Can I ask how you know it's working? I thought it took a long time for the Si to be broken down and available from rice hulls? Ive never been able to tell if my silica has been working or not using
aptus in the medium or the silica from
botanicare.... Never together
I guess I'd need to know what you mean by "working" to really be able to answer you well. I've never experienced a direct Si-. My plants generally show good turgor and rigidity unless they're water-stressed (no water, never overwatered). I don't have issues with stuff like PM for the most part.
Ya..I get confused between Salicyclic acid and silicic acid all the time. Been reading that aspirin is salicyclic acid and that is a plant protection trigger like jasmonic acid is...only salicyclic acid tends to decrease glandular trichomes and if you add aspirin to soil...according to Ed Rosenthal is a way to reverse a females sex.
I have never once seen a plant hermie from using aspirin but from what I recall reading in the past, you've got to use
enough. I don't know how much that is, but I've read some other cat here doing it or discussing using aspirin as another method to cause hermaphroditism. With aspirin, a little dab'll do ya. I use one 325mg tablet/2gals water. I can't say I've noted a difference in glandular trichomes between using it and not because when I use it most is when a plant is more stressed than I can help it out of using just beneficials, the soil food web, etc. Also, I've never measured.
I would never add grains to my coco. Grains mold faster than just about anything. Seems like a great way to cause root rot or a fungus infestation.
I use humic acid in my nute mix without any problems. When I tried using Fulvic acid in my nute mix, it just burned the crap out of my plants. When I use Fulvic as a foliar spray, my plants like it. Fulvic is strong stuff, be careful.
Not grains--the hulls, which are very high in lignin. It's not only easier to use than perlite, it is so much more cost effective it's stupid. That said, oatmeal is
fantastic for helping to get beneficial soil fungi like mycorrhizae cultured, and IIRC rice can do the same. I think it's used as a carrier for Met52. If you're getting pathogenic molds/fungi, then you've got another problem, can't just blame it on the grain.
Fulvic acid is but one component of the suite of humic acids, and considering that what they allow for is chelation (better uptake), if you didn't simultaneously drop your feed when you added the fulvic then perhaps the burn you experienced was due to fulvic allowing for that much more uptake. Just a thought. I've only ever used humics, but I always drop my feed by at least 25% when I use them. In fact, it's *why* I use them.
And hopefully this isn't too off topic: what aspirin to use??? Every thing at the store is coated or seems like to much crap and not enough aspirin....
I use cheap-ass 325mg tablets. They dissolve pretty quickly. I add them at the very end of my teas.
Good info Alti!! Just bought some Ful-Humic from a company called BioAg out of OR. Gonna go back and get the Ful-Power. Stuff is cheap and highly concentrated. I only got Humic..due to the rule of Humic for soil..and Fulvic for foliar...thanks again.
I need their Ca 6%! I really like their products, and PVFS wasn't selling the Ca 6% last year when I needed it, so I ended up with Calcium-25. I don't like being married to foliaring such an important nutrient.