horsetail fern tea for silica

Discussion in 'Growing Organic Marijuana' started by dingdong, May 26, 2015.

  1. Hi all,
        I've decided to try making some horsetail fern tea as a cheap organic alternative to "silica boost". Horsetail has more silica than any other plant in nature, but I'm not too sure about the solubility of it. I blenderized a big handful of horsetail form my yard, steeped it in hot water for a few hours, added a bit of  beneficial fungi and bacteria and I'm aerating it over night. I'm going to try using it on one of my five plants of the same strain I have in veg right now. If it seems to toughen up the plant I may try it on another one. I'll report my findings.... Has anyone tried this before and what should I expect to see if it's working?
        Happy growing....

     
  2. horsetail is a good source of silica but i think bamboo has more. this also interests me but i dont know if the best way to release the silica would be to make a botanical or an FPE? [​IMG]   i dont think overnight would be enough in any case.
     
  3. I took a half of a five gal. bucket of horse tail fern. Smashed it up added water till I could just see it let it set for a month. When I strained  the horsetail fern it was like mush. I fed the mush to my worms and use the tea every third week of my weekly IPM. My plants seemed to like it.
     
  4. The one plant i used it on isn't dead so I guess I'll keep using it, I'll make an FPE for future use as well, for now a rough puree/juicing and hot water steep is all i got.
     
  5.   
     
    From Plants to the Rescue of Plants:
     
     
    Horsetail. (Equisetum arvense). Perennial plant and medicinal herb.
    Active ingredients. Diverse alkaloids, nicotinic acid, silica.
    Action. Insectifuge, preventive fungicide, plant tonic and growth stimulant.
    Preparation. In decoction, boil 1 lb. of fresh plant with 5 qts. of water for 1 hour, allow to infuse 12 hours, filter and dilute to 20%.
    In fermented extract, 1/2 lb. of dried plant in 2.5 gal. of water. Dilute to 5% before using.
    Horsetail, along with nettle and fern, form the Big Three among medicinal plants for plants, according to the French. I remember my Swiss grandmother gathering horsetail and drying it in pillowcases for use in astringent poultices.
     
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  6. Hmmm...I can't recall offhand the details but IIRC boiling water and honey are necessary to release the silica during a short term soak.
     
    I would go with an FPE over a botanical soak for horsetail, as it's simply the element you're after here.
     
  7. I think I'll throw some horsetail in with the next tea I'm going to brew, maybe boil it first then add some local seaweed and chicken shit/straw compost from my hens. It doesn't get more local or organic than that. :) I'm using bottled nutes in coco right now but I'm trying out some organic stuff, eventually I'd like to grow hydro organic in coco with mostly local and homemade ingredients. Does anyone do that?
     
  8. #8 Sc00byD00bie, May 28, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: May 28, 2015
    if i wanted hydro organics id look into aquaponics.
    i have tried organics in coco using bottled nutes (using Neptunes harvest). today im growing in a no-till organic soil like the one Bluejay uses in the No-till thread that is pinned in the organic section. there is absolutely no comparison and i would never go back to bottles with coco. the plants im growing today are leaps and bounds beyond anything i ever achieved using coco/hydro.
     
    come to my thread (link in my signature) in about 10 hours from now and i will post pics of what i grew then vs. what im growing now and ill make a believer out of you yet!
     
    peace! [​IMG]
     
  9. I'm new to this. How will u add fungi? I was told manufactured fungi does not live long outside of soil. Like in water. True or not?
     
  10. An easy method to gain the benefits of the Silica from your horsetail ferns would be to add large amounts of them directly to your compost heap, or to add them to your worm bins after allowing them to partially break down.
     
    or both.
     
    j
     
  11. #11 puffnstuff1960, May 30, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: May 30, 2015
    This was my plan for this year, well it still is. When I was out mushroom hunting it was only about 4' tall at the most.. Should be harvesting size by now I think.  I'll go out in the next few days with a few corn sacks stuff em full. 
     
  12.  When I harvest my horsetail fern is it mportant to  take it root and all?  Last year I pulled roots and and all. This year if I can take a gas powered weed whacker and cut it off would be so much faster.
     
  13. #13 waktoo, May 30, 2015
    Last edited: May 31, 2015
     
    Looks like all the goodies are contained within the plant material.
     
    Whack away!
     
    http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/duke/farmacy2.pl
     
  14. #14 puffnstuff1960, May 30, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: May 30, 2015
  15.  
    Weird.  I tried copy/pasting the link twice again, and still won't take.  I even used the editor to copy/paste the link as a URL.  Still nothing.  Maybe it's something "Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Data Base" no longer allows?
     
    Like your link though!
     

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