Pro tekt or other silicon supplement

[MrFancyPlants]

Anyone using a silicon supplement? I've been using the normal dyna grow products for a while now and have been pretty happy, and never though supplementing silica was that neccesary, but I read a few university articles that implies soluble silicon could increase the hardness of plants.

My question has to do with the ph. I've never felt the need to measure the ph in the past, but I hear protekt an others can raise the ph significantly. I was wondering if I could wing it with a 1/2 TS of vinegar per gall to counter the base, or if that would be counter productive?

 

[dick benbow]

I spent decades learning about PH as it affected my show koi. Does your water come from a municiple supply or well? If municple you must check to see if they switch sources within the year. They do here and early water comes from the river in the new year and as flows diminish they augment with wells, which does suddenly change the PH. If you test your well water be prepared to have it left out for 24 hrs before testing. This gives you a true test for an actual reading. If tested immediately out of the tap, well water reads lower than it actually is. adding
anything to adjust before knowing it's actual numbers can be disasterous.
To cut down on water bills, I collected the 10% water change daily from the ponds and used it for my bonsai. It averaged 7.8 and didn't seem to make any critical difference with all the different varieties.
Interestingly enough, adding silica sand to the Koi filtration helped to bring out the color of black for those fish that didn't seem to want to bring it out during their formative years.
Hope something in the sharing helps...

 

[JudyB]

I use Pro-Tekt in the summer but only once every two weeks or so. And a couple times in the late fall. Never had any trouble with it.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Judy,
Do you use 1/2 TS per gallon? I am hoping this might help develop some more resistance to spider mites.

 

[Beng]

I too use pro-tekt in the summer, I use it once a week and at lower dilution every time I water during hot spells.

 

[Smoke]

I am wondering why anyone would want to supplement any product to a plant that would increase its brittleness?

I always withold water to a plant for two days before I wire just to decrease the turgidity within the structure to make bending of branches easier. I like maples just to the point the ends will droop. Water when I'm done and the tree will solidify within the parameters set by the wire. Easy peasy. Junipers too.

Many of these products are for gardeners that do not bend and wire plants. Silicon products were manufactured for the cut flower industry where hard stems were a necessity.

 

[JudyB]

Judy,
Do you use 1/2 TS per gallon? I am hoping this might help develop some more resistance to spider mites.

No I only use 1/4 tsp per gall.

 

[Beng]

I am wondering why anyone would want to supplement any product to a plant that would increase its brittleness?

I always withold water to a plant for two days before I wire just to decrease the turgidity within the structure to make bending of branches easier. I like maples just to the point the ends will droop. Water when I'm done and the tree will solidify within the parameters set by the wire. Easy peasy. Junipers too.

Many of these products are for gardeners that do not bend and wire plants. Silicon products were manufactured for the cut flower industry where hard stems were a necessity.

Good to know, perhaps I will withhold pro-tekt on trees i plan to do lots of wiring on that year. It does help with leaf burn in japanese maples.

 

[sikadelic]

What is the intent of the product? I have never heard of it before.

 

[Smoke]

What is the intent of the product? I have never heard of it before.

Silica based products were first developed for the cut flower industry. It would add strength to the stems and keep them from bending during shipping and styling.

The dyna gro industry now caters to the cannibus industry and pushes silica for stems also, need a good stem to hold the "huge beautiful purple flowers"?

A adaquately fertilized tree grown as a bonsai will have everything it needs and adding silica to the tree is unnecessary.

If it makes you feel better than by all means use it. Keep in mind that an over abundance of silica may turn your prize bonsai into petrified wood. That is what petrified wood is, wood fiber that has been replaced by silica. keep it bendable.......

 

[MrFancyPlants]

I've seen some studies indicating that soluable silicon supplimental can enhance pest and disease resistance, so I thought I would give it a go.
http://books.google.com/books?id=bBatNszA2YMC&pg=PR7&lpg=PR7&dq=silicon+ficus&source=bl&ots=shzkR6YoY7&sig=SLcNAF9tJHRR13pkFBaPrBFWyeE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YgltUrelJczIkAeZjYEI&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=silicon%20ficus&f=false

I am not sure if silicon supplements would increase brittleness for stems and branches as the form of silicon in the biological processes is more of a silicon gel than an opal form, although it is conceivable that silicon in the dead wood would cause such an effect. The petrification process, however, is an unrelated geological process where wood is trapped in a low oxygen environment and the exposed to mineral laden (mostly silica)water over hundreds or thousands of years. I agree that there is a good chance that the silicon supplement's likely most positive trait could be the marketing, but I'm willing to give it a shot, if nothing else, for my own imaginary imagery of my spidermites coming away with a mouth full of broken teeth.

 

[elroy]

There is plenty of research on the benefits against diseases.

Elroy

Silicon and plant disease resistance against pathogenic fungi.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16006059
by F Fauteux - ‎2005 - ‎Cited by 180 - ‎Related articles
Silicon alleviates abiotic and biotic stresses, and increases the resistance of plants to pathogenic fungi. Several studies have suggested that Si activates plant ...

 

[mcpesq817]

I used it a couple of years when starting out, but haven't since. Really haven't noticed any difference in not using it. And if anything, recently I've been less conservative in my overwintering methods by leaving trees out longer and at lower temperatures.

 

[Beng]

I haven't had problems bending trees I use it on to date. I've been doing bonsai since around 2000 although I've only used pro tekt for a few years now. Perhaps it takes awhile to firm up wood like smoke mentioned. My japanese maples receive far less summer burn when on it.

 

[JoeR]

Anyone have recent experience with this product? I bought a container from the Bonsai Learning Center, hoping it will help protect my maples from fungus when we get buckets of rain in the spring. Read some articles on silica products but nothing as far as bonsai go, specifically fungus resistance.

 

[sorce]

@Smoke spoke the truth.

Sorce

 

[Mellow Mullet]

Anyone have recent experience with this product? I bought a container from the Bonsai Learning Center, hoping it will help protect my maples from fungus when we get buckets of rain in the spring. Read some articles on silica products but nothing as far as bonsai go, specifically fungus resistance.

I have the same problem as you, Joe, in Mobile, we get buckets of rain and 5,000,000% humidity. It is a playground for fungus, bacterial infections, and anything else that likes to inflict maples. I tried the silicon stuff several years ago and it did not have any effect whatsoever.

You are better off spraying twice a month with a good fungicide/bactericide, and rotate them. I have had good luck with phyton 35. It is pricey, I got mine off Amazon, but a bottle will last a really long time (several years).

John

 

[JoeR]

I have the same problem as you, Joe, in Mobile, we get buckets of rain and 5,000,000% humidity. It is a playground for fungus, bacterial infections, and anything else that likes to inflict maples. I tried the silicon stuff several years ago and it did not have any effect whatsoever.

You are better off spraying twice a month with a good fungicide/bactericide, and rotate them. I have had good luck with phyton 35. It is pricey, I got mine off Amazon, but a bottle will last a really long time (several years).

John

Thanks for the input John. Phyton 35 is one of the few I have not tried yet, ill see if I can get a bottle. I used daconil heavily previously, but noticed an observable decrease in growth as a result of it. Whats the other product you rotate with the phyton?

My standard plan of attack is Lime Sulfur in late winter/bud break, and then a rotation of chemical fungicides trying things like clearys, peroxide, etc. It has felt like a futile battle for me with the ridiculous rain and humidity like you have, on top of living in a valley. I wasn't going to use this instead of the normal fungicides but something extra especially in spring when its so wet. Thats a shame, ill still give it a shot and see

 

[JoeR]

@Smoke spoke the truth.

Sorce

Yeah I agree, maybe thats why many find fault with him- speaks the truth! I read a few studies on it so it proved promising, worth a shot for $11. It is important to note that smokes climate presents a very different set of problems than John or mine do.

 

[Mellow Mullet]

I use spectator, clearys, phyton, and daconil, mostly. I also have immunox, mancozeb, and I use bayer 3 in 1 when I need to kill fungus and bugs. I know that some use lime sulphur, but I have not so far, only use it for dead wood. I might give it a try though, I have almost a gallon of it. I haven't noticed any growth effects from the daconil.