Silicon in Coco, what type? Mono silicic vs others?

[Stoned Whale]

I’m pretty new to coco and looking into trying out a Silicon supplement.

Googling has left me fairly confused. Plenty sites / anecdotes claim any old silicon product works wonders.

Others claim plants can only absorb mono silicic acid and using anything else is largely a waste. They claim most products contain Silicates (which from descriptions is true) which take weeks if not months to break down into mono silicic acid to be available to the plant.

What are peoples experiences here?

 

[xtsho]

Why do you want to use a silicon supplement?

If you do you can skip all the shiny bottles and marketing claims. Just get some potassium silicate. Don't pay to have someone else mix it with water.

$17 for a pound.

 

[Stoned Whale]

Why do you want to use a silicon supplement?

If you do you can skip all the shiny bottles and marketing claims. Just get some potassium silicate. Don't pay to have someone else mix it with water.

$17 for a pound.

I used silicon a bunch of years ago in soil and I thought I had stronger stems but after a few years of use, I didn’t notice any difference when I stopped!

But was now curious to try in coco, just after reading some good results, and having a few stretchy spindly stemmed plants this grow (which I am re running clones of next).

It is mostly the marketing and such influencing me as it so hard to find viable studies and results on this stuff. Many places claim silicon improves virtually every aspect of plant growth.

Thanks for the mention of the raw nutrient, sadly not available here in UK but I imagine with some looking I can find a similar well priced not over branded product.

Is the high potassium content an issue? Or is the total amount added so little as to not matter?

 

[xtsho]

I used silicon a bunch of years ago in soil and I thought I had stronger stems but after a few years of use, I didn’t notice any difference when I stopped!

But was now curious to try in coco, just after reading some good results, and having a few stretchy spindly stemmed plants this grow (which I am re running clones of next).

It is mostly the marketing and such influencing me as it so hard to find viable studies and results on this stuff. Many places claim silicon improves virtually every aspect of plant growth.

Thanks for the mention of the raw nutrient, sadly not available here in UK but I imagine with some looking I can find a similar well priced not over branded product.

Is the high potassium content an issue? Or is the total amount added so little as to not matter?

Well there is a significant amount of potassium so you have to take that into account. But if you look at the ingredients on many of the silicon products out there it will say "Derived from potassium silicate".

But yeah, it looks like you're forced to buy overpriced bottled products where you're at. I forget that so much stuff available here in the states is unavailable in other countries.

As for using silica, I have which is why I have it but I'm not into growing stems and didn't see any benefit that was worth bothering with. In fact when I did use it it messed up my normal feeding regimen so I stopped using it. I use it now as a foliar to prevent powdery mildew and other fungal bad guys. It works for that purpose by raising the pH on the surface of the leaves to where things can't grow.

 

[Stoned Whale]

Well there is a significant amount of potassium so you have to take that into account. But if you look at the ingredients on many of the silicon products out there it will say "Derived from potassium silicate".

But yeah, it looks like you're forced to buy overpriced bottled products where you're at. I forget that so much stuff available here in the states is unavailable in other countries.

As for using silica, I have which is why I have it but I'm not into growing stems and didn't see any benefit that was worth bothering with. In fact when I did use it it messed up my normal feeding regimen so I stopped using it. I use it now as a foliar to prevent powdery mildew and other fungal bad guys. It works for that purpose by raising the pH on the surface of the leaves to where things can't grow.

Did it mess up your regime solely due to to much potassium?

I did forget to mention the foliar benefits I had been interested in. Exactly what you mentioned.

I am in Scotland, very humid for a significant part of the year. Botrytis is always just an oscillating fan failure or one very wet day round the corner!

How far into flower do you use it as a foliar? When previously using silicone in Soil I was very concerned with it causing bad burning product if used more than a couple weeks into flower. I imagine using it as a foliar spray could be even worse?

May have to give it a shot in my outdoor flower garden aswell, lots of powdery mildew will be setting in in the next month or so. Usually just let nature take its course as most perennials are fairly large and established so while damaged, they survive.

Thank you for your replies. I appreciate it.

 

[xtsho]

Did it mess up your regime solely due to to much potassium?

I did forget to mention the foliar benefits I had been interested in. Exactly what you mentioned.

I am in Scotland, very humid for a significant part of the year. Botrytis is always just an oscillating fan failure or one very wet day round the corner!

How far into flower do you use it as a foliar? When previously using silicone in Soil I was very concerned with it causing bad burning product if used more than a couple weeks into flower. I imagine using it as a foliar spray could be even worse?

May have to give it a shot in my outdoor flower garden aswell, lots of powdery mildew will be setting in in the next month or so. Usually just let nature take its course as most perennials are fairly large and established so while damaged, they survive.

Thank you for your replies. I appreciate it.

I didn't account for the rise in pH that potassium silicate will create. And I don't want thick sturdy stems in my bud. I can support my plants other ways.

I use it now as like I already said for a foliar for powdery mildew and other fungal issues. I am happy with the results using it for that purpose.

My plants are about 6 weeks from being done and I'm still spraying it. I won't know what effect it has on taste or any other aspect of the finished product until after this outdoor grow. I do plan on washing the weed prior to drying. I don't expect any off putting tastes or anything but I( won't know until harvest, dry, and smoke. I'll update later as that's all I can do.

But it does work in helping to prevent powdery mildew. That I've already concluded.