Organic source of silica?

Weird

Thank you for the link. Equally important are the links to information from other legitimate research at the end of the article.

The only reason that Silica hasn't been promoted by the grow store industry is that other than Advanced Nutrients (Rhino Skin) and Botanicare (Silica Blast) they haven't figured out a way to screw over their customers. Buying straight Potassium Silicate doesn't require much effort. It costs about $.06 to make a gallon at the diluted strength of 1 tsp. to 1 gallon of water if using Dyna-Gro Pro-TekT.

This mined mineral compound, which is approved for 'organic food production' like the other mineral compounds such as Limestone, Dolomite Lime, Calcite Lime, various rock dusts, etc. - it's found in somewhat high(er) levels in Basalt vs. the Canadian Glacial rock dust from the mine in British Columbia or clay mineral compounds such as Azomite, Bentonite, Zeolite, et al.

Once the boys at NGW figure out how to exploit this compound, toss in a few dozen sock-puppets to hit the cannabis boards and couple that with long tales about their buddy who 'grows really good dope' and the other usual marketing ploys - this could become the next bestest thing since bat guano or maybe even Phosphoric acid!!!

Watch......

Custom Hydro-Nutrients

Potassium Silicate - 1 lb.
32% Soluble Potash (K2O) and 52.8% Silica (SiO2)

.7 grams in 1 gallon of water yields 98 ppm Silica and 49 ppm K

$12.00 per lb.

MSDS available at their web site as well as other links.

CC

GH Rare Earth

the company from australia in the yellow bottle. theyre called bloom or some shit, im sure you all have seen the yellow bottles.. but they have a silica product ive been using with amazing results, i dont know the exacts cuz the bottles not in front of me but its something like 30% silica and you only use half a ml per gallon or something.. very concentrated.. i always get better results using this then protekt and the bottle lasts forever.

anyone else have any experience with this product? i recommend it.

Lots of great plant sources for silica. As Sunyata said horsetail is a great one. Have also heard rice hulls are a good source.

Click to expand...

I haven`t read the entire thread so apologies if it`s already been mentioned but one of the best organic sources of Silica is Stinging nettle . Either feed as dry powder on the soil to water in/or a tea or the best method is Stinging nettle tea from the fresh plant .
Jaybush has a very good thread on the benefits of Stinging nettles .

Sorry to side bust on your thread, but since the subject is already brought to this thread I will ask in here:

I use pro teck silica and was wondering why it states to add to reservoir before nutes. I was just wondering why, because for the life of me I cant remember to add first. I always seem to forget and add after. Anybody know what this might be important? Thanks everybody, enjoy your Sunday.

OrganicBuds said:

Sorry to side bust on your thread, but since the subject is already brought to this thread I will ask in here:

I use pro teck silica and was wondering why it states to add to reservoir before nutes. I was just wondering why, because for the life of me I cant remember to add first. I always seem to forget and add after. Anybody know what this might be important? Thanks everybody, enjoy your Sunday.

Click to expand...

OB

This is just a guess and this guess is based on an observation 3 or 4 times.

I took a double-shot glass and added 1 tablespoon of neem oil and used the same amount of Pro-TeKt to emulsify the oil.

Standard fare and had I added that directly to warm water and shaken it then it would have dispersed. But on these few occasions, after emulsifying the oil, I added the Aloe Vera juice (or Yucca extract) direct and as soon as either of these liquids were added the mix instantly changed to an extremely thick paste. It could not be salvaged for using as a foliar spray.

So from that I figured out to emulsify the oil, then add to water, then add the surfactant material (in this case it was Aloe Vera and sometimes Yucca extract)

You'd need a chemist to explain the 'how & why' because it's above my pay grade (way above) but that's my observation/experience.

HTH

CC

uglybunny said:

Bamboo leaves are high in silica. I use them in my compost. You can also use the leaves as mulch and reap the same benefits, if you're a mulcher.

Click to expand...

This is great info. I have a solid reason to incorporate bamboo into my yard now.

bamboo leaves eh? interesting. been looking for mulch as well as a source of silica and additional minerals. i used to mix composted leaves with equal parts commercial potting soil and a mixture of lava rock, expanded clay and the really chunky perlite. worked great through veg but i ran into a few deficiencies that were corrected with tea consisting of earth juice bloom, bio-ag's humate pack with iron/boron, insect frass, and i can't remember the brand but it was a fairly water soluble form of pure silica powder that came in packets and raised the pH a decent bit so it worked well with the earth juice. looking to get away from any need to give em anything but water unless they are obviously deficient.

this season because i'm having back/neck problems and don't feel like causing more problems by mixing a ton of soil, i'm just going to move last year's soil into the new pots and mix it with whatever mineral amendment i decide before filling the rest up with the nicest commercial potting soil i can find in pots 3x as large so i'll need to amend each pot with enough for 300gallons. gonna do it 100gallons at a time so the mixing doesn't get too strenuous.

they won't give me an exact recipe but it's a mixture of peat, coco, compost, worm castings, blood meal, bone meal, feather meal, rock phosphate, dolomite lime, and perlite. seems to have gained a solid reputation with the local medical growers but most of them are using bottled nutrients as well.

the only things i can think to add are additional minerals but i'm not sure exactly what and how much. currently considering azomite and DE but i'm having trouble finding them in large quantities. the grow shops only carry little bags. maybe a farm store? also been reading about adding different types of clay but i'm not sure what kind or how much to use. always heard glacial rock dust is the bees knees but i can't seem to source it locally and it's pretty expensive to have delivered.

any tips? seems like the mix should be pretty solid right off the truck but the more i read, the more it seems like additional minerals will almost certainly be beneficial. loosing a bunch of ladybugs seems to really cut down on pests but mold is a big issue out here so we need to keep things healthy as possible and silica seems to make an undeniable improvement in overall plant health. i'll be situating and filling each pot with their first 100gallons tomorrow so there will be a solid 6-7 weeks for everything to compost and each pot is getting some worms and a good soaking of casting tea before planting so hopefully that helps out as well. sorry for the longwinded post but any input is greatly appreciated!

7 Pages and Im still confused. So the Silica in DE is not plant available, or does not become available through microbial action ?

Should I Buy DE ? Or Pyrophyllite clay? Looking for natuarl ammendments Im okay with it taking a few months to break down as long as its part of my mix in the long run.

I do use Glacial Rock dust and Azomite and Basalt in my recipe but is this enough for the benefits of Silica to be maxed out ?

Here is my current recipe Per Cubic Foot

1 Cup Bonemeal
1/2 Cup Kelp
1/2 Cup Alfalfa
1/2 Cup Blood meal
1/2 Cup Glacial Rock Dust
1/3 Cup Oyster Shell
1/3 Cup Dolomite Lime
1/3 Cup Gypsum
1/4 Cup Azomite
1/4 Cup Basalt

40% PEAT
40% PERLITE
20% EWC

Wikipedia says its 90% silica. Good enough for me unless someone says otherwise. Gonna go with 1/2 cup per Cubic Foot mix.

This thread has a little more info.

https://www.*********.com/community/threads/diatomaceous-earth.40231/

what does icmag not like other forums ?

Horsetail plant is full of silica and they sell it as herbal tea.

One of horsetail's claim to herbal fame is that it contains high amounts of silica and is one of the highest plant sources known for this bone strengthening mineral.

Click to expand...

https://www.superfoodevolution.com/horsetail-plant.html

troutman said:

Horsetail plant is full of silica and they sell it as herbal tea.

https://www.superfoodevolution.com/horsetail-plant.html

Click to expand...

Yep.

Or you can harvest your own if it grows locally.

hello my name is jakub.*
I'm looking for help in choosing cannabis oil for my granddad he's 81yo he had beaten the prostate cancer about 10 years ago also he has diabetes, Heart desiese, high blood pressure, dementia and 4 days ago he broke his leg in the lap area. I beg you guy's please help me choose a good oil that is going to help him in general and ease his pain *
after the operation on his leg he's in hospital, responsive time to time but very sleepy and seems that he has no idea where he is. my grandmom woke him up asked him to talk to her , he answered "I am talking to you" and fallen back to sleep
Im really worried, PLEASE HELP !!

ghe mineral magic, potsil.. they are good

Perlite is 70-75% Silica (amorphous Silicon dioxide ) and is the cheapest and most practical form of silica for horticulture. All my indoor plants are grown in media containing two thirds perlite, and using it eliminates the temptation to source expensive supplements.

I use rice hulls as the aeration component of LCs soil mix instead of perlite. If you reuse your soil hulls are slow release source of silica. For me rice hulls are cheaper and less conspicuous and can be discarded through the compost.
Couple links about benefits of rice hulls in soil, reducing arsenic levels and increasing disease resistance vs liquid silicate.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jafc.6b01201?journalCode=jafcau

https://www.researchgate.net/public...qualities_of_chili_pepper_Capsicum_annuum_L_H

Hey guys glad to see some input. I use 40% perlite! If it is so high in silica then I should be totally good? Why has perlite not been mentioned at all out of everything Ive seen. Seems like that means the majority of growers are basically good to go? Even at 30% perlite in their mix.

Horestail I guess this might be easiest to do if i can find seeds for a couple bucks throw it in the garden and just add it to my compost like comfrey.

Rice hulls, had a hard time sourcing here. Never tried any breweries though. I didn't like that it breaks down after a year or so. meaning I would have to add new aggregates to my mix. Kind of a big hassle if you've got 20 cubic feet.