DE - a study in diatomaceous earth

[JoeCrowe]

 

I think the use of DE as a fertilizer has been overlooked. I did an experiment on tomatoe plants that had the following results: The plants that had DE sprinkled on the surface, really had HARD stems. Under flouro lights, the plants with DE didn't need any kind of support to stay errect even at a couple feet tall.
I'm not saying all a guy needs is to sprinkle DE on your medium then kick back and relax. You need ferts to make your plant grow, but if you put some of that ontop it really strengthens the stems.
The standard use for DE is to cut pests up so they dehydrate and die. I think it makes a way better fert than a pest killer IMHO.
Just sprinkle a teaspoon on the surface for seedlings. You can sprinkle a couple teaspoons for large ass plants. I'm not sure if they classify that as organic, but it does come out of the ground and it's made out of fossils. Contains lots of micro nutrients. A blast of that lasts for a long time, it can slowly disintigrate with water.

[JoeCrowe]

 

straight from the ground, it has to be pulverized into dust.

[hashcat]

 

Makes sense to me, DE is ancient silica shells from oceanic microorganisms

Silica is the shit for plant hardimess. Thicker , stronger stems and leaves and also drought/heat protection.

[DabbinOut]

 

when I first heard of this stuff it was for pest control. Further research into this and I found it has more uses than I cared to even know about. People eat this stuff!

anyway, I remember people also used this stuff as a medium to grow in for bonsai. If I remember correctly it was found to hold on to the nutes for the plant very well.

[vial]

 

I will be looking into grabing a large bag of this as ill be vegging again and will be using into flower also. I like to brew my nut's, aswell as light organic nut's.