jsquared89
Member
So, I've been spending most of my time on reddit.com/r/microgrowery and reddit.com/r/macrogrowery but figured I should create an account here as well. No sense in keeping to one community.
Anyway, I've been wanting to know more about silica sources and how to use silica properly with cannabis.
I've found the following sources of silicon:
Potassium Silicate:
AgSil16H
Pro-Tekt
Silicic Acid or Orthosilicic acid or Monosilicic acid. AFAIK, they are all names for the same thing. At least, according to Wikipedia, they are.
OSA28
Fasilitor
MonoSilicic Acid from Bromley Ag
My understanding of potassium silicate products like Agsil or Pro-Tekt is that they don't work at all in low pHs. So, using them in a stock solution is out of the question. And then there's the obvious part of having to add potassium when you want silica. It makes getting 50ppm of silica in my feed solutions really hard it seems. I've been using HydroBuddy to try and figure it out for my veg formula and every time my potassium levels are way too high. I bought 1 lb of AgSil16H from MBFerts.com to try it, and honestly, I'm not happy about it. My potassium levels are too high when I use it, so, to get a reasonable amount of potassium, I have to drop my nitrogen levels since I have to eliminate potassium nitrate from my mix.
But using silicic acid products is generally okay to use in stock solutions. The label on Bromley Ag's MonoSilicic Acid says it can be used in stock solutions down to pH 3. There's also the benefit of there not being anything else in monosilicic acid. It's just supposed to be a source of silica. However, looking closer at Fasilitor, there's more than just silica in it. The downside is, these are all really expensive. It seems Bromley Ag's stuff is cheapest, but still, not cheap like AgSil.
Anyway, have any of you guys used these? If so, how do you use them? Do you make stock solutions? Do you use it in veg? or in flower? Any recommendations?
Anyway, I've been wanting to know more about silica sources and how to use silica properly with cannabis.
I've found the following sources of silicon:
Potassium Silicate:
AgSil16H
Pro-Tekt
Silicic Acid or Orthosilicic acid or Monosilicic acid. AFAIK, they are all names for the same thing. At least, according to Wikipedia, they are.
OSA28
Fasilitor
MonoSilicic Acid from Bromley Ag
My understanding of potassium silicate products like Agsil or Pro-Tekt is that they don't work at all in low pHs. So, using them in a stock solution is out of the question. And then there's the obvious part of having to add potassium when you want silica. It makes getting 50ppm of silica in my feed solutions really hard it seems. I've been using HydroBuddy to try and figure it out for my veg formula and every time my potassium levels are way too high. I bought 1 lb of AgSil16H from MBFerts.com to try it, and honestly, I'm not happy about it. My potassium levels are too high when I use it, so, to get a reasonable amount of potassium, I have to drop my nitrogen levels since I have to eliminate potassium nitrate from my mix.
But using silicic acid products is generally okay to use in stock solutions. The label on Bromley Ag's MonoSilicic Acid says it can be used in stock solutions down to pH 3. There's also the benefit of there not being anything else in monosilicic acid. It's just supposed to be a source of silica. However, looking closer at Fasilitor, there's more than just silica in it. The downside is, these are all really expensive. It seems Bromley Ag's stuff is cheapest, but still, not cheap like AgSil.
Anyway, have any of you guys used these? If so, how do you use them? Do you make stock solutions? Do you use it in veg? or in flower? Any recommendations?
