The Protective Power of Silver in the Garden

Pathogens, viruses, bacteria and pests—ranging in severity, including the potential to devastate and even destroy single cell organisms—target plants, just as they do humans.

However, while humans would take antibiotics, probiotics and nutritional supplements to kill and prevent disease, what do you do about plants when confronted with these same issues?

Do you treat the problem with pesticides or fertilizers, or both? Some of the questions you might ask when trying to remedy a crop-borne illness or insect infestation include: Are these potential solutions chemical based or organic; what kind of residues do they leave behind; and are they safe? Most importantly, however, you should ask yourself, “How can I prevent these problems from arising in the first place?”

As an experienced green thumb and someone who takes pride in my work, I always like to do my research regarding pesticides, nutrients and fertilizers to ensure I’m using the highest-quality product.

In doing so, I have come across one of the most amazing, organic, elemental supplements to kill and prevent crop-borne pathogens safely and effectively without any harmful chemicals or pesticides. This supplement also results in greener leaves, healthier roots and bigger fruits and vegetables with zero toxicity. I’m referring to the precious metal silver in its ionic form, known as ionic colloidal silver.

Silver is best known for its use in jewelry, coins, tableware, and silverware. However, silver has provided mankind many other uses since its discovery, including numerous health benefits.

Aside from being one of the most, if not the most effective, elemental antibiotics known to man, silver has been used for sterilization, preservation and decontamination without building up a resistance to the pathogens it is killing (unlike man-made antibiotics).

Thanks to science and technology in the modern era, we now have what is known as ionic colloidal silver—this is what is created when pure silver becomes charged with an electrical current while suspended in water over different periods of time. Silver, in this ionic form, has proven to be most effective in plants and humans, killing and preventing over 650 harmful pathogens.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classifies silver as an oligodynamic biocide, meaning it is fatal to primitive life forms like bacteria, viruses, fungi and eggs, yet is readily utilized by more complex cells to kill off pathogens. In layman’s terms, the silver ion attaches to the pathogens respiration and causes death by suffocation while maintaining its safety for mature life forms—like ladybugs and bees—that are beneficial to plant sustainability. I cannot say the same for chemical pesticides or insecticides, which are harmful for the environment and the end user, known to cause cancer and numerous health issues.

Ionic colloidal silver is not only used to kill bacteria, fungi and viruses in plant and humans, but more importantly, colloidal silver can also prevent crop-borne pathogens from devastating your crop in the first place. A safe, efficient and economical way to do that would be to disinfect your reservoir or feeding solution with 20 to 30 ppm ionic colloidal silver. By doing this, the silver will suffocate any pathogen present in your feeding solution, ensuring premium disease-free solution before you feed your plants. As a bonus, the added colloidal silver will repair damaged cell walls and help promote new cell growth when it is broken down by micro-organisms in the soil or other media and taken up by your plants.

Ionic colloidal silver also fends off plant disease that normally wipes out a crop in days. When confronted with these issues, plants require immediate treatment to prevent total loss. Most conventional treatments kill micro-organisms, but leave behind chemical residues, consequently damaging your fruits and vegetables and causing possible toxicity.

Brooke Bradley from the Harborne Research Foundation, however, found colloidal silver to be the only effective protocol—other than the toxin-loaded chemical aerosol streptomycin—against crop blight.

Also, in 2009, the Korean Journal of Plant Pathology stated that silver nano-particles were found to dramatically inhibit the growth of several species of sclerotium-forming fungi—the same fungi known to infect rice and lettuce crops all around the world. (This study then suggested the possibility of using silver nanoparticles as an alternative to pesticides for fungal control.)

Both of these studies blatantly suggest that silver is extremely effective against pathogens and fungi that adversely diminish fruit and vegetable crops globally, making ionic colloidal silver the purest organic elemental biocide readily available for plants.

So, whether you have a small garden at home or a large commercial operation with maximum exposure to nature’s elements, using ionic colloidal silver on your plants has numerous advantageous benefits.

Along with being safe and non-toxic to end users, colloidal silver is beneficial to plants (when absorbed into the plant systemically, it will boost immunity and speed up cell rejuvenation) and human beings.

Also, killing and preventing crop borne pathogens is a guarantee, no matter if you’re adding colloidal silver to your reservoir, mixing it in your nutrient solution or using it as a foliar spray. Known as natures antibiotic, ionic colloidal silver will help maintain plant vitality and prevent disease in all stages of growth!