Author Topic: USDA says silicon helps citrus  (Read 806 times)

Walt

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USDA says silicon helps citrus
« on: May 25, 2023, 11:44:46 AM »
Today Citrus Industry news says 50 to 100 ppm improves citrus health including disease resistance and cold tolerance.
It also said several products have come out with silicon at those strengths.  Also said several products already had silicon in them but lumped silicon in "inert ingredients".  Names of such products weren't mentioned,

drymifolia

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Re: USDA says silicon helps citrus
« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2023, 12:59:38 PM »
Diatomaceous earth is an excellent source of silica, and can be used in potting mixes similarly to perlite.

Seanny

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Re: USDA says silicon helps citrus
« Reply #2 on: May 25, 2023, 01:36:27 PM »
Rice hulls are 18% amorphous silica by weight.
I’m using them and DE.
Can’t have too much dirt!



mikkel

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Re: USDA says silicon helps citrus
« Reply #3 on: May 25, 2023, 03:08:14 PM »
I read the article, but I am not sure if silicone is in english the same as in german...
Is there a chemical/sientific name of it?
Silicone in german is something you use to groute the tile in bathrooms.

drymifolia

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Re: USDA says silicon helps citrus
« Reply #4 on: May 25, 2023, 03:13:51 PM »
I read the article, but I am not sure if silicone is in english the same as in german...
Is there a chemical/sientific name of it?
Silicone in german is something you use to groute the tile in bathrooms.

Silicone (with an "e") is a plastic-like polymer compound made from silicon (the chemical element). Plants can use silicon dioxide (also known as "silica") as a source of this element.

Silica is what makes quartz crystals (and glass), and is the main chemical in most sand and many types of rock, but can be nearly absent or inaccessible to roots in some soil types.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2023, 03:22:42 PM by drymifolia »

bussone

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Re: USDA says silicon helps citrus
« Reply #5 on: May 25, 2023, 04:39:07 PM »
I read the article, but I am not sure if silicone is in english the same as in german...
Is there a chemical/sientific name of it?
Silicone in german is something you use to groute the tile in bathrooms.

Silizium/silicium
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicium

This is silicone.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silikone

Millet

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Re: USDA says silicon helps citrus
« Reply #6 on: May 25, 2023, 04:54:51 PM »
silicone has many benefits for citrus.  Here is what the University of California has to say about silicone.

https://citrusindustry.net/2023/05/24/silicon-could-benefit-florida-citrus/









 

drymifolia

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Re: USDA says silicon helps citrus
« Reply #7 on: May 25, 2023, 11:06:06 PM »
silicone has many benefits for citrus.  Here is what the University of California has to say about silicone.

https://citrusindustry.net/2023/05/24/silicon-could-benefit-florida-citrus/
 

Silicon, not silicone. They are not the same thing, even though silicon is one of the elements included in the silicone polymer.

Ilya11

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Re: USDA says silicon helps citrus
« Reply #8 on: May 26, 2023, 03:49:30 AM »
Very confusing indeed. The rest of the world is using a Latin word silicium.
They probably mean the soluble compounds of silicon like amorphous SiO2 or silicates.

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pagnr

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Re: USDA says silicon helps citrus
« Reply #9 on: May 26, 2023, 04:24:09 AM »
Is this in response to Greening / HLB ??
Interesting how this is now accepted and promoted by mainstream Ag.
20 years ago this would have been a fringe kook idea.
Silicon is an essential plant nutrient, not often present or accounted for in many fertilisers.
It has been well recognised in many alternative / organic agriculture circles.

David Kipps

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Re: USDA says silicon helps citrus
« Reply #10 on: May 26, 2023, 07:14:10 AM »
I have not understood how silica (like what composes a chemist's inert glass flask) can also be bioavailable such that plants like horsetail incorporate it in their tissues.

tru

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Re: USDA says silicon helps citrus
« Reply #11 on: May 26, 2023, 07:39:02 AM »
Silicon as an element is used by plants in a few different ways, but silica (silicon dioxide) is mainly used by plants to create “phytoliths”. What is a phytolith you ask?

“Phytoliths are rigid structures formed when dissolved silica in a plant's tissues accumulates in the cell walls or other cellular structures. As the plant dies and decomposes, the organic matter decays, but the phytoliths remain preserved in the soil or sediment.”

Essentially, they fortify a plant’s cell wall. This not only makes the stems of a plant stronger in wind, but fungi/bacteria can’t infect a cell that they can’t get into!

As for absorbing it in the first place, some plants have silicon transporters in roots that actively search for silicic acid in the soil and move it through the xylem. Silica will also diffuse directly into the soil/water slowly. The most well known silica accumulators are Bamboo, Sugarcane, Rice, Horsetail, and Cacti
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Vlad

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Re: USDA says silicon helps citrus
« Reply #12 on: May 26, 2023, 08:53:25 AM »
Dyna-Gro Pro-TeKt supplies silicon (and potassium).
https://dyna-gro.com/product/pro-tekt-0-0-3/

Seanny

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pagnr

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Re: USDA says silicon helps citrus
« Reply #14 on: May 26, 2023, 06:18:53 PM »
I have not understood how silica (like what composes a chemist's inert glass flask) can also be bioavailable such that plants like horsetail incorporate it in their tissues.

How about Fe Iron. It is used to make steel, but is also a component of our blood.
Most of the other minerals in our body also exist as solid rock minerals.
Calcium ends up in bones and shells, but also in other forms in the body.
Glass is inert for our perceivable time frames ? ( eye frames if you wear glasses ?? )
I have heard that a glass bottle is actually melting as you hold it, just takes millions of years to do so.
( Except if you are in a Kombi Van with a bunch of Hippies, they can sometimes see the bottle melting. )