Whats good everyone! Hope you all are having a great holiday season. Quick question. Im going to start foiler my silica instead of adding it to my res and was wondering if the brand im using anyone has used before. On the directions it has no foiler application. Thanks for the help!
It’s just potassium silicate pre mixed into water but insanely green taxed or am I missing something?
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You would be correct sir.
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I used to use that stuff. It is MSA (monosilicic acid) that has been stabilized. It also has boron and some kelp-like cytokinin not listed on the label. I’m assuming BAP.
Cut the label direction in half before spraying.
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I’m skeptical. Potassium silicate is a salt of silicic acid. Mono and orthosilicic acid appear to be synonymous. And most fertilizer salt/liquid that is premixed already has boron.
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If I had to guess, premixed silica solutions are popular because it’s hard to get powder silica to stay dissolved in a reservoir, ime. To prevent that, i completely ignore any dosing recommendations and found the max I can add to my reservoir without it eventually precipitating out into goop. 1 teaspoon per 7 gallon reservoir, or about 1/4 the recommended dose. Maybe they add something to help keep it stable and therefore get a higher concentration? I still don’t see how that couldn’t be done much cheaper with powder.
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ya I was having issues putting it in the res and making the water cloudy and have biofilm. The plants don’t seem to like the foiler tho
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There is something else thats amiss. The plants should love the foliar. I would guess ph if there is nothing else in the solution when you foliar. I would suggest using a fulvic acid when you foliar as well but thats for another conversation.
As far as your res, whats your mixing process?
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ya usually they do. I ph in the 5.7-6.0 range. My mixing is ro water than it was the slica. I run Athena so balance core then grow/bloom then cleanse. I do have some fulvic. I soak my cubes in it and here and there put it in my foilar. I should be adding it more tho for sure
Looks like it takes a lot of energy to get potassium silicate dissolved, like boiling water and/or elevated pressure. So the bottles aren’t just salt dumped in water, they’re processing it with heat to stabilize it.
Once dissolved, the salts don’t precipitate out but if the temperature drops low enough and the concentration is high enough, then a goopy colloid(?) will ‘precipitate’ out
Never used or tried athena but I thought cleanse was suppose to keep a sterile res.
Is that res water already ph 5.7-6.0 when you drop silica?
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