Allan wrote ". Brix can readily be affected by foliar applications can't it? -Allan "
Above is the most important little snippet of information thats been on this list for ages I know that (but dont understand why) a lot of organic and BD certified producers are philosophicaly opposed to foliar nutrient applications. When farmers are in the situation where we dont have our soils in balance yet, or something else is wrong that has put our system off the track for a while and we are suffering insect or disease attack, or poor plant growth due to some nutritional disorder then is when we can make a major improvement in quality of produce by using the brix meter to monitor the crops response to a range of available foliar nutrients. And there are plenty of nice things to use this includes the BD preps, fish emulsion, kelp, worm juice, compost teas, manure teas, molasses, sugar, vinegar, etc etc as well as the host of proprietary brand stuff, and the so called nasties from the chemical companies ( we often use small quantities of say calcium nitrate -1/2 to 1 kg per hectare -combined with molasses and fish emulsion or 300 to 500 ml of food grade phosphoric acid with a molasses - kelp - fish - homebrew tea ) I use four small pump spray bottles from the supermarket to test for crop response - mix the different brews in the exact proportion that will be put out with the field sprayer, spray a meter square plot of each and measure the brix response half an hour later, you will often get a down response from a perfectly good material that is just not appropriate at the time - whichever bottle mix gives the best crop response (increased brix of crop and decreased brix of any weeds) is the one to use and less quantity is usually better than more The crop response (yield and quality ) that can be achieved at low cost using this method can be truly amazing. We have had several times where brews that ran around a dollar an acre material cost have given several bushels per acre more wheat as well as lessening the vigour of weeds in the crop This is not rocket science and its not new either I read the brix mans online book this morning and would recommend it to all - and while it seems written more for the consumer than the producer - its good information - as also the book by Arden Andersen that is referred to there For those having difficulty finding instruments at a reasonable price in Australia or New Zealand David Von Pein in Queensland is the most cost effective supplier of this gear that I have seen (dont know how this bloke makes a profit he's heaps cheaper than most) - OK thats a plug but I have no financial connection ! After we get our soils properly balanced and remineralised to Albrecht standards and get our biodynamics working right and everything else is good then I suppose what I have written here no longer applies - in the mean time its another tool we can all use to grow better quality produce at less expense for the good of all - and I know at least one feller that needs to make a profit from his farm in the short term. Best to all for the new year Lloyd Charles
