How to Use Silica In The Cannabis Garden

Midwest Weedist said:

Lol Thats why I love succulents, so resilient. I've never tried my hand at growing horsetail, what's your experience with it been like?

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actually it's fairly easy to grow, likes a more moist soil than cannabis does, LOVES a thick mulch on top, likes redwood moss for that.
Pretty easy to grow, and resists torture... I lost water supply for three days (damn well-pump) just sorta shrivels a lil, but doesn't limp or take any damage, I watered it later and it did just fine.
Wish I could say the same for my French lavender and jasmines.. those got PISSED...
but between all my plants, I had to buy like 15 gallons of water... was a whore...
If I would have done ALL my houseplants, and landscape plants, I would have had to buy like 50 gallons..
anyways...
OH, I would like to add a couple more things in regards to my "pinching" technique.
I like to manifold train my plants to either a "six-pack" or an "eight-pack" and when you do that, especially off a clone, the nodes aren't symmetrical, meaning they won't grow uniformly unless you force them to, so my method is if you have six tops, but three are "outgrowing" the other, you pinch those mofo's, which does two things, slows them down to allow the other tops to get the same size, which obviously you want on a manifolded plant, and thickens up the stems, which is important for the fatties.
Easy stuff, and what I like for the training is simply deer fencing, the squared stuff, get a a pair of dykes, and cut the fence to fit. Then after you can bend it to whatever size you want.
One thing i'd add about silica, when I use the compost spray with the silica and aloe, the plant perk up, and the green gets a bit more glossy type color to it, could be all manifested in my head, but I don't think so.
Probably all the goods in the aloe that is doing that, but who knows.

greasemonkeymann said:

nah, I use pro-tekt. Nice and easy... although it feels weird to pour a clear liquid out of a bottle and feed it to my plants...BUT
works great, I use it as a foliar spray/surfactant (coupled with fresh aloe) and some compost tea and it erases powder mold, almost like magic, and from what I understand all the lil microbes out "eat" the powder mold spores... course I am paraphrasing this, i'm sure there is much more cool shit goin on in there, but that's the extent of it anyways..
I use AACTs more for that than to re-populate my soil. but between my EWC and compost the soil is like a jungle/zoo.

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That is awesome. I read that compost teas form a protective film over the plant so that's what they must be doing.

hyroot said:

If you grill up some corn cobs to ash. Make sure you do it outside. Holy shit I learned that the hard way a few years ago. It will create so much smoke and take hours to burn.

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lol

Midwest Weedist said:

Thank you for this, I've been looking for a way to supplement silica without buying a bottle or trying to compost a vast amount of weeds.
Any particular ratio of horsetail to corn cob I should be aiming for? Corn is available in never ending seas in all directions in my area, so I can definitely use this efficiently.

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Sources of silica:
Oats, barley, rye, corn, peas, beans, lentils, wheat, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, cabbage, rice polishings, oat straw tea, coconut, sage, thyme, hops, prunes, bone marrow, cold liver oil and other fish oils.

Milovan said:

"obviously, thicker branches will be able to hold more weight without the need of additional supports. If you have you got to the fourth or fifth week of flowering and realised that you haven’t put enough support in place to keep your buds stable? silica will solve this problem."

.
I used Pro-Tekt silica every feeding thru veg and flower and did not notice any difference at all
compared to when I didn't use silica on the next grow.
No stronger branches, no better absorbsion of neuts, No thicker cell walls, no wind, bug and heat
protection etc...
In short silica did nothing noticeable for my plants.
I will have to try it again but I'm very sure it won't help anything especially stronger branches(cell walls) to help
hold the weight of buds. I used silica plenty and my branches still bent and drooped from weight
and the silica helped nothing. Seriously.

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How did you apply it?