Description
Agsil16H is a potassium silicate in a 1 lb size, a source of silicon. Silicon is missing from many soils, and most soil tests do not even monitor it.
Why silicon matters
Silicon is the second most abundant mineral on the planet. Clays are alumina silicates and sand is largely silicon, so the shortage is a matter of form, not quantity. Plants take up silicon as silicic acid, and that is the form missing from the soil.
Silicon is not classed as an essential nutrient, but new findings may soon change that. A healthy, disease suppressive soil should contain 100 ppm of monosilicic acid, as measured in a soil analysis, and very few soils come anywhere near that mark.
What silicon can do
- Increase stress resistance
- Boost photosynthesis and chlorophyll content
- Improve drought resistance, salt tolerance and soil fertility
- Prevent lodging
- Reduce insect pressure, frost damage and destructive disease
- Lower irrigation rates
- Neutralize heavy metal toxicity and counter the negative effects of excess sodium
- Increase root growth, boost yield and enhance crop quality
Good to know
What drove the widespread shortage is not yet understood. Something in conventional agriculture appears to have compromised the conversion of insoluble silicon into the plant-available form, which may reflect a mineral imbalance or the loss of soil microbe species that solubilize silicon.
Hundreds of papers have been presented at the International Silicon Conferences in Brazil and South Africa. Silicon is emerging as a key player in proactive pest and disease management. It is an essential prerequisite for proactive pest and stress management and should be an integral part of every good nutrition program.
