[Gasification] [Stoves] SILICA removed from the soil !

[Roger Samson]

Tom

Silica is transported into the plant through silicic acid found in water in
soils. Its higher in clay soils and lower in sandy soils. There has been a
long debate whether it's an active or passive transport. It seems plants
actually regulate how much silica they uptake with preferential absorption
at low concentrations and exclusion at high concentrations.  So with rice
being a c3 species growing in water it's overall generally very high. Silica
is largely stored in leaves of plants in phytoliths (silica bodies) within
the leaf.  These phytoliths are a major source of soil organic matter
globally as these bodies have carbon protected by silica that are resistant
to decomposition.  Sugar cane and rice breeders are trying to increase
silica uptake to improve stress tolerance in these crops. By doing so it
should also improve our soils. 

Silica doesn't cause the binding in clinker formation it's the other
chemicals found in the plant material. I would like to see plant breeders
reduce silica transport into grasses for bioheat (to improve fuel quality
for residential Pellet production) by creating them to be stemmier and using
genetic markers to breed for reduced silica transport into plants. This
would open up larger applications for grasses both as pellets and feedstocks
for paper production. 

I review this process some in my BIOHEAT from grasses paper in critical
reviews in plant science 24: 461-495.
Regards
Roger Samson
www.reap-canada.com


-----Original Message-----
From: stoves-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:stoves-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Reed
Sent: Sunday, October 22, 2006 7:56 PM
To: adkarve
Cc: GASIFICATION; stoves at listserv.repp.org
Subject: Re: [Stoves] SILICA removed from the soil !

Dear A.D. Karve:

I have long been puzzled by the very high silica content of rice hulls 
and rice straw.  Is it because they like having silica - is it a 
necessary mineral - or because they have their roots in water and 
naturally transpire silicious water and must store the silica.

Curious,

TOM REED          BEF

adkarve wrote:
> Dear Frans,
> wheat and rice remove 250 kg silica per year per ha. Sugarcane removes 500
> kg/ha. This example shows that the plants, with the help of the soil
> bacteria, literally eat the soil.
>  There are two provisos for the high calorie noncomposted organic manure
to
>  show good results. The first is of course that the soil must have all the
>  mineral ingredients that the plants need. If a farmer observes any
> deficiency, he
>  has to correct it by applying the relevent element to the soil or to
>  the plants. The vertisols in peninsular India and sedimentary soils in
the
> gangetic plain in India, have all the minerals that the plants need and
are
> therefore considered to be
>   highly fertile. Secondly, the soil must be well drained
>  and well aerated for the bacteria to survive. Minerals
>  in the ionized form are present only in the top soil, but as the microbes
>  and the plants literally eat this layer, the layer below that then
becomes
>  the top soil. This is a very slow process and not easily noticeable, but
it
>  is a fact. Therefore I mentioned the thickness of the earth's crust, only
> to
>  show that at the slow rate at which the bacteria and the plants are
eating
> up the
>  soil, the minerals in the earth's crust represent an inexhaustible
source,
>  especially because it gets replenished from below due to the earth's
> natural
>  geological processes. It is because of this reason, that recycling of
>  organic waste is not necessary. The city waste and the waste generated by
>  the poultries and the animal fedlots can be used as fuel in the areas
where
>  the waste is generated.It is also not necessary to have nitrogen fixing
> plants in the rotation, because with the high calorie manure that I am
> advocating, the free living nitrogen fixing bacteria fix enough nitrogen
for
> the entire soil ecosystem.
>  Yours
>  A.D.Karve
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Frans Peeters <peetersfrans at pandora.be>
> To: Stoves <stoves at listserv.repp.org>
> Sent: Friday, October 20, 2006 6:14 AM
> Subject: [Stoves] SILICA removed from the soil !
>
>
>   
>> Dear A D CARVE India    et all
>>
>>    You wrote: 250 Kg SILICA is removed by every crob !   / Hectare ? US
>> acre ?
>> No body complains the missing SiO2 !  You must be yoke-ing ?
>> The whole EART contains 61 % silica . 15 % aluminia .
>>  After burning rice huls , you get back al the silica .
>>      I wonder the old fact , there is NO silicon found in human ash .
>>  But plant herbalists promote silicon for strong venues and joints .
>> Could you tell us more about that ?
>> Also we admire your agro-culture without fertilizers .
>> Humus : 45 %  protein in leaves ; must it be a certain humidity for not
>> loosing Nitrogen into the air ?
>> Do you use alternating crops who extract N2 from the air into the soil ,
>> like beans family ?
>> Lupinus  = beans for N2  fertilising use only .
>>
>> Greetings
>>
>> Frans.
>>
>> --
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