THURSDAY, JAN 26, 2023: NOTE TO FILE
Module 3-24
Nutrient rich plant crops
The agricultural sector has long been using Brix levels as an indicator of sugars / sucrose, or sap density, content for wine, sugar, carbonated beverage, fruit juice, maple syrup and honey products. A refractometer is a widely used small instrument that measures Brix, defined as the amount of refraction (or bend) in a beam of light that passes through the plant sap. Although the plant sap contains both carbohydrate chemicals / sugars and mineral ions, it is primarily the sugars in the sap that causes refraction, mainly because the primary activity of plants is photosynthesis, and also, due to the larger size of the sugars compared to the mineral ions within a molecule. Each plant has a unique sap signature, and consequently, a unique range of Brix levels from poor to excellent readings.
Graeme Sait, an author / educator, and founder of Nutrition Farming®, has recognized how Brix can measure the very important link between soil health and plant vitality. Herein, poor fertility and nutrition weakens the immune system of plants, and thereby, the natural, microbe-based defence mechanisms in the soil becomes compromised, which in turn, attracts opportunistic pests that eradicate these low vitality crops. Sait has for many years crusaded that retailers should pay for farmers’ produce not by weight, but by Brix levels, so that consumers can eat high value for money, nutritional fruit and vegetables, which ought to shift the emphasis towards regenerative agricultural practices. In the short video below (3 mins), Sait highlights how “chemical (industrial farming)” is driven by fear of failure and a fascination with short-term unsustainable solutions, as opposed to “biological farming” which is driven by love as farmers take a long-term view and care of their environment by being both food growers and land stewards.
Sait has also blogged about “The Beauty of Brix – Ten Things You Need To Know”, which hails the refractometer as a “hardy, inexpensive, user-friendly tool that will predict your crop's pest pressure, yield potential, quality, shelf-life, calcium status and weed problems”, as well as, “it will even detect boron deficiency, foliar spray suitability and the likelihood of frost damage”.
Table 5.4: Refractive Brix indices of crop juices
Module 3, lesson 25
