High Brix soil grow

[budrunners]

Hello fellow IC members I thought I would share my experience with high brix soil growing with everyone. I am not going to engage in a pissing contest with people about what works and what does not.
This is something I didn't invent, this method has been used for years by farmers. I have invested a little money to have a ag lab get soil tailored specific to high brix gardening. I sent in samples of soils I had, it was analyzed and in return got their recommendations for the amendments needed.
I will gladly try to help anyone that wants to give it a try.

There are four bases to achieving high brix soil:

1.)Foundational minerals. These are your rock powders, Limestone, Soft Rock Phosphate, Gypsum. Other things could conceivably be used as well, but those are cheap, reliable and available. The single most important mineral for High Brix is Calcium, followed by Phosphorus.

2.)Soil Energy. ERGS (Energy Released per Gram per Second). No energy in the soil, no growth of the plant. Fertilizers, organic material, salts....all increase ERGS.

3.)Soil Biology. These are the microbes, nematodes and fungi that inhabit the root zone and break down all the organic material and present it to the plant. We accomplish proper soil biology with humus and we boost it with microbial teas and root inoculates.

4.)Trace Elements. The "micro's." Magnesium, zinc, boron, iron, manganese, copper, molybdenum, sulfur, etc.

We don't put these things in the soil in the typical NPK ratio's that you see on plant food bottles. These things go into the soil in order to make the soil biology happy. For example, most of the phosphorus isn't available to the plant at all. Same with the calcium. But the microbes love it.

The plants, courtesy of the soil life, get anything they want, as much as they want. They never burn, they never lack.

That's the soil.

You supercharge the Brix in the plant tissue via Foliar Feeding. Phosphorus is the "shipping specialist" in the plant. Most things the plant needs come piggy backed as a phosphate, so increasing the phosphorus and calcium levels in the plant increases the sugar content in the leaves, which the plant sends down to the roots in the form of "root exudates." These root exudates feed and signal microbes and fungi that live on the roots, and they take the sugar and use it to form humic/fulvic acids so they can digest minerals and organic matter and feed the plant.

The foliar sprays act like a supercharger, while the soil acts like a gas tank. The microbes are the engine.....and the plants are the passengers who enjoy the ride.

That's High Brix.

It's not so much the microbes as the ions created during the chemical breakdown of those minerals.

When we mix the limestone, SRF and gypsum, a chemical reaction takes place that basically forms a battery in the soil. Salts are also conductive (EC).

Too much voltage usually means a salt problem. Too little and the plants won't have enough energy to grow.

High Brix growing refers to a method that allows the plants to achieve their healthiest state. They have increased sugars, minerals, terpenes and everything else.

Plants with High Brix give off a different electromagnetic frequency which repels insects! The sugar in the leaves actually kills mites, and the plants can take much more abuse without ill effects.

The psychoactive properties of the resin "seem" different....but at present that's just very slim, anecdotal evidence. It will take quite a bit of time and research to determine what is different as far as psychoactive properties.

There are some things we do know for certain:

High Brix means greater weight per volume
less spoilage, longer shelf life
far better taste

What we're hoping to do here is figure out a "Best Practice" approach to growing High Brix MMJ.

I suggest the following broad categories:

1.)matching soil composition to container size, lighting intensity, strain.
2.)dealing with pests. High Brix literature claims that spraying an insecticide is an act of desperation. High Brix growers do not have insect pressure.
3.)Best amendments, foliar sprays, soil food


We want the healthiest, safest, highest quality produce possible. High Brix is the way to get it.

 

[budrunners]

Foliar Feed Regularly

Have you ever used an old-fashioned hand pump to draw out water from the ground? The first thing it needs is some water poured down the shaft followed by vigorous pumping on the handle. It only takes a small amount of water to “prime the pump.”

Foliar feeding is like priming the pump on a growing plant. A prerequisite prior to foliar feeding is to ensure adequate minerals and biology have been added to the soil. When this is coupled with regular nutrient drenches to keep the soil energy at its peak, the plant is now ready to be “primed,” via foliar feeding, for optimum production.

Lets take a closer look at what happens when a foliar spray is applied to plant leaves. A well-made foliar spray is a dilute nutrient solution. If properly constructed it will pas through the leaf surface and increase the photosynthetic capability of the plant. In other words it will allow the plant to take in more energy from the sun. The difficulty is in properly constructing the foliar spray. It is very important to fully understand what effects specific nutrients have on plants. The wrong foliar spray at the wrong time can create a tremendous yield decline. Here is a very important caution when foliar spraying: Either know what you are doing or work with a consultant who does.

When a foliar program is properly applied the mineral density within the plant is increased, as are the carbohydrates or plant sugars. This increase of plant sugars and minerals are sent to the roots of the plants, some of which are excreted out of the roots as plant exudates. This increase of plant root exudates, caused by the foliar spray, creates a ready food supply for the bacteria that live symbiotically on the plant roots. Bacteria respond to this increased food supply by making more nutrients in the soil available to the plant. These minerals are picked up by the roots and sent to the aerial part of the plant. This process explains how a foliar spray can increase brix readings.

In addition to increasing nutrient density, a foliar spray is a command to a plant’s physiology. A foliar spray can either push a plant toward vegetative production i.e. growth of leaves, stems, and stalk or it can push a plant toward reproduction i.e. promotion of blossoms, flowers, and fruit set.

Systematic foliar spraying will exhibit a cumulative affect of increasing yield along with mineral density and plant sugars. In the High Brix Garden program we emphasize a weekly foliar spray of either BrixBlaster or Qualify! beginning one month after transplanting or emergence. BrixBlaster is used for crops making reproductive growth such as tomatoes, peppers, and sweet corn. Qualify! is used on crops making vegetative growth such as lettuce, kale, and spinach. It can also be used on early growth of crops that will later need BrixBlaster.

The High Brix Garden Program also uses two other foliar sprays: Enthuse and ShowTime. Enthuse is used on a monthly basis or as needed for plant stress. It contains a broad-spectrum of trace minerals, bio stimulants, and single L-amino acids to help plants cope with stress. ShowTime is used once a month or as needed to enhance the visual appearance of plants and to repel noxious insects. This is a great product to use 1 day before you show your garden off to friends and family and you want it looking its best.
The Path to High Brix

In summary the Path to High Brix is really quite simple—just create the right environment for plants to express their full genetic potential. To do this we must have a vision and a roadmap as we do the following 3 steps:

Remineralize and Balance the Soil
Create and Maintain Soil Energy
Foliar Feed Regularly

They do not recommend Brixblaster anymore. They have some new products which I am using:

Amaze
PGR
Bloomit

These are damn strong products! I'm still learning how to use them.....but they are very powerful products that do way more than just spraying with compost tea, etc.

 

[ClackamasCootz]

the minerals and ions created during the chemical breakdown of those minerals

Minerals are Elements which cannot be created or deconstructed.

Chemistry 101

 

[budrunners]

brain and finger coordination good catch. you are right about that after re-reading. had several other things on my mind while I was typing

 

[xmobotx]

nonetheless; it would seem like some 'show me' from the brix crowd could be a good thing

there is a certain logic to some of these points ~like i want to believe you could repel spider mites and the like just by having a healthy plant {more or less}

i m all about giving them a chance {makes more sense than biodynamics to me}

the only real drawback is it seems like a lot of math figuring these things out and weighing input choices vs meter readings {kind of a step back to chem/hydro}

 

[budrunners]

Here's a short description of what I mean by High Brix Gardening.

Brix is a unit of measurement that tells us how much sugar, minerals and other dissolved solids that are in a liquid. In our case, the liquid is leaf juice and occasionally a small bud. Average brix for a solid organic grow is going to be 7 to 10. Moderate brix levels clock in at 10-12. Once you get over 12 brix you're in High Brix territory. The highest I've measured to date is 17.

Once brix gets over 12, pests aren't a problem and it is very unlikely any diseases will ruin your crop. The higher the brix, the healthier the plant.

Yep. This stuff isn't new....but it has been suppressed by intensive corporate farming and the companies that supply such operations, like Monsanto. Bad, bad company. Google Monsanto GMO Roundup. They are the number one pesticide maker and they're trying to get a monopoly on our food supply. Neat, eh?

CEC is indeed pH sensitive. It takes acid put out by the beneficials to break stuff away from the soil.

That's one of the reasons the rock powders are so important. In addition to other things, they are pH buffers.
Humus has the highest CEC, next would be clay. Manures and other organic ferts do not change or help the CEC....they rely on CEC in order to be of any use to the plant!

Trust me....if you only amend with the 6-5-3 and do nothing else different, your grow will improve noticeably. 6 parts Calcium Carbonate 90% pure or better CaCo3(Limestone not Dolomite Lime) 5 parts Soft Rock Phosphate and 3 parts gypsum this is the core for re-mineralization for high brix.
In addition glacier rock dust, azomite etc. etc. are excellent amendments along with 6-5-3

 

[budrunners]

Food for thought I copied

Remineralize and Balance the Soil

In college classes soil has been endlessly classified according to its’ proportion of organic mater, sand, silt, and clay while soil typing assigns names to various soils based on its structure, texture, and other parameters.

In the real world of growing high brix plants none of this matters one hoot. What really matters are things like:

How much calcium is available for the crop to build healthy cells?
Is calcium in correct ratio with magnesium?
Is there sufficient available phosphates in the soil needed to carry other nutrients into the plant and provide the energy transfer within the plant?
Is there a broad-spectrum of trace minerals available to the plant?
How active is the soil biology?
These are the important issues that must be addressed if we are to achieve high brix.

Calcium

Let's start with calcium. Calcium is needed in every healthy cell—no life can survive without it. It takes good microbial activity to make calcium available in the soil. At the same time when soil biology is increasing rapidly they will utilize available calcium—even taking it away from what the plants need. High brix foods are higher in calcium than low brix foods. Consequently it is imperative for available calcium to be addressed when embarking on the Path to High Brix.

Phosphates

Let's move on to phosphates. High brix foods cannot be built with low phosphates—it just doesn’t happen. Dr. Reams said it this way: “Available phosphates determine the sugar content in plants.” High Brix foods are not particularly high in phosphates; rather they are significantly higher in calcium, sugars, and trace minerals. Phosphates are the catalysts that transport nutrients within the plant. Once the nutrients are transported to the correct location the phosphates recycle and again carry more nutrients to the correct location within the plant. Phosphates are the trucker moving nutrients and joining these nutrients to the plant. They are the catalysts of chemical reactions but are not part of the union. When phosphates are low fewer minerals are transported within a plant—hence lower mineral density. Phosphates also play a major role as the energy source in the Krebs cycle. This is just a fancy way of saying that phosphates help the plant get more energy out of the sunlight, which leads to a greater production of carbohydrates.

Trace minerals

Trace minerals have received a lot of coverage in the health world lately. They are vital and must be in our diet for good health. A few come to mind: selenium, iodine, cobalt, lithium, and vanadium. They all play a role in our health and we know it. Unfortunately most people just aren’t getting enough in their diet because they are not in our foods. Most trace minerals are quite heavy and when foods contain rare earth minerals they weigh more than low brix foods. In other words if two apples of differing weights are the same size the heavier apple will be the most nutritious because it contains more minerals. So how do we get trace minerals into our foods? Obviously the first thing we have to do is apply them to the soil. Since trace minerals are so dense uptake also requires high levels of calcium and phosphates in our plants.

Potassium, nitrogen and sulfur

Other important nutrients to consider when remineralizing soil include potassium, nitrogen, and sulfur. Potassium plays a key role in plant health and yield but its use in recent times has been excessive to the detriment of calcium availability. Nitrogen, like potassium, has also been over used and rarely understood. Sulfur, in the form of sulfates, is indispensable for proper protein formation within plants.

Microbiology

Soil Remineralization is the best time to add microbiology. By combining biology with rock powders, soil amendments, and fertilizers, the soil has greater digestive capacity to make the minerals available for plant uptake. In the High Brix Garden program soil remineralization is accomplished by the annual broadcast of nutrients that is custom formulated according to the results of the soil test.

Achieving Balance

An important consideration in growing high brix is to achieve balance. Excesses and deficiencies are equally debilitating. Deficiencies are, however, much easier to overcome. Many gardeners have so imbalanced their soil with excessive phosphorous and potassium from manure or compost that their soil is virtually ruined for growing high brix. By following the roadmap of the soil test we can avoid the extremes while supplying the missing nutrients. Once we have begun soil remineralization, we need to follow it up with an equally vital step ...







Create and Maintain Soil Energy

Energy in the soil is measured by electrical conductance. The unit of measurement is microSiemens (mS) per centimeter on a conductivity meter. On the soil test electrical conductance is shown as ERGS. This is an acronym, given by Dr. Reams, which stands for Energy Released per Gram per Second.

The governor for electrical conductance in soils is humus. When humus levels are high the Ergs reading is stabilized and does not “climb the highest peak and then plunge to the deepest valley.” When striving for high brix plants on soils with low humus levels it is important to keep the Ergs up. As the growing season progresses plants draw heavily on soil reserves and the Ergs reading drops. In other words the soluble nutrients in the soil are taken up by the plants, which results in a decrease of electrical conductance in soils. Low soil energy causes plant growth to slow way down.

 

[budrunners]

Adding 1 cup of 6-5-3 to 2.0 CF of soil (25% happy frog 75% peat perlite mix) 6-5-3 = 6 parts Calcium Carbonate 90% pure or better CaCo3(Limestone not Dolomite Lime) 5 parts Soft Rock Phosphate and 3 parts gypsum
3 quarts EWC
1/2 cupAzomite
1/2 cup Bone Meal
Mycos

mix it pour microbial tea over soil mix and let it cook 1 month in warm place, making sure it does not dry out during the cook period. like I said I didnt create this this was formulated for me for high brix by ag lab

No math needed it is already done here 6-5-3 is the core for mineralization , no meters needed. its still the same organics just taken to another level, except this is calculated by ag lab and eliminates the nutty professor syndrome.This is not to say that other soils won't pass the test...only that this was the first soil that I had tested that made it.

FFOF-fail
SubCool Super Soil-fail

ProMix HP-passed, borderline high on Potassium.
FF Happy Frog partially passed had to amend with peat

I started off gardening with salt based ferts and had great results, then tried organics and fell in love with the taste and smells of organics, then high brix comes along and takes my organics to a much higher complex level of taste, smell and medication.

 

[FatherEarth]

Pulling up a chair and some high brix herb snacks for the head...

Hey Mr.,

Show us your meters... lol

 

[budrunners]

In order to achieve high brix, certain ratio's of minerals and major elements must be in balance. This part of the "method" is pure science, and not subject to opinion or debate.

Basically, you've got to have lots of calcium, most of it from limestone, soft rock phosphate and gypsum. If you use those 3 ingredients alone, 6 parts CaCo3 (calcium carbonate), 5 parts Sort Rock Phosphate, and 3 parts gypsum, you've got mineralized soil. 1 cup of this mix per bag of soil is a good place to start.

In addition to the foundational minerals, you'll want minors and trace elements. In a well designed potting soil, adding a bit of Azomite.

Things to avoid as recommended by the lab:

Dolomite, lots of kelp, high phosphate ferts, compost, bentonite/montromorillionite, excess epsom salt, high potassium ferts.

The big surprise is compost. For some reason I used to be under the impression that compost was just nothing but good, and more compost improved the soil, etc. It turns out to be almost never used in high brix gardening

Dolomite is only good at one thing: stabilizing ph.

However, the rock powders I listed above will also stabilize pH AND be a source of minerals for the plants. There is no reason to use dolomite when you can do such a better job with the other stuff.

When looking for limestone, you want something pure and 90% or better Calcium Carbonate. Please take note that this is not Calcium Carbonate Equivalent.....but actual Calcium Carbonate. Limestone = Calcium Carbonate. (CaC03)

When you see something listed "calcium carbonate equivalent" and then some percentage after, it's describing the pH buffering capacity of the material. We're only interested in that as a secondary consideration. We want the calcium! So, pay no attention to equivalents....just look at raw ingredients and get something 90% or better CaCo3, which is exactly what you have there!

Be careful with the molasses it's high in potassium. Use it sparingly. Dextrose is an excellent source for beneficials Be careful with the molasses.

Good amendments to add
Oyster shell
fish bone meal
Azomite, any minerals with trace
EWC
crab meal



Greensand is way too high in potassium. You won't get anywhere near high brix with that.

 

[OrganicBuds]

Just tested my brix on one of my plants and got a reading of 16.5. I use 20% EWC in my soil mix, green sand, along with dolomite and lots of molasses in my teas. Not sure why you would not recommend these products? Where are you getting this info from? Sorry if already answered. What do your plants test at?

 

[budrunners]

OrganicBuds
plants tested myself, Soil tested by Labs, I just follow directions and recommendations from guys in lab coats from International Ag Labs for high brix soil. Its good to see that you are still getting high brix numbers with your amendments. My plants test at 16-19
EWC shows how valuable it is.
Greensand which is/was one of my fav amendments. Lab guys said to avoid it because of the high potassium, its good to see that you are doing fine with it.
Molasses is great in teas as it feeds the microherd, its when its used heavily the lab guys said that the microbes would feed more on the molasses and not work on breaking down the other amendments in the soil, sparingly used keeps them happy too much and it makes them lazy.
Dolomite is limited to just a good ph buffer as opposed to the 6-5-3 mineral mix that provides ph buffers AND a source of minerals especially calcium.
Thanks for sharing
keep it green

 

[OrganicBuds]

Thanks for the explanation. When I have more time I will have to go through your recommendations with a fine tooth comb. I love high brix info.

What do you think is the best thing you can do for high brix?

 

[FunTimesIndeed]

So what you're saying is what? get a soil test and listen to them? yay high brix!!!!

 

[MrSterling]

I'm on board for the thread. There's been some conflict, unnecessarily so, between the ROLS Church and the BRIX advocates. They're different ways of examining the situation that ultimately leads to the same results. If you build the soil correctly your plants should be healthy and they should test high for BRIX content. It's like how the Atkins diet accomplished the same thing as a caloric restriction diet by focusing on the carbs.

 

[Neo 420]

They do not recommend Brixblaster anymore. They have some new products which I am using:

Amaze
PGR
Bloomit

They test soils and recommend their own products too?

 

[canna woop!]

...molasses?

 

[Neo 420]

Kelp??

 

[cyat]

interesting.. got any pics ?

wondering whats the peat to perlite ratio in your mix.. and are you only adding water with this soil mix and foliar feeding?

 

[canna woop!]

Kelp??

i think so, but i cannot speak for molasses