Vermiculite as a source of silica?

Hi! Bugbee's team did some research since then, and added a lot of rice hulls to the "recipe". Seems to provide a stable silica release when mixed in with the soil, as I understand from their paper: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=cpl_hydroponics

In my experience, rice hulls are great because they are extremely cheap, but that big bag of hulls did attract some kind of bug; but, to be fair with that species -don't know which one was, seemed like a micro beetle (?) or smth-, they didn't seem to affect the plant in any way, so who knows... anyway, a good ol' sterilization would probably be the way to go, or finding a -probably more expensive- mineral substitute.

billevans92 said:

Hi! Bugbee's team did some research since then, and added a lot of rice hulls to the "recipe". Seems to provide a stable silica release when mixed in with the soil, as I understand from their paper: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=cpl_hydroponics

In my experience, rice hulls are great because they are extremely cheap, but that big bag of hulls did attract some kind of bug; but, to be fair with that species -don't know which one was, seemed like a micro beetle (?) or smth-, they didn't seem to affect the plant in any way, so who knows... anyway, a good ol' sterilization would probably be the way to go, or finding a -probably more expensive- mineral substitute.

Click to expand...

this is a research on eating habbits of guinea pigs i guess but it investigates the effect of plant accumulated silicas effect on their teeth enamel etc. so according to this bamboo has a high content of silica and according to the research i shared in my first post, plant accumulated silica, because it was accumulated in silicic acid form, is more available and utilized faster by the plants.

so grass and more importantly bamboo i guess are good options. i just glanced at the research so do your own reading because i’m not sure on that
but if thats correct something like shredded bamboo on living organic soil would be
A- a good mulch
B- a good source of silica as it slowly decomposes

also for the same reason that plant accumulated silica is a good source of available silica this wikipedia page shows high silica accumulators. i also compost stinging nettles in my bin and it seems its also another good silica accumulator. so i think i’m not deficient on that front.

billevans92 said:

Hi! Bugbee's team did some research since then, and added a lot of rice hulls to the "recipe". Seems to provide a stable silica release when mixed in with the soil, as I understand from their paper: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=cpl_hydroponics

In my experience, rice hulls are great because they are extremely cheap, but that big bag of hulls did attract some kind of bug; but, to be fair with that species -don't know which one was, seemed like a micro beetle (?) or smth-, they didn't seem to affect the plant in any way, so who knows... anyway, a good ol' sterilization would probably be the way to go, or finding a -probably more expensive- mineral substitute.

Click to expand...

Probably had nothing to do with the beetles showing up. I've used rice hulls for awhile. Some is mixed in, and I use it as a mulch too. Mine are par boiled from BAS.