Silicon nutrition

Silicon protects plants from stress. Benefits of the nutrient especially become evident in adverse situations. While it is so difficult to prove the essentiality of silicon, experts often call the element 'beneficial' or even 'quasi-essential'.
As a rule of thumb cereals and other monocotyledonous crops rank as silicon accumulators and dicotyledonous plants are non-accumulators. On hydroponics however, several dicotyledonous pot plants, cut flowers and vegetable crops benefit from silicon fertilisation.

Soluble silicon in soil solution is at a pH range from 2 to 9 mainly present as orthosilicate. In this form silicon is an uncharged compound and is sensitive to leaching. Although sandy soils are silicon-rich, soluble silicon content is usually very low. Apart from rice products containing potting soils, growing media for pot plant and woody ornamentals are often poor in silicon.

© Gert van den Berg 2009