I agree with everyone. I use rhino skin, although I will be looking for an alternative in the near future when it runs out. I'm in a peat mix right now and its worth using the bottle once you have to stake 100+ limbs. then miss a few that snap when uvmove stuff around.

its supposed to make the walls thicker, the mites spread much slower on thick leaf I notice. pm also has trouble sprouting thru the leaf tops I would imagine.

plenty of evidence to support the use of silica. it's an essential structural mineral for plant, used in their cell walls as seamaiden pointed out. i don't expect ya will see difference in plant vigor, but that don't mean it's not doin anything bro.

neverbreak.

FWIW, I find a little silica helps the stems stay strong

You would only think silica sucks if you used silica blast, rhino skin or other garbage versions. Barricade worked great til its demise. Only rock facilitor now. If you think silica is only useful for stem girth or rigidity you're lying to yourself. Bud sites thru nodes is where its at, nodes make flowers the more you have the better potential for harvest. It will not flush out its stored in the plant. Stop use about mid way thru bloom in my opinion. Give them time to use it up unless you like joints going out and terrible burning product. Same can be said of Phosphorus aswell though.

does using silica as a foliar do the same thing as using it in the rez? Im in coco DTW. How much silica do you use when you foliar and mix in rez or do you just use it to ph? What order do you mix it in if you add it directly to rez if not using it to ph up?

i have used mad farmers silica shield, and gh silica and not used both...I see a difference for sure in stem strength and recovery time.

I tend to get pretty heavy handed when it comes to bending/pinching things and rarely a break when using silica IME.

It works,does not make up for bad habits or genetics. I have seen it overused to where if you fell into a 4'" branch in might impale you. It helps with plants immunity,uptake in fluids,pm when use as a spray. But it fucks with you smoke and flavor if used to far into flower.Yo-yos take care of floppiness. JK

Damn I never thought about using it for pH up.. Thanks guys

Yea I've been using Cyco Silica as a Ph up, at around 2-4ml per gallon. The extra silica definitely makes a difference as my branches are stronger and haven't flopped or broken under the weight. I don't use cages or netting on most strains.

I use Structural integrity from Humbolt and it works great, notice a huge difference when using it, 1ml to the gallon works wonders

I top dress my soil plants with this...

I've noticed a positive difference in plant structure and strength since starting.

I use Europonic silica all through veg and first 3 to 4 weeks of flowering. My buds still flop. Most all varieties i grow or have grown. Yo yos...stakes...and nets are your friends. But bud flop...yeah. It is what it is. The Santa Cruz cut of Blue Dream responds very well to silica. But still....bud flop. My sour og....bud flop. Chemdog #4....bud flop. Iam going to start using tomato cages again..i think. Next run. All the lowers on og small yielder shit...bud flop bad. There still little nugs down there. And its silly to try and prop them all....and near impossible if you dont anticipate in early flower some kind of staking/bud catch set up for later on.

My leaves stand up all day long on mornings I wake up early enough to spray them down with silica blast.
A guy the other day was saying on here silica was"snake oil" ,but teamed with other good gardening techniques I've noticed my plants seem sturdier and overall seem to like it.
Until conclusive data is available that says other wise I'll always use silica in my garden.

EveryOneSmokes said:

Silica is ideal, I've done runs with and without it and the difference is noticeable.. Wouldn't say it bumps yield like crazy but will help you get stronger stems which in turn keeps your girls upright instead of flopping over from heavy weight nugs.. Last run I was really happy with it I didn't have to many floppy Ogeez, they just leaned back a little this time which made the difference..

Btw if you can get AGR Bloom Silica (yellow bottles) it's the most bang for the buck in liquid form it has 40% silica, unless you like using dry version of silica..

Since I don't have it available I've been using Armor Si GH new silica it tops out at 10% silica which is better than rest of the brands out on shelves..

Click to expand...

Europonic Silicate is one of the more stronger store shelf brands. Slightly stronger than ArmorSi and Protekt. Rhino skin ans Silica Blast are very diluted. Almost all water.

Surfandgrow said:

does using silica as a foliar do the same thing as using it in the rez? Im in coco DTW. How much silica do you use when you foliar and mix in rez or do you just use it to ph? What order do you mix it in if you add it directly to rez if not using it to ph up?

Click to expand...

Potassium silicate is more effective at the root zone...in with your base solution but always mix it first. This was told to me by a guy in the industry that knows his shit.

Ever after said:

uhh its so key to make the stems stronger and also helps alot with bud rot and PM silica is really important and less stem rot with silica its not for yield its for plant health and making sure the plants are strong

Click to expand...

No silica added and wow look at that stock
Problem today is most will follow what the next person does .
Be it some miracle additive or what have you

silica is the second most abundant mineral in the earths crust yet we know very little about it in theory ..
To much silica in a human body destroys the liver.

but like most think the importance of silica in our plants because someone told us so ..

Most peered reviews and scientific tests have been done with species like Rice wheat
and yes even tomatoes, Cucs etc ,

Truth is if silica was so important ??? why is it not on the essential list for plant growth ??? Chlorine is ..

One must realize that these companies claiming, all the benefits of silica for marijuana plants .
Fail to produce silica content on dry leaf matter verified tests results nope not one but they claim so many others

Many actual tests were done with silica added to sick plants , infested plants with insects it clearly showed silica additions helped nothing

Silica is suppose to help with stress and drought ?? Now tell me who growing marijuana in there tent purposely dries there plants up as to cause stress ???

Who here only uses Silica when there plants are infested with mites ???
So with that said if you think adding silica makes that much of a difference then by all means use it

but i ask these companies selling it like on this site being its a MJ site instead of claiming the benefits

When not show us some different tests from different soures on how much Silica to dry leaf matter there really is
I think people would be shocked how much they pay for a product yet plants used very little of it anyways ..

This is what it comes down to some plants or species like Rice have transporters to utilize Silica some species cannot

So the question is Fucking forget about rice and wheat tests done on Silica
Demand tests done on MJ plants .. Remember its legal now in many states and countries

why not actual MJ dry leaf silica content i know because there full of shit and sheep will use anything that they think will make there plants better

NightsWatch said:

No silica added and wow look at that stock
Problem today is most will follow what the next person does .
Be it some miracle additive or what have you

silica is the second most abundant mineral in the earths crust yet we know very little about it in theory ..
To much silica in a human body destroys the liver.

but like most think the importance of silica in our plants because someone told us so ..

Most peered reviews and scientific tests have been done with species like Rice wheat
and yes even tomatoes, Cucs etc ,

Truth is if silica was so important ??? why is it not on the essential list for plant growth ??? Chlorine is ..

One must realize that these companies claiming, all the benefits of silica for marijuana plants .
Fail to produce silica content on dry leaf matter verified tests results nope not one but they claim so many others

Many actual tests were done with silica added to sick plants , infested plants with insects it clearly showed silica additions helped nothing

Silica is suppose to help with stress and drought ?? Now tell me who growing marijuana in there tent purposely dries there plants up as to cause stress ???

Who here only uses Silica when there plants are infested with mites ???
So with that said if you think adding silica makes that much of a difference then by all means use it

but i ask these companies selling it like on this site being its a MJ site instead of claiming the benefits

When not show us some different tests from different soures on how much Silica to dry leaf matter there really is
I think people would be shocked how much they pay for a product yet plants used very little of it anyways ..

This is what it comes down to some plants or species like Rice have transporters to utilize Silica some species cannot

So the question is Fucking forget about rice and wheat tests done on Silica
Demand tests done on MJ plants .. Remember its legal now in many states and countries

why not actual MJ dry leaf silica content i know because there full of shit and sheep will use anything that they think will make there plants better

View attachment 641526

Click to expand...

No silica here either ... the wind tears and strengthens... so to mimic this indoor you take a stick and hit your plants in veg

I want to be the first to point out that this looks like it was a thread revival. I want to be the first so that someone else doesn't point it out in a more dick-ish manner. I think a subject like this never really dies.

Texas Kid said:

I do cut it in flower for the most part..if your runnin H&G the drip clean has a little potassium silicate in there and acts as a good flushing agent as well..I like the Dynagro ProTekt stuff myself but Barricade/Rhino Skin from AN, Silica Blast from Botanicare, or even Fasilator from Aptus all work great...Rarely do I run it flower though except the Fasilator and thats in ever feed start to finish with Aptus

Click to expand...

Can I ask why you cut it during flower? And do you mean you cut it 100% or 50% or what?

Seamaiden said:

All that said, it is VERY easy to overdo the Si. The 'if a little is good, then more must be better' ideology must be tossed out the window on this one.

Click to expand...

What is the result of over doing it? Aside from money out the window...

Here is my recipe in hydro
RO water
GW
Armor Si 5ml pg
Cali-Magic 10 ml pg
Gh Micro - 8 ml pg
Gh Bloom - 16 ml pg
Liquid KB - 5 ml pg
Liquid Karma 8 ml pg
PH to 6.5 and dilute to 1200 ppm or 1.6 EC. As it goes, I up the ppm a bit.

It's a banging hydro recipe if anyone wants to use it. But I have messed with every part of that recipe, both up and down, just to see what happens. My intention was to perfect the recipe, so I went about it as methodically as possible.

But the Armor was one that when I removed it totally, I noticed (clearly) that the leaf strength wasn't as pronounced. A healthy plant will splay the leaves out and angle towards the strongest light source. So, it may be at a 45* angle, or it may be horizontal. E.g. this plant is almost directly underneath the light so you see the leaf position


You can see the leaves in this one, pointing towards a light source that is at a different angle


And an extreme example of what I'm talking about. The leaves turning towards the light.



So back to my point, I notice that when I omit the Armor, that structural rigidity isn't as strong. I don't know how much of a difference it makes in light absorption to the plant, I've just noticed that it plants aren't doing it as well. It could possibly be placebo, I won't rule that out, but it seems readily apparent that the plant doesn't have the same manipulation capability. With it, and in hydro in perfect conditions (ultra fast metabolizing) the plants on Armor almost seem to be actively finding the light. W/out it, they seem a little more passive. I don't know how else to describe it.

But if I go overboard with the Armor, I don't notice anything except clogged feed lines. For me, it seems like I'm just drawing the line based on what seems reasonable, and what is financially sensible, and that won't clog the lines.

So what is the effect of using too much?

When I use extra Cali-magic, the plants start to stink! It seems like they could take even more CM, but a line has to be drawn somewhere. But if I use less CM they slow way down. I don't want to turn this into a cal/mag discussion, I'm just illustrating how there is a pronounced effect with both a - and a +

When I use too much Armor, I don't notice anything at all? But I'm sure +'s of it must have some ill effect? If so, what is it?

Junk said:

I want to be the first to point out that this looks like it was a thread revival. I want to be the first so that someone else doesn't point it out in a more dick-ish manner. I think a subject like this never really dies.

Can I ask why you cut it during flower? And do you mean you cut it 100% or 50% or what?


What is the result of over doing it? Aside from money out the window...

Here is my recipe in hydro
RO water
GW
Armor Si 5ml pg
Cali-Magic 10 ml pg
Gh Micro - 8 ml pg
Gh Bloom - 16 ml pg
Liquid KB - 5 ml pg
Liquid Karma 8 ml pg
PH to 6.5 and dilute to 1200 ppm or 1.6 EC. As it goes, I up the ppm a bit.

It's a banging hydro recipe if anyone wants to use it. But I have messed with every part of that recipe, both up and down, just to see what happens. My intention was to perfect the recipe, so I went about it as methodically as possible.

But the Armor was one that when I removed it totally, I noticed (clearly) that the leaf strength wasn't as pronounced. A healthy plant will splay the leaves out and angle towards the strongest light source. So, it may be at a 45* angle, or it may be horizontal. E.g. this plant is almost directly underneath the light so you see the leaf position
View attachment 641528

You can see the leaves in this one, pointing towards a light source that is at a different angle
View attachment 641529

And an extreme example of what I'm talking about. The leaves turning towards the light.
View attachment 641532


So back to my point, I notice that when I omit the Armor, that structural rigidity isn't as strong. I don't know how much of a difference it makes in light absorption to the plant, I've just noticed that it plants aren't doing it as well. It could be placebo, I won't rule that out, but the plant doesn't seem to have the same manipulation capability. With it, and in hydro in perfect conditions, the plants on Armor almost seem to be actively finding the light. W/out it, they seem a little more passive. I don't know how else to describe it.

But if I go overboard with the Armor, I don't notice anything except clogged feed lines. For me, it seems like I'm just drawing the line based on what seems reasonable, and what is financially sensible, and that won't clog the lines.

So what is the effect of using too much?

When I use extra Cali-magic, the plants start to stink! It seems like they could take even more, but a line has to be drawn somewhere. If I use less CM they slow way down. I'm not meaning to turn this into a cali-magic discussion, just to show what I mean about Armor.

When I use too much Armor, I don't notice anything at all? But I'm sure it large ++'s of it must have some ill effect? If so, what is it?

Click to expand...

Its called positive phototropism...when plant leaves and branches "pray" towards the strongest light source. I take it as a sign that everything within the plant is on point and running on all cylinders.

Pimples said:

Its called positive phototropism...when plant leaves and branches "pray" towards the strongest light source. I take it as a sign that everything within the plant is on point and running on all cylinders.

Click to expand...

Thank you. I wish I paid more attention in botany classes.

So what I'm talking about is the leaf/plant's ability to do that well. Armor seems to make that much more pronounced. in hydro, in perfect conditions, the metabolism is firing on all cylinders like you said, so you can see the plant being PP almost right before your eyes. W/o Armor, the plant doesn't seem as strong in that regard. Thank you, your vocab is making this explanation much easier.

When I add more Armor though, I don't notice anything...the 5ml is arbitrary on my end, I just use that amount bc that's what some people I respect use. If use more, I don't notice anything, but i'm sure it causes some sort of harm/imbalance, even if invisible?