Here is the best thing I can find on silica as a supplement. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5362598/#!po=41.0714
I have problem with the articles conclusion. If silica is only useful as a stress mitigation. What did I do wrong to need to use silica?
What is the hidden stressor?
From the Voices In My head.
Great article!
Medical growers should pay attention to the part about heavy metals, already that cannabis is exceptionally good at taking them up, silicate abuse upscales the draw a lot.
Not all plant react the same, strawberries will stay white when too much of it is applied, some other plants will resist drastic frost. However grower should not shortcut between what happens in one type of plant and assume cannabis will be the same.
One teacher told me once about silica " it is one of the most abundant substance on the planet, if plants really love it as much as the internet gurus claim, we’d see more plants and much less sand on earth"
Good Luck and Happy Gardening!
Eric
Eric,
My favorite professor said if plants loved silica we would have more bamboo. Bamboo is the only Comercially grown crop that I know of where sand is added to production. Bamboo transfer silica to the lignin in the cell walls. I don’t think anyone has figured out the exact mechanism.
From the voices my head
Ethan.
Abundant is an understatement! Silica makes up 27% of the composition of our planet. It’s literally EVERYWHERE! And for some reason Aptus thinks a quart of Faciltor (monosalycic acid with a little extra boron) is worth $400 bucks per quart…am I missing something?
HAHAHAHA 400$ ???
I laughed so fast, I now have to pick up coffee that came oput my nose argh!
400$ ? I guess these guys always vacation at expensive resorts and think that the sand is what makes it expensive…?
Cheers!
I have spent the last decade wondering why the contents of this bottle are so special. I have seen cheaper ounces of gold and cocaine in my life…and those things are generally a lot more fun and useful! 
Unless you are a pure I Hydroponic grower your plants don’t need suplimental silica. Boron is an easy and cheep micro nutrient. 20 multeam borax. Or any poinsettia suplimental. But, you need so little Boron it’s like 2 ppm in one or two feeds. Twenty mule team borax $5 and enough boron for 50 million poinsettia plants. In a production cycle.
They figured out Boron was plant essential after growing tomatoes in pure silica sand repeatedly in a lab for two years.
monosalycic acid, just take an aspirin. I use the genaric aspirin 1000 for about 1cent per tablet. C6H4(OH)COOH Is already a monohydrate.
Unless you are growing bamboo, the amount of silica used by cannabis is in nanograms per kilo. Cannabis just does not have biological pathways to fix silica in the cell walls like some of the grasses can. All of the silica fixing plants are really odd plants. Equosedum, Bambusoidea, and some Lichens. There is a South African plant that is the only angiosperm and not a grass that fixes silica in the cell wall, but I think it has little comercal interest.
From the voices in my head
Ethan
PS @Growernick, you might want a private consultation with me and I can put more money in your pocket.
Hey man, I’m not the one buying this crap! I am just incredulous that there actually exists a product which the manufacturer wants $400 per quart! Crazy!
LOL I total though I was going crazy. 
The only crazy thought here is asking someone to pay $400 for a quart! This is why you don’t see a lot professional growers using Aptus products…
Have you ever seen boron deficiency in cannabis? I have seen black and white photos but no color photos. I would normally only expect in air hydroponic growers.
I see lots of photos plants with amounium toxisity. Look at the older leaves on Plant preflowering photos.
Heavy metals are going to be our next industry blemish.
From the voices in my head Ethan
Eric,
I want to know the sales pitch for aspirin sand water!
My goop is the finest goop.
I once worked at a vax concultancy and we tried to sell the world’s worst accounting software. The document for this software came in the most beautiful hardwood bookcase, the old law office style widowed doors. Everyone saw this beautiful book case and thought the software must be great. One guy commented wow a beautiful book case. My bose said if you buy the software I will see you get a second book case. We sold millions of dollars worth of this crap software, just because of the bookcase. That and we offered great support.
From the voices in my head Ethan
Might want to check the spelling and definition on these:
Orthosilicic acid is the chemical compound with formula Si â‚„. It is assumed to be present in dilute solutions of silicon dioxide SiO â‚‚ in water. It can be synthesized in non-aqueous solutions.
Salicylic acid is a keratolytic. It belongs to the same class of drugs as aspirin (salicylates). It works by increasing the amount of moisture in the skin and dissolving …
Two different elements. I have received samples from the big 4 silicic acid manufacturers and run side by side tests with them. My results showed no benefit to using the product(ymmv) and with the ridiculous cost, these products are simply more of the marketing and internet hysteria surrounding cannabis nutrients.
My bad, thank you for clarification. @ron, this is why we need you to teach plant nutrition.
From the voices in my head
Ethan
So, all spelling aside, it seems we are all in accord on our synopsis of these products…ie a lot of buck for not a whole lot of bang?
Yup! I just love snake oil!
For a fun read Quack: Tales of Medical Fraud from the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices
