Silicon and it's benefits/problems

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180

sticky is as sticky does
https://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/article/silicon-for-strength-cannabis-nutrients/

This article details the benefits of Silicon supplementation for cannabis: Increased plant size, increased nutrient uptake, increased yield of flowers and cannabinoids.

Sounds good... but there are problems. Silicon needs to be delivered to the substrate at a pH of 9! Since the pH of cannabis-growing media should be between 5.5 and 6.5, that's a problem: the Silicon bonds to other things at lower pH, rendering it unavailable to the plants, and potentially locking out other nutrients. The article went on to say that low doses are best, as higher doses lock out other nutes and potentially clog up drippers.

The way the researchers got around this was to use perlite coated with a Silicon solution. A fancy solution to the problem that is not available to us home growers.

So, keep this in mind when considering Silicon supplementation. It may be a waste of your money! :2c:
 
Very good info, I’m actually looking for a good silica product to use with coco and been considering applying it separately from the nutrients in order to get the plant to absorb it efficiently. Seems a lot of the options are expensive so I don’t want to be wasting it.
 
@CustomHydro I was just going to post that Daniel Fernandez blog post, you beat me to it!

One reality for hydroponic growers, is that many substrates already contain silicon in them, and the plant does have the ability through root exudates to extract some of that. Most coco coir comes from coconuts grown in sand, and therefore has a good Si content in the coco itself. Rockwool is in fact spun Calcium Silicate, and also will release some Si through slow acidification over time. Supplemental potassium silicate shows little to no difference in Si content in tissue analysis. In modern fertigation systems, it generally causes more problems than it solves. And I don't believe Si is very available through foliar treatment either.

One thing is true, that plants thrive on Si, the question is what the best source is. In soluble hydroponics, its still potassium silicate, not monosilicilic acid. Both for cost reasons, and the later contains stabilizers like propylene glycol, why would you want to give your plants anti-freeze? Or pay for mostly anti-freeze in a bottle?

But I do believe pre-amending with a silicon product is best. I have seen amazing results from VanSil. Here is the link and a video from Daniel Fernandez where he discusses this:

https://customhydronutrients.com/VanSil-W-20-wollastonite-50-lb-_p_23763.html

 
Silica is the only mineral that I specifically amend for. After I finish a grow, I’ll empty my medium into a wheelbarrow, hit the root ball with a hammer, then add to that a 1/4 cup of wollastonite per gallon of mix (and a cup of malted barley/gallon, lol). I guess I’m amending for calcium too, but it’s a really slow release and I’m playing the long game here.
 
Slackerbucks said:
Silica is the only mineral that I specifically amend for. After I finish a grow, I’ll empty my medium into a wheelbarrow, hit the root ball with a hammer, then add to that a 1/4 cup of wollastonite per gallon of mix (and a cup of malted barley/gallon, lol). I guess I’m amending for calcium too, but it’s a really slow release and I’m playing the long game here.
Click to expand...
Wollastonite cranks!!!
 
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