[fonzee]

Hello ladies! (and gentlemen)

Today I'm starting a new experiment I thought some of you might be interested in - Silica supplements evaluation.

There are 3 treatments:
1. Control
2. Gen200 control used at the recommended ratio of 0.2ml per L once per week
3. FPE (Fermented Plant Extract) of Stinging Nettles (Urtica dioica) picked from my yard, blended and let to ferment for 1 week before the beginning of this experiment, used at a ratio of 5ml per L by spraying once a week.

The test will be done on 3 fairly similar, heavily root-bound, Golden Diesel 68 (Chemdog x Sour Diesel F3, cut #68) cuts currently residing in small cups.
All are currently being prepared for a transplant to their final pots (3.5L) by drenching their soil in rain water with endomycorrhizae innoculum.

Meanwhile the medium for the plants is being prepared by mixing:
5L used soil (recycled for a year, recipe could be estimated by my other journals)
5L forest floor compost from Schwarzwald
2 cups of pelleted horse poop currently rehydrating in rain water
4 teaspoons (1 tablespoon?) of chalk for calcium

Plants will go in 3.5L square pots and as quickly as possible move to flower to keep short.

Parameters that will be evaluated are:
1. Water stress susceptibility
2. Waxy appearance of leaves
3. Insect susceptibility
4. Rate of growth
5. Yield

The main problems with this test plan are:
1. No repeats for the treatments
2. Using small pots with organic growing techniques meant for much bigger pots - this will be unbiased by flowering the plants as early as possible
3. Non-identical clones - this will be unbiased by topping the plants to match the smallest plant before flowering


So, this is day 1:

[fonzee]

After transplant and watering with half dose nettles tea, kelp and fresh homemade ewc slurry

[fonzee]

Yesterday all plants got a drench of 100-150ml of 1:7 diluted compost tea with forest floor compost, mycos, humics and apple juice and a spray of the the solution.

[fonzee]

All plants were trimmed to one branch and got nettles foliar spray. Pictures will start once healthy growth is achieved with all plants.

[hanfiking]

[fonzee]

Today all plants started popping healthy growth, pictures will follow after the weekend

Originally Posted by hanfiking

Welcome

[samisomo]

Interesting subject.
Can you explain more on the water stress susceptibility with silica?
And how do you test waxy appearance?

I cheer for #3

[gertnaerd]

i will take a seat. some years ago i used mineral magic for silicate . now its gen200 control here also. i heard gen200 is made by the same people who do things for aptus . just some info...ihope you are fine with that. all the best

[Phaeton]

Originally Posted by fonzee

All plants were trimmed to one branch and got nettles foliar spray. Pictures will start once healthy growth is achieved with all plants.

Possibly I am being my too stoned self but I am not understanding.
Two posts in a row mentions 'all plants' getting a spray, the quote above mentions nettles by name.

Am I misreading or are the control and gen200 not labeled and separate?

This side by side is of great interest as the highly alkaline system I am currently using does not seem to be taken up by the plants.

[fonzee]

Originally Posted by Phaeton

Possibly I am being my too stoned self but I am not understanding.
Two posts in a row mentions 'all plants' getting a spray, the quote above mentions nettles by name.

Am I misreading or are the control and gen200 not labeled and separate?

This side by side is of great interest as the highly alkaline system I am currently using does not seem to be taken up by the plants.

They plants have been grown back to proper shape.
They received compost tea, nettles tea and a few more organic remedies.
Couldn't start the test earlier as the plants weren't level in size or shape.

But now they are much more in shape and haven't used the nettles for 2-3 weeks.

The experiment will start today.
All 3 plants were transplanted to 10L as I had some extra open space and it would be much more representative to what people use than a 3.5L pot.
The soil used to fill the pots is my used soil, well mixed. It was holding a lot of water and have great structure. Many many earthworms.

Once the plants will need watering they will get:
Gen200 - drench with gen200
Nettles - spray with nettles and drench with water
Control - drench with water

From then Gen200 will get gen200 with every watering, Nettles will get a spray every 7 days. Nettles and control will get water.

Might be some more things getting in, like compost teas and comfrey FPE

Not trying to isolate the cause for the difference, just trying to see how it works in a fairly basic organic system, including all the variables.


Anyway, here we are today, with a nice spot opening in my flower tent that all plants get fairly equal amount of light: