From: Jose Luiz M Garcia (gingerjo@terra.com.br)
Date: Thu Nov 28 2002 - 20:36:06 EST
Thanks. Excellent information that I have printed and attached
to my Brix files. It really make sense.
jose
Regarding BRIX and Compost tea applications - time of day and weather
conditions when the reading is taken are very important to interpreting
the numbers. These comments Hugh Lovel made about a year ago on the BD
Now site may help:
"Brix can be very revealing. But it is a bit more complex than just high
brix
equals high sugar and good taste with insect and disease resistance."
"Brix is a measure of dissolved solids, not all of which are sugars by
any
means. Salts and amino acids enter the picture for starters.
"High brix in the morning generally indicates the plant has not
translocated
its sugars to its roots and shed them to the soil overnight, feeding the
soil
food web.
"This feeding of (mostly micro) organisms in the rhizosphere believe it
or not,
is highly desirable. If the plant does this it gets the soil food web
stoked up
and cranking out highly elaborated nutrients. Probably the most
important of
these are complex amino acids. If the plant gets its nitrogen as amino
acids
instead of nitrogen salts, the assembly into proteins in the cells
becomes rich
and full blown as there are no nitrogen salts to interfere. Then one
gets
plenty of long chain aminos. That's mostly where the great flavour comes
in for
people. But for insects with their more rudimentary digestion they
greatly
prefer short chain aminos and can't digest the long chain stuff. So they
leave
such plants alone.
"If you have (relatively) high brix in the morning, then this is
undesirable.
Almost surely it means boron deficiency, as the plant would otherwise
respond,
with adequate boron, by translocating its carbon fixings (mostly sugars)
to the
roots at night--what Elaine Ingam calls carbon shedding.
"When a plant sheds carbon compounds abundantly, at its roots, it really
grows
like gangbusters. If you can get this going well enough you can grow
corn as a
soil improvement crop without fertilizer while getting superior (in
every way)
yields. With a BD program this is nearly a cinch. Horn clay is a must
though,
as it optimizes the ebb and flow of sap between the root and the growing
tip.
"High brix in the afternoon means your plant has been building an
abundant
inventory of sugars during its daytime photosynthesis. That's great
stuff, of
course. But take care to consider what time of day you take your
reading.
"Also, sometimes plants will send their sugars to the roots in the
afternoon if
the barometer drops enough, anticipating a severe thunderstorm. If you
take
your reading just before such an event and get low brix, you have a
healthy,
with-the-program plant that has adequate boron despite the low reading
in the
afternoon.
"So use your refractometers intelligently. They are great tools, and
probably
the quickest way to evaluate low boron (which may be occurring in more
than 70%
of crops in the US)."
In response to the question, "Does this rhythm, release of dissolve
solids
(sugars & amino acids) apply to all families of plants? i.e. do broccoli
or
potatoes, say, shed carbon from their roots?"
Hugh replied, "In general I would say yes. Definitely broccoli and
potatoes
shed carbon. Different plants shed a different mix. Corn, for example,
sheds a
clear, jelly-like mix rich in polysaccarides, which are polymer (chain)
sugars.
Lettuce, which can be a vigorous carbon shedder, gives off a milky
latex.
Buckwheat sheds a mix that really stimulates the microorganisms that
make
phosphorous available, while hemp gives off a mix that stimulates those
microbes that make potash available. Potatoes, need plenty of available
potash
but don't give off the rights stuff to make it available in a soil that
is low
in accessible potash. So potatoes give a much better yield following
hemp--if
we could only grow it in the US! But from this I guess you'll see some
of the
major reasons for crop rotations, cover cropping and the like.
"In general where sugars are being concentrated in fruit the plant is
NOT
sending these to the roots. That's only at the end of the growth cycle,
and by
then they aren't needed in the root zone anymore anyway."
-----Original Message-----
From: soilfoodweb@aol.com <soilfoodweb@aol.com>
To: compost_tea@yahoogroups.com <compost_tea@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 7:22 PM
Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Vegetable quality
OK, I have to do a better job of remembering to take the refractometer
with me.
Now for a way to test protein levels, or as precursors to protein
production, free amino acids as easily.
But as has been pointed out, if free amino acids get stuck in that form,
and don't get moved into protein synthesis, you'll attract pests. So,
both Kapular and Jose can be correct, you have to understand plant
physiology.
The question becomes, why are your amino acids getting stuck in that
form and not moving on to protein? You need to be able to tell when too
many are not a good thing. Too much protein sitting around doing
nothing will kill plants too. Protein has to get moved into structure
and function.
In fact, quite soon, as in tomorrow, we'll be doing one of those annual
rituals where all the people in the house will be happily vegetating,
sitting watching a movie or something, too many free amino acids running
amok in the digestive system, getting turned into... well, preferably
protein and not flab.
I hope all of your loved ones make it to your Thanksgiving Feasts, in
thought, in memory, in person, or by phone. Enjoy!
Elaine
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
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