raising brix - part 2

Thought I'd start a new thread to continue the discussion on raising brix that was started on this thread:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/644208/

I had a soil test performed by International Ag Labs at the end of last summer and added the recommended amendments before planting the winter crop of collards, brocollos, brussel sprouts, beets and cabbages.
One of my Christmas presents was a refractometer. I managed to squeeze a drop of sap out of a collard leaf and it measured 11.5 brix at ~2:45pm this afternoon. Today was a partly cloudy, turning rainy day.
I don't see collards listed on my brix chart, so I'm comparing it to the numbers for cabbage, which is similar. 10 is considered a good brix, 12 is excellent (for cabbage), so I'm taking that as a sign that I'm doing something right in the garden.

I was unable to measure the brussel sprouts since I could not squeeze enough juice out. I don't have the modified visegrips that the 'professionals' use to extract the sap and was improvising with a bar clamp that I had on hand. Had anyone been watching, I'm sure they would have gotten a good chuckle out of my method to extract sap. LOL!The sap pressing vice grips are now on order.

Has anyone else been charting the brix numbers for your winter gardens?

I have been checking BRIX.Most values are low.I need to do alot of work.I'm glad you have started this thread again.Hope we get a lot of ideas on raising brix.I need all the help I can get.I have been using a metal garlic press & it works great for me. Thanks

Thanks for the suggestion lockman. I'll take my garlic press to the garden this afternoon and see if I can squeeze some sap from a brussel sprout leaf with that. I still need to test my sugar snap peas, beet greens and lettuces. The skies opened up into a downpour yesterday, so I had to leave off.

Do you have any of Arden Andersen's books on biological (high brix) farming?
The Anatomy of Life and Energy in Agriculture is the "beginner" book.
http://tinyurl.com/2rtyz3

I had a chance to look at that one at the sustainable ag conference I attended a week ago and realize I should have purchased that volume first. I mistakenly thought his next volume "Science in Agriculture: Advanced Methods for Sustainable Farming" was just an update.

The metal garlic press did work to get a drop of sap out of the brussel sprout leaf, barely. It brixed at 12 so I was dancing happy in the garden. Short lived ecstasy though. The sap from a beet leaf only measured 6.5, the Italian chard (type of silverbeet) was an embarrassing 3.25 and the sugar snap pea leaves/stem were a 7 brix. It appears I only know how to feed the cabbage family well, or the others are more voracious eaters and need another soil drench! I'm off to research beet and pea nutrition.

garden_mermaid Looks like you are getting some good readings. As for the low reading, looks like some of mine. I have Arden Andersen's book "The Anatomy of Life and Energy in Agriculture". I tried his suggestion of adding high-calcium lime/soft rock phosphate/compost last fall. Have not been able to find ammonium sulfate. Hope I can find an organic substitute for it. Is "Science in Agriculture" on raising brix? Hope we can find people here at Dave's who can help us figure all this out. I hope Shoe can get a refractometer and do some testing on his stuff. He has been growing organic for a long time and this all seems to tie into organic farming. Wish you lots of luck.

lockman, I just took Arden's 3 day agronomy seminar in mid-January. For the organic growers, he was recommending fish or guano to replace the 'chemical' ammonias. Science in Agriculture is the advanced book. I should have started with the one you have. I had International AgLabs do a soil test last fall and followed their initial recommendations. It probably would have been better if I had just signed up for their HighBrx Garden program so that I would receive appropriate products for my crop rather than try to figure it out on my own. The $150 includes a soil test plus the soil additives and foliar feeds. I spent the $50 for the soil test only and have been working with locally available products, which is more challenging.

There is a lot more info and discussion on this topic taking place on the BrixTalk Yahoo group. I recommend you join in on that group as well. You can learn a lot going through the archives and looking at the files.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/BrixTalk/