Using silicon in SCRoG
- Thread starter lfc89
- Start date
churchhaze
Well-Known Member
silicon doesn't do anything.
jamesthefarmer
New Member
i think he means at all, it can make things more ridged really i would go with what you like, if you are using rhino skin they recomend going all the way threw, but i just came across a video of medgrower1 saying he wouldnt use it in flower, seems personal anyways you could just use the screen to pull up branches, but now i find myself wondering what else you are using?
lfc89
Member
Been growing roughly 6 years and ever since I introduced it about 3 years ago ive never had to try and support my plants if some became top heavy in flower, I could tell as soon as I started using it. Ive seen other threads saying theyve used it and its great in scrog but if u become lazy prepare to get the pliers out on the hardened bark. Tbh im gonna use it still just wondered if anyone had used in scrog 1st hand
OGEvilgenius
Well-Known Member
Silicon is a very important part of a plants diet. Including in flower. It stimulates the immune system, promotes cell wall growth (and in turn nutrient uptake) and drought resistance.
churchhaze
Well-Known Member
No it's not.
Darth Vapour
Well-Known Member
churchhaze
Well-Known Member
Not sure what you're trying to argue with this chart. Hopefully it's not that aluminum is an important part of a plant's diet (because it's not).
OGEvilgenius
Well-Known Member
Groundbreaking research demonstrates benefits on a variety of crops
Silicon—we think of it in sand and as an abundant element like oxygen or aluminum in soils. In New Jersey, with beaches and sandy soil everywhere around us, how could silicon be an essential plant “nutrient,” in short supply?
Joe Heckman taking samples from research plot of winter wheat.
It turns out, not all silicon is soluble and available to crops. When applied to certain crops like cucumbers and squash in a soluble form, this silicon “fertilizer” results in crops showing natural resistance to powdery mildew disease.
In 1999, the first International Conference on Silicon in Agriculture was held in Florida. It was organized by Professor of Plant Pathology Dr. Lawrence Datnoff, with the objective of bringing together scientists from around the world involved in the study of silicon nutrition. Joseph Heckman, extension specialist in soil fertility at Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station attended that inaugural conference and came away determined to investigate the role silicon nutrition plays in the suppression of powdery mildew disease. In 2000, he began field research at Rutgers on silicon nutrition of crops and soils. Prior to Heckman’s efforts, the majority of the silicon studies were conducted on tropical soils and on crops such as sugarcane and rice.
Heckman’s research plots at Rutgers Snyder Research and Extension Farm in Pittstown, NJ, were selected based on pH so that the silicon could be applied as a liming material—calcium silicate. This liming material, a cleaned byproduct of steel processing, provides the same calcium carbonate equivalent as the standard liming material, calcium carbonate, but with the added benefit of providing available silicon. Heckman’s research trials involved a rotation of crops over a number of years using calcium silicate limed plots and calcium carbonate limed plots as controls. The first trial examined pumpkin and its resistance to powdery mildew disease. This was followed by trials on field corn, oats, winter wheat, red clover, orchard grass hay, and cabbage.
....
According to Heckman, field trials using calcium silicate indicate that enhanced levels of silicon uptake can provide additional crop benefits beyond its use as a liming material. While powdery mildew disease in pumpkin fruit and wheat grain was suppressed, in some years Heckman found that yields were also increased on the plots in which calcium silicate was added.
He also found that corn plants grown on soil previously amended with calcium silicate had less stem damage from European corn borer. Yields of forage grains improved equally whether limed with calcium carbonate or calcium silicate. While cabbage yields were improved overall from liming, the addition of calcium silicate did increase the yields of marketable heads more than calcium carbonate. The benefits of residual calcium silicate applications were still evident in crops produced three to four years after the last application. For details and results of Heckman’s silicon trials, see the Soil Profile newsletter (PDF).
http://sebsnjaesnews.rutgers.edu/2013/03/silicon-an-essential-plant-nutrient-2/
OGEvilgenius
Well-Known Member
A plant can live without much silicone, but it won't be very happy or healthy. Many consider it a vital nutrient with cause considering it helps improve a plants odds of survival dramatically as well as overall production and yields. So, you can say it's not important, but it's not true.
churchhaze
Well-Known Member
Plants can actually live without any silicon, and be perfectly happy. This can easily be proved by growing in DWC or aero without a silicon supplement. You can keep making these anecdotal claims that silicon is an important part of plants diets, but it's simply not true.
reddan1981
Well-Known Member
I use silicon as ph up. Its benefits speak for itself. Discontinue use mid flowering once bud set. If not it will affect combustion.
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OGEvilgenius
Well-Known Member
Yet if you do use it your yields will increase and your plant will be healthier.
churchhaze
Well-Known Member
Bullshit. Most people use potassium silicate, so if they notice any difference, it's from the increased potassium, which is an essential element.
OGEvilgenius
Well-Known Member
Ok whatever you say. There's plenty of research indicating what I stated is true. Feel free to do what you think is best.
churchhaze
Well-Known Member
Notice how there isn't a space for silicon deficiency on those charts that show leaves with all the different deficiencies. It's because there's never in history been one single reported case of a silicon deficiency ever. Similarly there's no proven evidence that silicon supplements taken orally will have any effects on human health, yet the claims will continue to go on and on by the quacks.
churchhaze
Well-Known Member
"Plenty of research" is not plenty enough.
"Silicon is currently under consideration by the Association of American Plant Food Control Officials (AAPFCO) for elevation to the status of a "plant beneficial substance""
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_nutrition#Silicon
In other words, there's not enough research/evidence to even be classified as beneficial, but it's under consideration! Potheads really like to stretch reality. As if suddenly in the 2010s, scientists finally learned that silicon of all things would improve yields, and RIU was on the forefront of this discovery, using products like protekt and rhino skin.. Nobody thought to try it up until now, right? Bullshit....
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OGEvilgenius
Well-Known Member
Excusing your sanctimony, there IS plenty of evidence suggesting it can do a number of things.
From the same link:
Just because some trade association hasn't recognized it is irrelevant.
