Grow Genius – The perfect Silicon Nutrient for your AutoPot System
If you are a grower that has used a silica/silicon additive in an irrigation system, you are well aware of the challenges that can arise. Whether it’s fall out in the reservoir, wild pH swings or dealing with a clog in your line, the average silica nutrient can cause its fair share of headaches. Honestly, we felt the same way at AutoPot. A silica additive was usually the first product we would remove from a grower’s blend if they were having reservoir issues. Most silicas, for all the benefits they can provide to a plant, were not worth the trouble. We’ve long been looking for a silica/silicon product that we felt confident recommending in our system, and we are happy to announce that with Grow Genius 40% Mono-Silicic Acid, our search is over.
Why Mono-Silicic Acid?
The only bioavailable form of Silicon, MonoSilicic Acid (MSA), is hard to stabilize and bottle, so it’s not in blended hydroponic nutrients, or most substrates. As a result, unlike NPK and trace elements, Silicon supply isn’t often optimized, even in successful grows.
As a result the door is open to noticeable improvements in several key areas by simply treating Silicon as you would any other nutrient and optimizing supply to reduce cycle times in propagation, and get noticeably sturdier, stouter plants that and are significantly more resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses:
In fact, the beneficial effect of silicon on a variety of crops has been established for over a decade. You can read an excellent evaluation of the various types of silicon available to gardeners here or jump straight to the summary table here to read the results (TLDR: stabilized monosilicic – which is the category GG Mono is in – outperforms everything else). Not only does silicon strengthen natural growth and defenses for bigger, healthier plants, it also provided your plant with increased resistance to:
- Powdery mildew, Botrytis, Black spot and other fungal pathogens.
- Thrips, mites, aphids and other biting and piercing pests.
- Heat stress, water stress and high winds / damage from pruning.
- Toxicity from heavy metals and other undesirable elements in soil.
Why Grow-Genius 40% MSA?
Because it’s the only bioavailable form, all Si products work by supplying MSA and Grow-Genius 40% MSA is the most cost effective AND the cleanest way to do it: Silicates don’t guarantee % MSA delivery because they are precursors.
More modern, big brand First Generation 1% strength molybdenum stabilized MSA (aka ‘Silica’) outperforms them but has the same drawbacks in use (aggressive pH, precipitation blocking drippers and lines, compatibility problems with other products, etc.) And even the best Nano Silica performs only about as well as first generation MSA
Grow-Genius uses totally unique, Second-Generation stabilization technology not based on potassium silicate to deliver 40X more MSA than big brand MSA products, at much better value for money, with NONE of the usage issues, and much lower applied heavy metals than any other source of Si for plants. The next strongest MSA product is only 10% claimed and is severely restricted in terms of compatible EC and pH – it doesn’t come close to what Grow Genius has been able to achieve with their 40% MSA. It’s that simple.
Si for max R.O.I (it’s not all about flowering)
We recommend using Grow Genius in your reservoir and as a foliar feed. Feed weekly via your reservoir at 0.1ml/gal but it’s also important to foliar feed as well as you can deliver much more MSA via foliar application than via roots – and that’s how to get maximum morphological effects: stretch reduction, and a sturdier plant. And especially as you can’t foliar cannabis when flowers have emerged, vegetative growth is where to focus to get the most out of Silicon. Just two applications of Grow Genius can have significant effects on multiple metrics.
Below are our recommendations for using Grow Genius in your grow…
- Seed Soak / Propagation mix: 0.03 ml/L (0.1 ml/Gal)
- Cuttings / Sprouted seeds: 0.03 ml/L (0.1 ml/Gal) add to res 1x / week
AND foliar at 0.5 ml/L (2 ml/Gal) 1x / week - Vegetative growth: 0.03 ml/L (0.1 ml/Gal) add to res 1x / week
AND foliar at 0.5 to 0.75 ml/L (2 to 3 ml/Gal) 1x / week - Once flowers emerge: 0.03 ml/L (0.1 ml/Gal) add to res 1x / week – Stop foliar application at early flowering on species with dense or compact flowers, especially indoors or in cold or damp weather.
Do I need to flush Grow Genius out of my substrate?
There is no need to flush as the only thing taken up by the plant is MSA, which is the natural form of Silicon used by plants. Continue application up to harvest for continued protection and support for new cells or cease a week or two beforehand for max economy.
Should I add Grow Genius first like every other silica product on the market?
You do not need to add Grow Genius first when blending. This is because Grow Genius isn’t based on Potassium Silicate, so there is no pH adjustment to do. Mix your nutrients and add Grow Genius last to reduce any potential foaming from the integrated wetting agent – that’s all there is to it. GG Mono does not affect pH.
Can I use Grow Genius in my organic grow?
Grow Genius is widely used in organic living soil facilities by some of the field’s foremost researchers because it’s such a clean, pure, controllable and above all, tiny input. If soil health and minimal inputs are your priority, Grow Genius is used at 100ml per acre vs multiple pounds or gallons for alternatives, making it the clear choice for soil and personal health. “Traditional” silicon sources come bundled with relatively high heavy metal loads and as application rates increase so do applied heavy metals.
Grow Genius is extremely low in heavy metals as a raw product. By the time it’s diluted at 0.03ml/L (0.1ml/gal) it’s cleaner than drinking water. We’re not exaggerating when we say that Grow Genius delivers tens to tens of thousands of times lower heavy metals per unit of Si delivered compared to the other options available.
Looking at how Silicon can facilitate cleaner practices in general because it works by helping plants build natural defenses, as opposed to toxicity, it’s a perfect partner to biological control. We even use rapidly biodegradable stabilization (readily biodegradable: 95% over 28 days (method: OECD Test Guideline 301F) which is harmless, or even beneficial, to microbial life at recommended rates. Silicon is not harmful to most beneficial microorganisms and low levels of ethanols are digestible by many soil borne bacteria and fungi. But above all, because our monosilicic is so concentrated, the net addition of product to the soil is tiny: just 0.03ml/L (0.1ml/gal) in solution. This is the benefit of treating trace elements as they should be: like vitamins, not food.
So while Grow Genius isn’t listed as an organic product yet, we’re working on it and expect to have organic certification in the near future.
Why Grow Genius for an AutoPot System?
Now that you know the benefits of silicon and what makes Grow Genius so unique, let’s talk about why it’s the perfect product to use with an AutoPot System.
- Ultra concentrated – A great value at 0.1ml/gal ~ $0.05/gal. A 100ml bottle makes 880 gallons of solution for your reservoir. If you’re using one of our 12.4-gal hard tank reservoirs, that’s enough for 70 refills! This product will last many grows and the value is unbeatable. The next strongest MSA is 10% claimed, and most big brand MSA products are in the 1-2% range. There is simply no other product on the market that comes anywhere close to the 40% MSA that Grow Genius has achieved.
- Reservoir Stable for 7 Days – Silica products and AutoPot reservoirs can lead to a lot of headaches for a grower. Fall out, clogs, wild pH swings, etc. These types of things can derail a grow and cause you a lot of stress. Grow Genius uses a new ethanol-based stabilization technology that overcomes the concentration limitations that applied to the older stabilized monosilicic products. Because of its unique progressive release stabilization, the product is good for up to 7 days in a tank. This is our favorite feature of Grow Genius!
- pH Neutral – Yes, Grow Genius really is completely pH neutral. The reason Silicon supplements are associated with aggressively high pH is because most of them are based on potassium silicate or amorphous silica. Grow Genius uses totally different chemistry to other products and so doesn’t have these drawbacks. We recommend adding it last after any soluble nutrients and you’ll see it has no effect on solution pH.
As with any product in this industry, there are a few things to make sure you DO NOT do to ensure the product works properly over the course of use.
- Close the container securely immediately after use: ethanol evaporates quickly!
- ​Do not allow any water or dirt into the container: Grow Genius will re-polymerize on contact, meaning it will turn back into a gel-like product if you get water in it. Be very careful with this! Make sure the lid is closed tightly so no humidity from the air can get in the bottle and always make sure your pipette or measuring equipment is DRY if you are putting it in the bottle to measure out the required dosage.
- Grow Genius does contain ethanols and silicon which means it is safe for plants when used as directed, but not for direct contact with humans: do not ingest, breathe or allow contact with eyes/skin.
- Always avoid breathing mist from spraying this or any garden product: always wear an appropriately rated mask, eye and hand protection when working with garden chemicals.
Even though plants don’t require silicon to survive, if you grant them access to the nutrient, it’ll improve almost everything about their physiology. It works to protect them against pests, diseases, and environmental pollutants, while fortifying cell walls against stress, boosting photosynthesis and increasing overall yield/quality.
If you are growing with AutoPot and want to increase the performance of your plants, we can’t recommend Grow Genius 40% MSA enough.
Thanks for reading!
