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Silica in flowering?

shawkmon

Pleasantly dissociated
Veteran
starting using it, plants are happy as shit , guess ill use till i stop all sups, week 6 or so, i like to get the plants big and juicy , then feed the microbes with molasses a time or 2 , then just water to the end, makes for the best smoke for me , doesnt help with smell tho, the longer ya starve the more the reek, plants be gettin angry screaming loud

i got silicon dioxide maybe , not at grow, i think its from ground up granite into a dust i mix with water then add to bucket. added some every watering and ive never had such happier plants , jebus rice
 

GuyManDude

Active member
silica, when used properly, can be very healthful to the plant - it does work i keeping Powdery Mildew away.

that being said, when overused it can cause very funky buds.
 

Megaprop

Member
I use silicon full strength up to week 3 and then back it off to half strength for week 4 and quarter strength for week 5. I quit using it at all for the last 3-4 weeks. This gives the plant the chance to use up what it's already got.

This way, I get the benefits of it without it affecting final quality.
 

DocTim420

The Doctor is OUT and has moved on...
Of course, if one examines the hairs and trichomes of our blessed cannabis plant, one will fine enormous amounts of silica and calcium. Silica is distributed more or less uniformly all over the surface of the trichome and calcium is confined to the enlarged basal portions of the cystolith hairs.

Think about it...what happens to the hairs and trichomes if one does not provide Si & Ca during bloom development? Will they become under or overdeveloped when it is time to harvest?
 

Megaprop

Member
Very good points well made DocTim.

I think I notice the black ash effect off stuff which friends have grown using silicon at full strength through to the end. That's why I tend to back off using it towards the end. Calcium towards the end is a no-brainer, though. Both silicon and calcium contribute towards rot resistance too.
Along with the points you made, if you have big, thick buds and high humidity at the back end of flowering then I can see it would be sound reasoning to keep giving the plants both right through to the end/flush.

Using lots of high quality Fulvic Acid, particularly in the last 2/3 weeks helps plants to transport excess nutrients downwards and back out of the plant. That might help safeguard against the black ash effect...
 

DocTim420

The Doctor is OUT and has moved on...
IMO, color of ash for cannabis mirrors that of cigars: Black ash = low or poor mineral content in soil, gray/streaked ash = equal/balanced mineral content, white ash = high levels of magnesium.

The burning end of a cigar. A bright, white ash indicates tobacco that has received ample magnesium in the soil. Cameroon tobacco typically burns with a bright white ash. A flaky white ash may have had too much magnesium. Cuban tobacco tends to burn with a grayish ash (see photo). A black ash may indicate the tobacco inside was grown in soil lacking proper nutrients.

Fine, handmade cigars are made with long-filler leaves, and the ash on such cigars retains strength even after burning. Some fat cigars can be made to stand upright on their ashes, and can hold ashes of considerable length. (Cigars made with short-filler tobacco tend to have very flaky ashes with little strength.) Resist the urge to tap your ash; it’s better to let it fall when it’s ready, after you see a seam develop, typically around the one-inch-long mark.

http://www.cigaraficionado.com/glossary/index/id/15049
 

Trich_Tyson

Active member
What are your ec levels that you need so much?

1.3 ec. Puts me at about 5.5 or so ph in 30 gallons. To get to 6.7 requires a ton.
I've probably filled my rez 4 times since I bought the quart. I finished the bottle last night (barely got me to 6.6)

Going to grab some agsil to do this cheaper. And maybe some actual ph up. Though the gh ph up is weak as hell too
 

Douglas.Curtis

Autistic Diplomat in Training
Crush a finished flower...

Does it have a section which is harder to break up than the rest? (no, silly, not the stem. :) ) (Edit: "When testing silica as your only variable...) This is a good sign you're using a bit too much at some point in flower.

:D
 
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DocTim420

The Doctor is OUT and has moved on...
Crush a finished flower...

Does it have a section which is harder to break up than the rest? (no, silly, not the stem. :) ) This is a good sign you're using a bit too much at some point in flower.

:D

Didn't we discuss this before? Anecdotal observations are exactly that...nothing but an observation; to suggest they are universal facts is pushing it a bit.

IMO, the hardness of a bud (or lack thereof) can be related to many things--but to suggest the lack of a particular "hardness" consistency of a cured bud is solely due to excess phytolith accumulation--is rather bold (any science?).

I believe all 90 plus naturally occurring elements/minerals are absorbed by cannabis and I fail to comprehend how a simple bud crush test (like the one you described) can isolate Si from the other 89 elements.
 

Douglas.Curtis

Autistic Diplomat in Training
Didn't we discuss this before? I ran experimentation myself, with silica strength being the only variable. Edit: Keep forgetting people can't read my mind. I should have prefaced the comment with "When testing silica as the only variable..." My fault.
 
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gr866

Active member
Veteran
Does anyone use it as a pH up, I did in veg, have backed off in flower though, not sure why
 

I wood

Well-known member
Does anyone use it as a pH up, I did in veg, have backed off in flower though, not sure why

Yes, I do once or twice a year when I need earth juice to help with a struggling plant.
Other than that I don't PH anything.

I also use it up to one week from harvest with no bad effects as far as I can tell, everything comes out all nice and frangible.
 

DocTim420

The Doctor is OUT and has moved on...
Didn't we discuss this before? I ran experimentation myself, with silica strength being the only variable. Edit: Keep forgetting people take things out of context. I should have prefaced the comment with "When testing silica as a variable..." My fault.

Or could it be....your experiment with different Si rates released tied-up phosphate--which in turn increased P availability for plant uptake?

My science: Silicate complexes are also known to hold excess soil phosphate in a plant available form for future plant uptake, thus, increasing P use effciency.

Source: http://www.numeratortech.com/tech_info/Crop_Research_Report_Dicots.pdf

IMO, your experiment gets more complicated if your source of Si was from Potassium Silicate--since the ratio of K:Si is about 1:2 (said differently, what ever your amount of Si is--about 50% will be K). So, if Si increases P use efficiency--and if your source of Si was Potassium Silicate, then you certainly unintentionally will have a whole lot of "Plant Available P & K" in your grow medium.

Hmmm, it appears your experiment may not be as definitive as you think (your Si variable may not have been isolated from the effects of increased amount of plant available P & K).

BTW, I incorporate an insane amount of passive Si material in my grow medium--(for many reasons--but let's limit it to trichome growth...since the topic of this thread is "silica in flower?") and I don't have issues of inconsistent bud crunch/crush--like the one describe. And my buds are stinky (flavorful), sticky (resinous), potent (nice developed trichomes) and super clean (the smoke tastes just like the bud's aromatics).

On edit:
P is not the abbreviation for potassium, it is for phosphorus.

K=kalium = potassium

You're right, my bad, but the numbers are the same...(what was I thinking??? lol) Thanks!. Corrected my error.
 
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HqFarms

Member
Osa28 and facilitstor imo are the best forms of silica. I will only use it as a foliar either A by it self or B with my other foliar nutes to act as a emulsifier. I will run it from veg to about week 3 after all stretching stops i.e. cell division. During stretch I will use osa28 at double the amount because it does help reduce stretch some. Also another benefit of using silica in coco because it helps your plants uptake calcium better. I've been running coco for the past 2 years with coco and have never had to use cal/mag when foliar feeding with silica
 
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