Heres a scholarly article on silica.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7345352/
At times i read many of articles or listen to podcasts when driving, or watch specific science related videos with hopefully knowledgeable growers , breeders , and scientists alike.
At some point i heard or saw someone speaking about silica. What they had mentioned is that silica can be absorbed and deposited in place of carbon when carbon sources are low. Part of the building blocks of life.
The above article explains better then i ever could
This is nonsense btw. Potassium silicate does not require "microbes or enzymes" to break it down into msa. It occurs in acidic solutions. Weird that you complain about bro-science purveyors whilst proceeding to post bro-science yourself.Aptus Regulator goes for $20/50ml bottle and it is highly concentrated and it is used at 1.5ml/10L and you end up using it just few times each grow. Although mine was free, but I would still buy it. When you use Potassium Silicate it is not freely available for your plants where MSA is, because first you need microbes or enzymes that brakes it down. Solely the reason why I use MSA, it goes straight in and you actually see the results very quickly. I’m just pointing it out, because I don’t care what you or anyone is using. I’m using only bottled nutrients for quick fixes or boosts, because they are not worth the premium, any of them. Why not to buy straight salts and mix your own because anyway all of the cannabis nutrients are scam? I’m growing in living soil and might need some quick fix because I rather use tiny bit of salt to counter any nutrient deficiency than let them suffer few weeks before they have even chance to fix it. Point being that MSA is better than Potassium Silicate and it works right away and that is what makes it valuable for my needs. But if you are in budget mix your own nutrients? You should of said that it is not worthy for you, because MSA is super good for the plants and that way you can actually push way more silicate into the plants.
Indeed. One of the colloquial names for it in the UK is 'Scouring Rush'I have used horsetail when camping to clean pots and pans because of the silica content.