I keep having more questions pop up! I purchased RAW silica, by NPK. Got good reviews, ph neutral, lots of bud in the Amazon reviews, inexpensive. I randomly stumbled on a blurb saying that this particular silica is not beneficial to dicots, like cannabis. Ingredients are 45% silicon dioxide derived from diatomite. My understanding is it needs to be bound to potassium, calcium, or sodium to be available to the plant. What gives? Is this a useless product?
I emailed NPK, and they provided me with this link. Apparently they need to add the disclaimer due to insufficient research. If the information in this document are correct though, it should work fine. Feeding Your Garden Biogenic Silica
I'd suggest using either rice hulls or horsetail to supply your silica. Rice hulls can be found at brewing supply stores. It is used as a filter media. We use it in our worm bins and also as an additional aeration additive to our growing mediums. Horsetail is a dynamic accumulator. I use it in my compost piles and you can also make a fermented horsetail tea. Diatomite is essentially diatomaceous earth.
Can you comment on this quote from the article? "Although biogenic silica is derived from diatoms, it should not be confused with the diatomaceous earth used in insect control. Diatomaceous earth is the fossilized remains of diatoms, which have sharp edges that tear up insects crawling over them. The more highly transformed biogenic silica from volcanic sources does not have sharp edges. In fact, the biogenic silica particles are smooth and porous, with a fine matrix of tiny holes that can filter water as it passes through them. As the water flows through the particles, mineral ions adhere to silica surfaces, releasing the minerals to plant roots on demand. So, biogenic silica is not just a great source of plant-available silica, it is a reservoir for other important nutrients, making trace elements more available to the plant instead of locking them up."
As far as horsetails, are we talkin fresh horsetail, meal? I'm not really sure where to get that. I could certainly get the rice hulls if they're available at the brew store. I'm gonna roll with what I already bought though, I think. The build a soil mix comes with rice hulls anyway.
I'm going to offer you a better answer than you were looking for. Use this search engine. Google Scholar Google scholar will give you accredited studies, not growbro science. It has helped me become a better grower. Then just type in the search box biogenic silica.
Yes, horsetail generally grows near water and is very invasive. It is spread by spores similar to mushrooms. In hot composting we kill those spores. Rice hulls are fine. Just remember the brewing supply house will call it filter medium, although anyone with experience knows they are rice hulls.
I'm afraid most of this is going to be over my head. I have tried my hand at reading actual scientific articles, but I stumble over the terminology and end up understanding half or less of what I read. I usually rely on smarter people than myself to explain it in layman terms. I'm just going to hope it's doing something good until the bag runs out, lol.
I fully understand what you mean. I was the same way when I started reading them. It does get easier the more you read them. I'd suggest starting out by just reading the abstracts. If you find your answer and are still intrigued you can read further into the paper. If not keep searching. I don't have an answer for you. I'd have to research it the same way I am telling you to. Maybe someone will jump in and give you a simple answer your looking for.
You want to use something with “mono salisic” acid (I’m sure I spelled salisic wrong, I’ve only heard the word spoken). That’s the form the plant can use effectively. I personally use lots of horsetail in my compost and rice hulls in my worm bedding to supply extra silica.FWIW, imo Raw products are junk, and seldom in a useful form. That goes for there humic and fulvic acids as well. Cheers Os
Good to know. I'll look into the alternatives. Luckily, the silica was the only thing I bought from those guys. Most everything else came from RedBud or will be coming from Build a Soil. Speaking of that, I got my kelp and neem meal from RedBud last night. I didn't have a tea bag to use and tying it up in a towel was a pain, but I did have this super fine mesh stainless tea strainer thing. All the recipes I saw call for 5 gallons of water. I am only giving a half gallon at a time right now, so I did that with 3 tsp neem and 1.5 tsp kelp. Pretty sure I got my proportions right (trying to do half strength) but this tea is super dark! Is this normal or is my metal strainer letting through too many solids? I really like this setup. Super convenient for me, so I hope it is adequate.
I’m no expert (so maybe shouldn’t be commenting lol) but I throw it all into my No till pots. I can’t see the harm. In fact I don’t even bubble my kelp or aloe, just give it 5 mins in a blender then dose it into soda bottles before watering it in. I’m more than happy to have positive/negative feedback on this? I assume I can do the same with alfalfa meal?
That looks fine to me. If you're just using it as a soil drench, I wouldn't worry about the solids. I personally do not feed teas unless I see an immediate need for something. We add neem and kelp meals to our growing mediums.
I know most people don't bother bubbling, but I've got air pumps and stones from my reservoir days, so I figured, why not? Keeps it stirred up. It also is weirdly satisfying to watch and listen to. Like the sound a freshly poured coke makes, lol. I used to like sticking my head in my res with all the whooshing water from stirring pumps and the carbonation n such.
Cool. My plant doesn't necessarily need this right now, but I'm just getting a handle on all the methods that are new to me before I get to the 30 gal. Never done any kind of tea that wasn't for my own drinking, haha.
My nephew noted that the kelp/neem mixture smelled strangely like chicken flavored ramen noodles, lol! I agree. So weird.
I use a DIY 5 gallon airlift for brewing ACT's. When making new growing mediums my first watering is with an ACT. I also apply it to my outdoor pots several times a year. Once in the spring and once after harvest in the fall. My fall ACT is applied a few weeks after the soil has been drenched with a LAB to help break down my root mass. I know organic gardening can seem a bit overwhelming at first. But, after a while it gets easier and actually becomes fun to grow in this manner. I also find everything tastes and smells better when grown organically.
I'm already having fun! There's definitely a lot to learn, but I'm not feeling overwhelmed at this point. I'm actually aching for more things to do, thus the tea. Being so hands off is different and slightly difficult for me, even though that was what I wanted. I'm sure I'll do a vermicompost tea at some point as well. I've got blackstrap molasses and my worms appear to be doing well.
It appears my plant liked the tea quite a bit. Didn't think it really needed anything yet, but some light green new growth darkened up a lot today. She may have wanted some extra N. Fed tea at 7AM, top pic is 9AM, bottom 6:30PM. Very cool to see instant effects with organics.