A spectacular crop of sorghum
Silicon
A major mineral is missing in many soils and most soil tests do not even monitor its presence. This mineral can increase stress resistance, boost photosynthesis and chlorophyll content, improve drought resistance, salt tolerance and soil fertility and prevent lodging. lt can also reduce insect pressure, frost damage and destructive disease while lowering irrigation rates, neutralising heavy metal toxicity and countering the negative effects of excess sodium.
A spectacular crop of sorghum, with 12ha grown in 2011-2012. The yield was 11 tonnesDM/ha in 90 days (122kg/day) sorghum and similar crops accumulate more silicon than most plants. This crop was made into baleage for winter feed. The cows wintered well on it and loved eating it.
Silicon is a much-underrated nutrient ignored by mainstream agriculture to our detriment
It is like a mediator that evens out the highs and lows of soil-plant nutrition. When we rely too heavily on chemistry, chemical reactions in the soil between applied products and resident compounds can lead to wastage of the applied compounds if they are the wrong products to use. “Cheapest is best,” may turn out to be the worst decision that can be made. All plant types can be affected by conditions that include iron chlorosis which results in poor photosynthesis and is seldom diagnosed. Silicon can mitigate most of these flaws we unknowingly accept as part of the cost of doing business. Follow the trail below.
Based on current literature, silicon shows its significance for the life of plants and the performance of crops in the following aspects, but not confined to these.
Essentiality for some forms of life. Animals, (Diatoms, Bacillariophyta), and plants, (horsetails (Equisetaceae)).
Enhancement of growth, yield, and quality, up to and during handling, transport, and storage.
Promotion of mechanical strength, plant erectness and resistance to lodging.
Better light interception and promotion of photosynthesis.
Improved performance when insufficient sunshine or too much shading.
Improved plant surface properties.
Required by and promotes fungi, and non-rhizobia bacteria.
Increased root and root hair growth.
Resistance to plant diseases involving fungi, bacteria, viruses, and nematodes.
Resistance to herbivores ranging from phytophagous insects to mammals.
Resistance to excess metal toxicity.
Resistance to salinity stress.
Inhibition of transpiration and resistance to drought stress and inefficient water use.
Resistance to high temperature and chilling or freezing stress.
Resistance to UV radiation or monochromic exposure.
Enhancement of root oxidizing power and root activities and hence alleviation of reduced toxicity under low Eh. (Oxidation-reduction conditions as measured by the redox potential (Eh), expressed in volts.)
Effects on enzyme activities.
Alleviation of stress from other mineral deficiencies or excesses e.g. potassium, phosphorus, manganese and iron, nitrogen, cadmium, arsenic, chromium, lead, zinc, copper, and boron.
Promotion of nodule formation in legume plants and hence promotion of N2 fixation.
Promotion of formation of log-term stable carbon and hence having implications in carbon bio-sequestration of atmospheric CO2 and global climate change.
Used by earthworms to grind up soil parent materials.
Biology is stimulated by calcium but may then run short of silicon. Silicon not only stimulates the biology but sequesters aluminium, sparing magnesium and phosphorus that otherwise would have been tied up, or complexed by bicarbonates.
