Hey Tree Lovers; Has anyone watched the ‘Limber Pine Restyle with BSOP’ video on YouTube?
Near the 1:51:15 time stamp someone asked about calcium. Great answer from Ryan, of course, where he reveals that heavy rains like last winter, can contribute to heavy metal build up in the pot. and could further contribute to Fungal issues.
He suggested that treating with a Calcium Silicate would bind up the toxins. To be followed with a pure Calcium of which he named two kinds that were garbled and it’s unclear what the recommendations were. I’ll murder them here, as I took notes, perhaps they’re close enough to be recognized by one of you? Welaxinite and Oragonite? He said best to use in liquid forms if you can find them.
Does anyone have experience with either of these and/or with the toxin binding technique of Cal-Silica?
My guess is that he was referring to wollastonite (CaSiO3) and calcium orthosilicate (Ca2SiO4 - larnite) which is sometimes known as Cal-Sil or Calsil. Ca2SiO4 is very slightly soluble in water (0.01%) according to Wikipedia. Wollastonite is listed as insoluble but is probably slightly soluble if the pH is acidic since it is soluble in HCl. Might have also been aragonite which is one of the forms of CaCO3 (a high pressure polymorph - calcite is the lower pressure, more common form).
Thanks, Marty! I believe you’ve identified the two words in question to be wollastonite and aragonite as the ‘pure’ forms of calcium to supplement after the clean up with Cal-Sil, calcium orthosilicate or (Ca2SiO4 - larnite). Thank you. I’m closer to knowing what to get, if I can find it. And if I do find it, I hope there will be instructions on how to apply it!!
Any further suggestions from anyone would be very welcome.
My Blue Atlas Cedar has lost one third of it’s foliage and is hanging on. I think heavy rains last winter may have caused a fungal overgrowth. There is a bald area in the bark that may also have let in some pathogen into the cracks where the bark had receded. I sealed them up recently and it appears to have helped slow down the needle loss.
Hello! Hope you are having a good day!
Apical solutions has these options for calcium, and a Cal-Sil blend. They are super helpful and can help you with any questions. These are also the folks that Mirai suggest for plant and soil testing.
This video has the information that you are looking for in regards to the use of Silica and calcium.
Hope this helps!
Cheers,
RJ
your local hydroponics store will also have some of these in stock. Agree with Marty but question that heavy rains caused a heavy metal problem. Rain should flush your soils out. May have caused other things? Just because you now have the hammer of heavy metal chelation doesn’t mean that everything is a nail.
Awesome info!! Thanks so much!
You’re so right! I’m not jumping into treatments, but gathering the info to choose from for any possible actions. I was surprised to hear that too much rain could cause toxic metal build up… even with the knowledge of our polluted sky’s. And even more interested that heavy metals would increase fungal issues. So fascinated with the chemistry of all this! One really does need a horticultural background to do service to the trees. I so appreciate your shared knowledge; all of you.
i am not convinced rain water has that much heavy metal but it is washing fire ash into it from the air and is alkaline in my area. i have most issues with waiting too long to repot. heat and wind also
Eden Cal King is on both my Apical recs
Eden Cal Sil is also good and they can be used together as both a drench and in a foliar.
Other have answered the questions as to the correct names.
I am using Cal King on all my trees ( with other Eden products ) and I am seeing new growth, and a greening up of everything.
I would think cal king and super phos 23 could be applied safely to pretty much everything, as long as you started with a smaller dose and worked your way up.
I can look at my notes from Eden if you want application rates.
Just send me a private email.
Most trees would probably benefit from a good source of cal and phosphate.
I will simple add you can buy quart sizes directly from Eden should you choose to experiment at a lower cost.
Almost all Eden products can be purchased in quarts sizes for about $30 per quart.
It makes experimenting much cheaper.
Look up Eden Solutions online and order directly from the people who created the product, if you want smaller doses.
Certainly when applying Apical recs you will need a lot of Cal King as it gets used in a lot of recs.
There is a nursery near me that has had horrific watering system for year, visible rust on plants foliage…but they also have some pretty awesome half dead stuff grown from seed 40-50years ago. I stopped buying from there because it was too risky or the time to health was way to long for the price. I am wondering if by applying Eden Cal King i& Eden Cal Sil, would be enough to at least speed up the recovery by at least detoxing the metals? Any thoughts or suggestions on a better combo without a specific foliar test?
Talking about the heavy metals, I too don’t think there would be heavy metals in rain. But, if memory serves, on one of the soil science podcasts it was said that the heavy metals are present in aggregate soils and released when the soil is broken down by microbial action. Akadama seemed to release a lot when broken down. So maybe because rainwater is acidic and it rained a lot it broke down some of the soil and caused heavy metals to be released.
I would apply Cal King aka Maxi Cal
Super Phos 23 aka Boss phos
Silica
Fusion Veg fert to replace all other NPK inputs
Water must be as close to 6.4 as you can get it
No synthetic products at all!
And see what happens on those half dead trees
This stuff works, it can have radical transformations but it can’t save everything.
If you purchase and need help with application rates shoot me a private email
I would be glad to help you out.
Peace
Thanks for thinking this through, Sam. It’s a logical theory… my trees are in akadama soil.
Awesome info, CMP, thanks!!