My zucchini plants are a threat to my cannabis

[manfredo]

Wow! Tell me about this silica, where do you get it? How much to use? How applied? Will it work on basil?

 

[obijohn]

I've had zucchini past few years maybe 10 feet away from my weed. Zucchini has gotten PM both years but the vegetables turned out fine and the mold did not affect the weed. Different type of PM than the kind that affects cannabis IMO

 

[Tolerance Break]

Not sure if I've just been paying more attention or pm is particularly bad this year, but I have seen more of it this summer than any past year here in the midwest.

 

[Jjgrow420]

Can you explain "silica"?
Isn't that just sand? Silicon Dioxide.
What is your silica source? Diatomaceous earth?

Can I go to a beach on Lake Ontario and get a few buckets of sand?

Hey. So silica is one of the earth's most common materials. It's in alot of different things. The real question is.... Is it available for a plant to uptake ..?
Most forms of silica, (anything silicate) will need bacteria and enzymes to slowly break it down to become available to plants. This process is slow, and long and could take years to fully break down even with some materials. Personally I use mono silicic acid which is bio available, and slower releasing silica sources in the soil itself like diatomaceous earth, quartz, sand, oyster shell flour.
So yes...answer to your question. I mean yes you COULD do that. But I'm sure your soil contains some sand in it anyways and the amount of time it would take to break that down into bioavailability would probably be past your expiration date anyways. Better to use something that breaks down faster or is already bioavailable. Potassium silicate is a silicate and needs months before it's broken down into an available form. Most people see benefits from the small amounts of boron and manganese companies add into most silicate blends like stronger stems rigid leaves and assume it's the silica doing it's thing when in fact it's not.
Take some time and read into it. You'll see most products are just 'snake oil'. Expensive water with some stuff that won't benefit you anyways. In the garden it's a bit different as you aren't changing the soil like is common with indoor cannabis cultivation.... The silicates are left to break down over time and can benefit your garden for years.

 

[Cpappa27]

Another great source of Silica I havent seen mentioned is from Azomite. I love it, it doesnt affect PH, its a super fine powder and it contains about 70% silica and over 70 trace minerals. I use lots of it in my soil mix and its fairly cheap, delivered even.

AZOMITE® is a highly mineralized complex silica ore (Hydrated Sodium Calcium Aluminosilicate or HSCAS), mined in Utah from an ancient deposit left by an volcanic eruption that filled a small nearby seabed an estimated 30 million years ago. AZOMITE® is used as a naturally rich soil re-mineralizer for plants, as well as a feed ingredient for animals. In a typical chemical assay, AZOMITE® contains more than 70 trace minerals which include many rare earth elements (lanthanides). Many of these elements have been depleted from soils worldwide.

 

[DMChiz]

Hey. So silica is one of the earth's most common materials. It's in alot of different things. The real question is.... Is it available for a plant to uptake ..?
Most forms of silica, (anything silicate) will need bacteria and enzymes to slowly break it down to become available to plants. This process is slow, and long and could take years to fully break down even with some materials. Personally I use mono silicic acid which is bio available, and slower releasing silica sources in the soil itself like diatomaceous earth, quartz, sand, oyster shell flour.
So yes...answer to your question. I mean yes you COULD do that. But I'm sure your soil contains some sand in it anyways and the amount of time it would take to break that down into bioavailability would probably be past your expiration date anyways. Better to use something that breaks down faster or is already bioavailable. Potassium silicate is a silicate and needs months before it's broken down into an available form. Most people see benefits from the small amounts of boron and manganese companies add into most silicate blends like stronger stems rigid leaves and assume it's the silica doing it's thing when in fact it's not.
Take some time and read into it. You'll see most products are just 'snake oil'. Expensive water with some stuff that won't benefit you anyways. In the garden it's a bit different as you aren't changing the soil like is common with indoor cannabis cultivation.... The silicates are left to break down over time and can benefit your garden for years.

Really appreciate your insight @Jjgrow420 as I’ve not used in past. It’s fun to learn more. Forgive the naïveté but would this be added to the soil or is this added diluted with watering? Secondly, can it be used preventatively? Given where I’m at (Toronto, downtown, outdoor in my tiny urban yard) PM is always lingering, so if there was something proactive that I could be doing to help, I’m all in

 

[Jjgrow420]

Really appreciate your insight @Jjgrow420 as I’ve not used in past. It’s fun to learn more. Forgive the naïveté but would this be added to the soil or is this added diluted with watering? Secondly, can it be used preventatively? Given where I’m at (Toronto, downtown, outdoor in my tiny urban yard) PM is always lingering, so if there was something proactive that I could be doing to help, I’m all in

Foliar spray is the quickest way. You can add it to every feed or watering event. You can also amend it into the soil. Yep that's the whole point! Prevent it from happening in the first place! It has a whole list of benefits not limited to just pm!
I'm just across the pond from ya. Southern side . I feel your pm woes.

 

[Nutty sKunK]

I feed my squash/cucumber plants silica and they don't get pm anymore. Used to be such an issue, now it won't even go on them at all.

Will have try that. Always get PM!