While we take a multivitamin to stay healthy every day, plants also need supporting nutrients to grow strong and healthy. One of these supporting nutrients is silica, and with DuxAgri’s Eckosil you can ensure that your plants have the right amount of this much needed nutrient.
What is silica?
- Silica strengthens the plant’s cell walls to make plants stronger and more resistant to damage and environmental stress
- Silica improves water and nutrient absorption
- Silica boosts a plant’s tolerance to stresses such as drought, heat and salinity, assisting it to withstand tougher conditions
- Stronger cell walls provide a better barrier against pests and disease
- Overall, silica helps plants to grow stronger and healthier
A plant under stress can have reduced silica uptake. This stress can be caused by a variety of factors including the soil composition, sunburn and drought.
Why choose Eckosil?
If you want hardened fruit that can withstand any stress that comes its way, DuxAgri’s Eckosil is the product for you.
Eckosil delivers silicon to plants for two different purposes, namely nutrient absorption regulation and protection against external aggressions. Eckosil has excess salinity to increase your plant’s health and it protect your plants against cold and sunburn.
Dry seasons with heavy sun can cause sunburn on fruits. This can lead to fruit with minor blemishes or fruit that is unmarketable. Eckosil can be used as a preventative measure to reduce economic losses due to sunburn. Since Eckosil is a weak acid with a pH of about 1,5, it mixes well with most products and two to three litres of Eckosil per hectare can be beneficial to any farmer.
Eckosil increases the quantity of oxygen that reaches the roots of your plant, while simultaneously strengthening the silica deposit to the stem. The silica thickens the stem and reduces the evapotranspiration rate, which decreases your chances of damages or loss.
The silica also penetrates the epidermal layers of the fruit which assists with preventing sunburn or cold damage, keeps diseases at bay and forms polymorphic crystals that has an irritating effect on insects.
Tried and trusted
During a trial summary on apples in Gala, Quincy, Washington, USA, Eckosil was compared to calcium carbonate (60%). Each product was applied at 14 day intervals starting when the fruits were only 10 to 12 mm before their hottest time of the season.
The apples which received Eckosil showed an 8% reduction in sunscald with 17,9% as opposed to the 25,9% from the calcium carbonate (60%).
Trees treated with Eckosil also averaged 30,52 kg of apples against the trees treated with calcium carbonate (60%) which produced 23,66 kg of apples.
The same study was done in South Africa with Golden Delicious and Fuji apples in the Western Cape. Here the Eckosil application was measured against no application. The trees were treated with Eckosil every 14 days starting 15 December 2020 to 3 February 2021.
This study showed a reduction of 22% sunburnt apples in the Golden Delicious apples and a reduction of 21% sunburnt apples on the Fuji apples.
Perhaps the most significant study was done with Satsuma and Nova apples in the Eastern Cape. For this study Eckosil was applied at the beginning of December, the end of December, middle January and the beginning of February.
The untreated Nova apples showed that 35,65% of the harvest had sunburn or blemishes, while the harvest treated with Eckosil showed only 7,84%. The results were more of the same for the Satsuma apples, with 35,65% of the untreated apples showing signs of sunburn and blemishes and only 2,35% of the apples treated with Eckosil being affected.
During this trial, the apples treated with Eckosil also showed a more favourable sugar/acid ratio as shown in the table below.
Eckosil is recommended for all vegetable crops, vineyards and orchards. To achieve optimal efficacy, Eckosil must be applied at a total rate of 4 to 6 litres per hectare during the crop’s growing cycle.
If you would like to get the most out of your crops, visit www.duxagri.com for more information.
