Brix testing, best method?

whytewidow said:

I know why we want high brix. Better taste less bugs. Low brix bad taste bugs will come.

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Cletus clem said:

Yes indeed. Does not answer the question at hand though! @chemphlegm ??? Help a brother out?

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chemphlegm said:

High Brix Foods Have Greater Carbohydrate Levels

Carbohydrates are the fuel the body uses for basic metabolic function. This has tremendous implications on digestion and human health. This is covered more fully in Food Quality & Digestion.


High Brix Foods Have Greater Mineral Density

One of the health rules that Dr. Carey Reams taught was that:

"All disease is the result of a mineral deficiency."

This rule clearly shows why it is so important to eat foods with high mineral density. One of the most important nutrients that increases with high brix readings is calcium. According to Dr. Reams calcium levels in produce rise and fall proportionately with the brix levels. This has been independently confirmed by Bob Pike in his research on tissue testing. Disorders and degenerative diseases resulting from a calcium deficiency could fill several books.

In addition to increased calcium levels, high brix foods also supply more trace minerals such as copper, iron, and manganese. Trace minerals function as co-enzymes in the digestive process. Co-enzymes work with enzymes as activators of those enzymes. These trace minerals have higher atomic weights. Due to greater mineral density and the inclusion of heavier trace minerals high brix foods weigh more per unit than lower quality produce.

Digital refractometer makes measuring high brix in foods easy.Minerals in foods are in a naturally chelated form. Naturally chelated minerals are bound to amino acids that have a right-hand spin. Amino acids with a right-hand spin are referred to as L-Amino acids. L-Amino acids are biologically active. This translates into easy assimilation into the body compared to inorganic minerals taken in pill form. Amino acids that have been compounded by man have a left-hand spin, which is known as D-Amino acids, or they are a mixture of the L and D form of amino acids. The D form is not biologically active and is rarely found in nature. The L and D forms of amino acids are mirror images of each other. This is the reason why mineral supplements that have minerals bound to an amino acid and claimed to be chelated need to be checked which form the amino acids are in. When it comes to supplementing with vitamins and minerals it is BUYER BEWARE. The indiscriminate use of vitamins and minerals can create a dangerous situation whereas the correct use of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes can be very beneficial to the body. When consuming high quality fruits and vegetables the there is no need for the BUYER BEWARE warning.


High Brix Foods Taste Better

Quality foods that are high in calcium, enzymes and minerals provide good nutrition to the body.Why won't little Johnny eat his peas? They taste terrible. Little Johnny instinctively knows that sweet tasting peas are better while poor-quality peas are instantly rejected. Have you ever eaten a 22 brix grape? Once you have you won't forget the taste. A candy bar will be held in disdain by little Johnny compared to 22 brix grapes. Ask any old-timer if they like the taste of fruits and vegetables now compared to when they were young. I am sure you won't be able to find a single person that feels today's are better. Taste is built upon the upon the carbohydrate and mineral levels in the produce. When they decline so does the taste. What about aroma? That seems lost as well. Todays average 2-3 brix hydroponic greenhouse tomato looks like a tomato but it has virtually no aroma and is nearly tasteless. It is a poor caricature of what a tomato should be. As a culture Americans are so used to eating low quality produce we don't even know what really good produce tastes like.


High Brix Plants Are Insect And Disease Resistant

Here we see the handiwork of our Creator. Plants in poor health emit an electo-magnetic frequency that insects tune in to. This in effect calls them in for a feast. Plants in good health emit a different frequency that insects do not tune in to. Nature has been designed to use insects to get rid of poor quality plants that are unfit for human consumption. In the same way a poorly balanced soil will produce plants susceptible to disease. Properly balanced soil will produce plants resistant to disease. William Albrecht put it this way:

“Insects and disease are the symptoms of a failing crop, not the cause of it. It's not the overpowering invader we must fear but the weakened condition of the victim.”

Ouch!


Animals Instinctively Prefer High Brix Foods

Animals have a greater sense of instinct than does mankind. Their instinct for survival can be seen in the multitude of stories arising from the recent tsunami. Wild animals were not caught by surprise—they had fled for higher ground hours before the waves hit the shores. This same level of instinct carries over to their choice of foods. The foods of highest mineral density and health are preferred over poorer quality. Here is something to ponder over. Wild deer will not graze genetically modified corn stalks unless close to starving. This is why conservationists who are planting corn specifically for the deer population will avoid planting genetically modified corn. Production agriculture has found that it takes twice as many acres of genetically modified cornstalks to get the same amount of weight gain on cattle as compared to conventional non-GMO corn varieties.

Here is an easy experiment to prove this point. Buy whole field corn sold in the birdseed section of your local supermarket and some popcorn. Whole field corn will weigh somewhere around 55 lbs. per bushel while the popcorn will be around 66-68 lbs. per bushel. Offer both corn samples to some chickens that are not overly hungry and see which corn they eat first. They first go after the popcorn with great enthusiasm and then the field corn with less enthusiasm. Why? Popcorn has greater mineral density as indicated by test weight. Cattle have the same instinct. They will always prefer the forage with the higher sugar content. This has been proven many times by seeing which hay cattle eat first when offered a choice.

In conclusion Brix has become the gold standard to measure plant quality. Measuring the brix level on plants is quick, simple, and fairly inexpensive. Unfortunately some of the largest detractors of the Brix=Quality movement propagate a system of agriculture that produces low-brix plants. These plants need ‘crop protection' in the form of herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. These pesticides disrupt the delicate microbial balance in the soil and contribute to the continued production of low-brix foods. Another quote from that eminent soil scientist, William Albrecht, seems in order:

"The use of (pesticide) sprays is an act of desperation in a dying agriculture."

The good news is that more and more people are demanding higher-quality food and numerous farmers are getting off the pesticide/GMO/low-brix merry-go-round and beginning to produce food that can have a tremendous impact on improving our health and nutrition—and it all starts with our digestive system.

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chemphlegm said:

I monitor my Brix for proper feeding, harvest times, general health and uptake/burn.


best I can explain, its a tool, I use it, no idea why I just know what I'm looking for and when it should be visible and what to do about it if it is not.

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Cletus clem said:

Interesting, so youre saying harvesting at peak brix (i guess not peak as you would need to see the decline but you get my drift) opposed to peak trich developement for flavor? And thank you for the info.

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chemphlegm said:

as long as peak isnt at the highest brix point, then yes.
assuming the plant is not receiving more fertilizer than it can use I use these numbers as a guide.
They tell me when my plant is burning carbs, when its not, and ultimately when it no longer needs to.
Trichomes are peak ripe when solid milky. When trichomes degrade they change to amber. some people like their peaches mushy, some firm. Peaches are ripe when their brix is at its highest, but note the peach tree leaves are not at the highest brix at this point, only the fruit.
We want sugars in our peaches, not so much in our flowers. If your mj reading is a 12(for example) at finish(full on milky, beginning amber)....
Plant is not metabolizing fast enough to burn those carbs you provide
It is not time to harvest, maybe time to consider feeding less next time, try water only in dirt/promix.

hydro is the easiest to funz with a refractometer. The amount of feed is metered, known , you can see the results quickly. I could grow without one of course but I wouldnt. I use it in my outdoor gardens now too, apples, berries, etc, fruit/leaves testing is on more key to perfection in finished produce.

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Cletus clem said:

Any tips/techniques for the squeezing??? My refractometer just came, i wanna play with my new toy!!!

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chemphlegm said:

clean hands, latex gloves, an alcohol cleaned scalpel and steel tweezers, I crush the little(1/16x1/16ish) bit right on the window with the scalpel, one push I see juice and remove the cabbage leaving the juice.
I love growing high brix cannabis but smoking high brix cannabis....not so much. theres a really cool window of opportunity you'll find for your perfect harvest moment. Get a chart for awhile, pick a keeper plant you already know and stick with testing just that one, unless you're industrious with oodles of time, do them all then.
check brix lights on lights off, mid lights, (sry) I dont know your grow techs but check minutes after a flood/feed, hours too, next day.
pretty soon you'll see this pattern evolve.Try to stick with exactly what you already know for now, dont try to change brix (well, industrious, etc)
when you see this pattern I dialed down (settled down) my brix checking but also changed the way and times I feed and water for instance. I changed up my c02 cycle also, found I didnt need so much to ensure thriving metabolism so I cut that down a bit. harvest times are optimized as they are with the fruit of my orchards. I've tested those tree leaves too but they're always awesome so I stick to the fruit when I think its close. I've pushed my apples to 18 but I really think the sweet spot for them is around 16. Store apples have been 7, 11 ish, yuck, my neighbor likes 12's, so......its up to you. and consider this has little to do with cannabis buds, as thats not fruit like apples. and you arent eating them, if you were a high brix would be sweeter, but high brix at harvest is unburned carbs and will take fermenting to rid your bud of the icky.( overfed organic>overfed bottles imo)

your brix reading will show you things like metabolism, general health, root health, uptake over/under feeding maybe more.

brix readings are sluggish under (older?) inferior lights compared to hid's for instance.
if mine (3) broke I'd replace them all, one in the garden shed, one in the drying room/house and one in the mj garden

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chemphlegm said:

Brix– A unit of measure used in the refractometer. When the Brix reading is divided by 2 it will be equal to the percent of crude sucrose in the plant tissue.

Refractometer– A device used to measure the refractive index of plant juices in order to determine the mineral/sugar ratio of the plant cell protoplasm.

Refractive Index of Crop juicesare calibrated in percent sucrose or degree Brix.

During the growing season it is possible to check a plant for percent sucrose. A refractometer is easy to use. You will need something like a garlic squeezer for juicing the plant sample. To make a reading, place 2 to 3 drops of the liquid sample on the prism surface, close the cover and point toward any light source. Focus the eyepiece by turning the ring to the right or left. Locate the point on the graduated scale where the light and dark field meet. Read the percent sucrose (solid content on the scale).

The refractometer measures in units called Brix. The Brix equals to percent crude carbohydrate per 100 pounds of juice. The higher the carbohydrate in the plant juice the higher the mineral content of the plant, the oil content of the plant, and the protein quality of the plant.

For example, if you were to have 100 pounds of alfalfa that has a Brix reading of 15 it would mean that there would be 15 pounds of crude carbohydrates if the alfalfa was juiced and dried to 0 percent moisture. By dividing 15 by 2 it tells us that the actual amount of simple sugar would be equal to 7.5 pounds.

Crops with higher refractive index will have a higher sugar content, higher protein content, higher mineral content and a greater specific gravity or density. This adds up to a sweeter tasting, more mineral nutritious feed with lower nitrates and water content and better storage attributes.

Crops with higher Brix will produce more alcohol from fermented sugars and be more resistant to insects, thus resulting in decreased insecticide usage. For insect resistance, maintain a Brix of 12 or higher in the juice of the leaves of most plants. Crops with a higher solids content will have a lower freezing point and therefore be less prone to frost damage.

Brix readings can also indicate soil fertility needs. If soil nutrients are in the best balance and are made available (by microbes) upon demand by plants, readings will be higher.

You will find that when the phosphate levels in the soil are not up to what they should be, the sugar in the plants will vary from the bottom of the plant to the top. In other words, the Brix reading at the bottom of the plant will be higher than the top of the plant. The better the phosphate levels in ratio to potassium the more even the Brix reading will be all over the plant. Also the better the phosphate levels in ratio to potassium the less fluctuation there will be in the brix reading in any given 24 hour period.

You will also note that when you are looking into a refractometer you will sometimes be able to see a very sharp line which is very easy to read, while at other times it may be a very hazy line and not well demarcated and so difficult to read. The very sharp and dark and easy to read line means the crop is lower in calcium and higher in acid. A very diffuse and hard to read line tells one that the calcium is higher and the acid is lower in the plant. This is why a lower Brix reading on a plant will actually taste sweeter when there is high calcium than one that may have a little higher Brix reading and a low calcium. The available soluble sugar is what gives taste and sweetness to food. The more calcium in the crop along with the sugar, the sweeter the taste even though the Brix reading will be the same on two samples.

Source: Biologic Ionization as Applied to Farming and Soil Management

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Chip Green said:

This is seriously beyond elite level....
To say this "tickles my fancy" is a drastic understatement.
Jaw dropping.

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