Numerous reviews and hundreds of refereed articles have been published on silicon’s effects on abiotic and biotic stress as well as overall plant growth and development. The science for silicon is well-documented and comprehensive. However, even with this robust body of information, silicon is still not routinely used for alleviating plant stress and promoting plant growth and development. What is holding producers and growers back from using silicon? There are several possible reasons, which include: (i) lack of consistent information on which soil orders are low or limited in silicon, (ii) no universally accepted soil test for gauging the amounts of soluble silicon have been calibrated for many agronomic or horticultural crops, (iii) most analytical laboratories do not routinely assay plant tissue for silicon and current standard tissue digestion procedures used would render silicon insoluble, (iv) many scientists still state that plants are either silicon accumulators or non-accumulators when in reality all plants accumulate some silicon in their plant tissues, (v) silicon is not recognized as being necessary for plant development, (vi) lack of economic studies to show the benefits of applying silicon, and (vii) lack of extension outreach to present the positive benefits of silicon to producers and growers. Many of these issues mentioned above will need to be resolved if silicon is to become a standard practice to improve agronomic and horticultural crop production and plant health.

Silicon (Si) absorption is highly variable among different plant types; however, few studies have examined variations among different cultivars within a single species. In this study, 10 different tomato cultivars, including determinants and indeterminants as well as hybrids and heirlooms, were hydroponically grown in the presence or absence of Si to determine the absorption and distribution of the nutrients in roots, stems, petioles, and leaves. A total elemental analysis revealed that Si concentrations significantly increased with Si treatment, and that root concentrations were significantly higher than those in leaves. Although a few species showed differences in carbon, nitrogen, and calcium concentrations in roots and leaves with Si treatment, many of the macronutrients and micronutrients were unaffected. These data suggest that tomato plants absorb Si within the macronutrient range and restrict its movement from roots to shoots.