdose on DE, so be warned now!

darth

 

[Ichabod Crane]

I clone in straight DE. That said I rinse the crap out of it with a nute mix. Just to prevent the discolorization. I believe that the discoloration is lock out from the DE holding onto it.

 

[milkyjoe]

23% of the earths crust is silica. If it were possible to overdose on Si alone it would happen all the time. Further the solubility of amorphous (plant available) Si maxes out somewhere around 100 ppm, you cannot get more into solution.

What you can do is get Si, Ca and B out of balance.

If DE is causing a problem most likely you are short on either Ca or B.

 

[Road_Runner]

Hi peeps,

Ive just recently increased my diatometeous earth usage in my soil mix. Ive gone from about 1/5 of a cup per 8gallons of soil (approx) and increased it to about maybe just under 1/3 cup.

Ive had this bizarre phantom light green discolouration come up on an entire room of blue kush clone LEAVES just after they were transplanted into this mix. Ive been going through all the various options as to what it may be; virus (still unconfirmed), pests including mites (definitely not this confirmed through powerful microscope observations. Environment is the same as usual, everything is stable.

Im just wondering if anyone has experienced silica toxicity before, and if so, how did it present itself in their plants? The growth of these blue kush clones is vigorous and no different from previous runs. The only thing thats changed really is increasing the amount of DE mixed into soil.

Anyone that has experience with this PLEASE chime in. This issue is really bothering me. There is fk all information out there on this ive discovered, just amazing!

many thanks in advance
Darth

Hi dude,

I have just experienced the exact same sounding thing as this for the first time, and it's also the first time I've used more DE than usual.

I have thrips so have been using Neem for IPM with DE to emulsify it. I used 1/2 tspn per gal and on full size plants once a week seems to be great for them but I've just sprayed a load of clones and small plants every 3 days and it's shown up hard.

Likewise, they seem to grow out of it but it was worrying to start with!

RR