Item: 1976
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Pyro-Gro 4 lbs.
Soil gardeners have long known the proof that growing plants for harvest depletes the soil nutrient reserves in ways we do not understand. This occurs even in the most carefully managed farms. If you plant virgin soils with harvest crops, the first year harvest is the best you will ever achieve. The previous vegetative production on the land died and decomposed on the same soil on which it grew. We take the fruits of our harvest from the land and with it remove essential elements which we do not replace. For the second and third year of cropping the yields continue to decline. For greenhouse growers the problem starts at day one.
Silicon
Silicon is the second most abundant element on the planet. (oxygen is first and aluminum is third.) The Earth's crust consists mostly of silicone dioxide (plain sand), and silicates which vary widely in composition. Sheet silicates, compounds of silicon, oxygen, metals and carbonates are rarely consistent in elemental make up primarily because metal ions can easily substitute for each other in the crystalline lattices. The most common elements found in sheet silicates are aluminum, iron, titanium, magnesium, calcium, lithium, manganese, sodium, and potassium. Hundreds of mineral silicates occur in the Earth's crust. Silicon is readily available for plant assimilation as silicic acid. Silicic acids can be extracted from sheet silicates in the form of monosilicic acid, orthosilicic acid and metasilicic acid. Standard nutrient formulations often ignore the existence of silicon as an essential element. Silicon is the second most abundant element in soil. Soil is the mineral substrate for most of the worlds plant life. Soil water contains silicon, mainly as silicic acid (H4SiO4). Usually in concentrations ranging from 50 to 400 ppm. Silicon is readily absorbed so that terrestrial plants contain it in appreciable concentrations, ranging from a fraction of 1% of the dry matter to several percent, and in some plants up to 10% or even higher. In spite of this prominence of silicon as a mineral constituent of plants, it is not counted among the elements defined as "essential". Ample evidence is present that silicon, when readily available to plants, plays a large role in their growth, mineral nutrition, mechanical strength, and resistance to fungal diseases, herbivory, and adverse chemical conditions of the medium
Sources of Soluble Silicon
In light of all the work that has been done, why is silicon not a standard ingredient in every formulation used around the world? The biggest problems have been in getting growers educated and finding an affordable source. Over the past decade most research into the use of silicon to prevent fungal diseases has been done using potassium silicate. The results have been so positive that many growers incorporated potassium silicate into their fertigation regimes (until the first time the pH went up and the solution turned to gel).
Properties of Sheet Silicon Clay
A common source of silicon is clay, as growers in the early part of this century knew. Adding a pinch of clay to a soil or soil-less mix and the plants seemed to be healthier, grow better, and flowers showed better color. The word clay is generally applied to any rock or soil material having a significant percentage of very small particles and exhibiting plasticity. The clay particles contained in the soil largely determine the soils suitability for cultivation. In addition to the primary silicon/metal oxide content of the clay, most clays contain small amounts of approximately 97 elements: 5 % iron, 3 % calcium, 2 % each magnesium, sodium, and potassium and the remaining 92 trace elements present in clay are estimated to be only one percent in total. The differences in clays are attributed to the ion structure and composition of elements. Clay minerals are hydrolyzed silicates (contain hydroxyl ions) or aluminum silicates of the sheet type. For purposes of agriculture and horticulture, the sheet silicon clays are of the greatest importance. They are numerous, complex, and include a wide range of ionic sizes and charges. The most frequently found silicate clays are aluminum silicate, sodium silicate, magnesium silicate, calcium silicate and potassium silicate.
Selecting a suitable silicate clay for agricultural application is complicated not only by the fact that the specific elemental composition of each type of silicate clay is different, but the elemental composition varies even from one geological pocket to the next. This great variance in element content produces mixed results in soils and plants. Silicate clays cannot be chosen on the basis of silicic acid content only. A holistic examination of the specific elements contained in the clay determines the effects on the growing medium and the plants. For agriculture, the 3-layer non-expanding clays have exceptional properties. These sheet silicates do not absorb great amounts of water, nor do they bind up elements in the soil. The best of this group are the aluminum silicates. Toxicity is possible with the sodium silicates or the magnesium silicates. A 3-layer non-expanding aluminum silicate clay has a multi-faceted positive effect on both soil and plants. Silicates are a decisive factor in the healthy development of plants. Not only for the silicic acid content, but also for trace elements, pH buffering, and enhancement of the microbial population in the growing medium.
The evidence that silicon is of importance to plants is found in plants themselves. They contain silicon in amounts ranging from fractions of 1% to as high as 10% depending on species. Research has clearly shown that readily available silicon plays a large role in growth, mineral nutrition, mechanical strength, resistance to fungal diseases, and adverse chemical conditions within the root zone. Plants absorb silicon in the form of silicic acid, H4SiO4. In soil environments silicon in this form is available in the same relative concentrations as K, Ca, and SO4. Plants presently grown in greenhouses, evolved originally with silicon as a major constituent of their nutrition in natural soils. A review of hundreds of nutrient solutions and all greenhouse growing systems showed one thing in common, the absence of silicon and a range of other naturally occurring elements. The fact is that we attempt to grow healthy productive plants in isolation from some of the nutritional inputs they were evolved to require. It is obvious by now that silicon and other rare earth elements are of benefit as a nutrient component for greenhouse and Hydroponic growing systems. The real problem for growers has been finding a source of them in an economically and useful form. Potassium silicate is too pH sensitive and expensive, and pure silicic acid is not feasible as an additive. Pyrophyllite clay is the natural answer.
Rare Earth Elements
The publicity from China about their claims for the effects of rare e
Price: $14.36
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