Silica From Napa Floor Dry?

Mister_D

Active member

Veteran

• Sep 12, 2011

• #1

I am on my second cycle using floor dry in place of perlite, and have noticed on this run using coco/floordry mix, my plants seem to have much stronger thicker stems than previous runs in coco/perlite mixture. Last run I mixed the floor dry with mostly happy frog, peat, and bit of coco. Being it was a primarily soil run I ph'd to 6-6.5 and didn't have the thicker stronger stems. What I am wondering is, does the lower ph required for coco have an effect on releasing silica from the floor dry? I was reading a thread a couple days ago and another member (though I forget who. maybe spurr?) alluded that he/she may be experiencing the same thing. This got me thinking maybe it's not all in my head, what do you guys and gals think?

 

supermanlives

Active member

Veteran

• Sep 12, 2011

• #2

sounds about right . when i quit hydro and tossed in my silica stones into my soil mix i experienced the same thing. now i use protekt liquid. i dont know the best ph for uptake of silica tho . i am sure there is a chart somewhere

 

Builtaforest

Member

• Sep 12, 2011

• #3

mad librettest

 

B

bonsai

Member

• Sep 12, 2011

• #4

Funny, I've been contemplating starting a thread about exactly this topic in the organics forum for a couple weeks.
This floor dry is diatomaceous earth, right? DE is 80-90% silica. There is a foliar silica spray made here in Australia that is DE ground to 5 microns and suspended in water. It is advertised as fast acting, so 5 micron must be fine enough for the silica to be mobile/available.

My experience so far using DE in organic soil mix (ph ~6.5) correlate with your experience in coco. Strong, thick stems. I use screened DE (2-7mm) but also include the ultra fine dust in hope of making more silica available early.

 

mad librettist

Active member

Veteran

• Sep 13, 2011

• #5

well I have nothing useful to add, other than encouragement. Using the napa instead of perlites gives me nicer plants in every way.

I can say for sure that calcined DE does alter pH and EC in some way. I determined that by attempting to grow drosera adelae in it. The drosera died pretty quick.

 

D

delta9nxs

No Jive Productions

Veteran

• Sep 13, 2011

• #6

howdy! i have been using turface for years and it, like DE, contains silica in the form of crystalline quartz. turface is about 3-5%.

i have tested the turface for months in ro water with an ec meter and it does slowly give off something but i have no way of determining what it is. it's not much, i think i got 35 ppm after three months.

i believe that the silica acts as a contact prophylactic and contributes to plant health by suppressing pathogens.

lately i've been using rice hulls also and they are 19% amorphous silica. this is the highest content occurring in the plant world.

i'm using a mix of 3 parts turface to 1 part rice hulls and the plants seem to really like it.

 

M

mugenbao

• Sep 13, 2011

• #7

delta9nxs said:

lately i've been using rice hulls also and they are 19% amorphous silica. this is the highest content occurring in the plant world

Click to expand...

It's partly due to your thread and all of the research that you've done there that I incorporated rice hulls in addition to the DE into my current batch of soil. So far the plants appear to be loving it, but too soon for me to tell anything concrete.

I've been using the calcined DE for a few cycles now, and I'll never go back to perlite. I don't know if it releases any plant-available silicon, but I do know that my plants are in general healthier than previous runs.

.

 

Mister_D

Active member

Veteran

• Sep 13, 2011

• #8

It wasn't mad librettest that was talking about the silica being released. Think it was spurr or cyat, but i'm not sure. Though it was him that first brought the idea to my attention . I'd been looking for a better option than perlite for a few years, love the floor dry. Been going back and forth with the rice hulls for a bit now too, should just eat the shipping costs and get a few 50 kg bags. I reuse my media, so things that breakdown and improve tilth are always welcome. Anyone have any idea the effect rice hulls would have on the properties of coco after breaking down?