Potassium Silicate

[lemonade]

Hey everyone! I've always used lots of potassium silicate with my Nutes. After mixing I've always had low PH (acidic) so I always use potassium silicate as PH up. I'm aware of its beneficial properties as a supplement, and like I said I've always ended up using quit a bit of it inadvertently for PH up.

However now I've moved locations and my water source is quite alkaline. Even with 2.5 EC nutrients I need to add PH down to get to my desired PH (6.3).

I'd like to add silicate for its supplemental properties but I was always told not to cancel PH up/down with each other. I'm assuming that's because PH up generally used to be a hydroxide, so mixing up/down would be an acid/base reaction causing salt precipitation. I'm assuming this is not the case when using Silicate as PH up?

However I also remember being told to add Silicate to the res FIRST, when using it as a supplement.

So whats the skinny fellas? Like I said with 2.5 EC my PH is still 7+. Should I add silicate, knocking my PH into the stratosphere, then correct with PH down?

How much silicate should be added? I always just see people recommend X amount of X product per X amount of gallons without specifying what the concentration is.

I have 30% potassium silicate solution. What dose do you guys recommend for supplemental purpose?

Thanks Guys. Peace.

 

[troutman]

Maybe use very little.

Sometimes I only add a drop or two per gallon when using secondary or trace elements.

 

[lemonade]

Appreciate the input troutman!

Anyone else got any thoughts?

 

[tobedetermined]

I am here watching for answers because I have been adding it as well. I start with town water around 7.0. I mix ‘some’ of the silicate with ½ cup of water to dissolve it. How much? Probably 1 ml per 3 litres or so. My bottle suggested .25 per litre. After I add that to the water bucket, I do the nutes and I finish with a pH adjustment (always down) with some generic phosphoric solution. fwiw

 

[lemonade]

Thanks for the response tobedetermined.

I feel like a lot of people could use some clarification on this subject! Sounds like you are using a thick concentrate of potassium silicate. I have similar products. In the past i used to mix the concentrate with warm water before applying to the reservoir.

 

[tobedetermined]

Yeah, mine is super thick. I started using a small syringe for exact measurement but it eventually failed, so now I just dip the syringe in and it picks up enough and then I swish in the cup until it dissolves. Everything I have read says that PS does not play nice below a pH of 6 . . . but in hydro and coco grows, that is a bit high. So I wonder if it I negate it with a ph of 5.8? Or does it stay available and as the pH rises, the plant can uptake? I don’t know.

 

[waveguide]

there used to be a popular growers forum that changed name a few times TGC, one of the users retailed ag supplies and use of ksil was more prevalent with that community than others before the silicate supplement marketing trend. then someone bought the site for a million and now it doesn't seem to be around anymore, quite a shame given the overall orientation towards supplemented organic soil.

i can't authoritatively respond to any of your questions but maybe an old TGC grower will buzz through who can, my solution is to only use ksil once or twice per grow.

 

[buzzmobile]

there used to be a popular growers forum that changed name a few times TGC, one of the users retailed ag supplies and use of ksil was more prevalent with that community than others before the silicate supplement marketing trend. then someone bought the site for a million and now it doesn't seem to be around anymore, quite a shame given the overall orientation towards supplemented organic soil.

i can't authoritatively respond to any of your questions but maybe an old TGC grower will buzz through who can, my solution is to only use ksil once or twice per grow.

I believe you are referring to The Gardens Cure, waveguide. The User who went by Quantrill has a shop called Custom Hydro Nutrients. Add a .com and you are there.

 

[growshopfrank]

FWIW the usual practice is to add potassium silicate as the last ingredient in the mix.

 

[f-e]

Everything I have read says first.

The pH down in use plays a huge part in this. I suggest Nitric acid. Nitric fully spreads out in water and bonds with the calcium, forming calcium nitrate. In the process, the carbonate leaves as co2 bubbles. This can take a few hours to show on a pH meter, as the co2 bubbles need to leave.

Calcium carbonate is transformed by the nitric acid, until one of them is depleted.

I would first add most of the nitric you expect to need. Then the PS.



If you use phosphoric acid, only half dissociates into the tank to work on converting the calcium carbonate. The other half, I believe, is mostly phosphates. Which seem prone to making useless bonds. Calcium phosphate for instance, is a waste of both calcium and phosphate. Later you would be adding humic&fulvic acids to free it again. One plus point is that only half the acid going off to do something, leaves half in solution. Offering greater buffering towards future events, than an acid that's vanished.

These two are sometimes called grow acid and bloom acid, as they are Nitrogen and Phosphate sources. Canna even have a feed line you use for grow and bloom, by changing the acid. We tend to be sold phosphoric but I feel we want nitric most of the time. One cause of zinc deficiency is switching from nitric to phosphoric, because you ran out.

 

[coxnox]

silicic acid wont change your ph in your rez....

 

[Tomatoesonly]

I just wanna say thanks, because I had never heard of potassium silicate and that it could be used as a pH up. It just so happened I needed both a pH up and I wanted to add silica to my nute schedule. Stuff made my res. rock damn solid at whatever pH I choose.

 

[wandering81]

I just wanna say thanks, because I had never heard of potassium silicate and that it could be used as a pH up. It just so happened I needed both a pH up and I wanted to add silica to my nute schedule. Stuff made my res. rock damn solid at whatever pH I choose.

Thats all i use in RO water strictly as PH up. If i get benefits from silica..... cool... i reuse my coco, so its in there somewhere im sure. lol I get mine from MB ferts. 20lbs of AgSiL for 80 bucks shipped..

 

[Tomatoesonly]

Thats all i use in RO water strictly as PH up. If i get benefits from silica..... cool... i reuse my coco, so its in there somewhere im sure. lol I get mine from MB ferts. 20lbs of AgSiL for 80 bucks shipped.

That is a great price. Just went over there and it's 150.00 now. I just paid 30 for 1 lb. off Amazon. At least I know where to go if I need more. Just a little bit does the trick. So my 1 lb will be good for quite a while.

 

[wandering81]

That is a great price. Just went over there and it's 150.00 now. I just paid 30 for 1 lb. off Amazon. At least I know where to go if I need more. Just a little bit does the trick. So my 1 lb will be good for quite a while.

They literally changed that this week. i grabbed 20lbs last week lol. Shoulda grabbed double. Im stocking up on everything for THIS precise reason. It absolutely lasts a long time. My mix calls for .4g per gallon to get my ph where i want it. I make a stock solution so i dont have to wait for it to dissolve in the rez

 

[wandering81]

i smoke too much. lol . i had to look at my receipt.. i DID pay 150 for 20lbs. lol. I paid 80 bucks for 20lbs of their mono potassium phosphate. lol.

 

[experienced]

can you apply as a foliar spray? its alkalinity gives it anti-fungal, mould-killing qualities. not too much though ....

 

[mexweed]

it goes first in a mix, I think it would take too much to adjust ph though, I will test a batch before I add the fulvic which comes last, I do the potassium silicate and fulvic every other feeding, 1/2 tsp of armor si

 

[Somatek]

FWIW the usual practice is to add potassium silicate as the last ingredient in the mix.

That causes precipitate to form as the nutrients bind and become unavailable. As a highly alkaline solution, if you add potassium silicate after mixing nutes it reacts to the generally acidic solution and you'll see a bloom of unusable particulate in the res. Which is why it's added first to dilute the alkalinity before acids are added to avoid precipitate from forming. These are very common cultural practice mistakes people make that limit their yields or create nute issues.

 

[Somatek]

Hey everyone! I've always used lots of potassium silicate with my Nutes. After mixing I've always had low PH (acidic) so I always use potassium silicate as PH up. I'm aware of its beneficial properties as a supplement, and like I said I've always ended up using quit a bit of it inadvertently for PH up.

However now I've moved locations and my water source is quite alkaline. Even with 2.5 EC nutrients I need to add PH down to get to my desired PH (6.3).

I'd like to add silicate for its supplemental properties but I was always told not to cancel PH up/down with each other. I'm assuming that's because PH up generally used to be a hydroxide, so mixing up/down would be an acid/base reaction causing salt precipitation. I'm assuming this is not the case when using Silicate as PH up?

However I also remember being told to add Silicate to the res FIRST, when using it as a supplement.

So whats the skinny fellas? Like I said with 2.5 EC my PH is still 7+. Should I add silicate, knocking my PH into the stratosphere, then correct with PH down?

How much silicate should be added? I always just see people recommend X amount of X product per X amount of gallons without specifying what the concentration is.

I have 30% potassium silicate solution. What dose do you guys recommend for supplemental purpose?

Thanks Guys. Peace.

Used as a supplement you don't need much to see the benefits, although with an EC of 2.5 I'd be questioning what you're already adding and if it's needed as that seems very high for most systems.

Generally we avoid using pH up and down at once for exactly the reasons stated as by cancelling each other they'll create precipitate that'll contribute to nute lock out. Using potassium silicate as pH up vs supplemental are totally different doses though; I think the recommended dose for the stuff I use is like 5ml/5gal bucket but I regularly use twice or more to balance the pH. It should always be added first so that the high alkalinity is diluted before acidic nutes are added; the same reason high K nutes are added first when mixing 3 part solutions.