This was a very cool experience, I definitely would suggest it for everyone. I however do not believe this season was a good example of my gardens potential. The main reason is of how cold, wet, and cloudy it has been… All factors that will effect sugar levels in plants.
Brix level chart – http://www.highbrixgardens.com/pdf/brix-chart.pdf
Brix tester – http://www.ebay.com/itm/370899538292?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
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Your videos are very professional and high quality!
WOOO! finally testing the brix levels of my vegetables. This easily had to be the #1 most requested video this year, so here you go!
For example with wine it is very well known that there are good and bad and exceptional years. The same thing applys to all other plants. Can this example also be used to determine the quality and content of nutritients in food ?
The next obvious question to me is how far are Brix meter levels related to healthy plants and nutrients ?
Do high Brix levels automatically guarantee health and nutrients in plants ?
Are sugar levels the only way to measure ?
I beleave those questions need a lot more in depth exploration before we start to ask what makes brix meter levels go up and down and what ways are there to controll it.
In the food industrie there are many ways to manipulate these Brix values and I´m not convinced that all those methods are healthy.
What are the parameters used to determine what is good and bad ?
Till now to me was good what I grow on my soil knowing what´goes into my plants, what looks great and tastes delicious. I don´t want to loose those values because of a Brix meter.
I think those question have to be asked before I get married to a Brix meter.
Brix testing getting very popular on YouTube…. When you're testing a single fruit or vegetable this is not a representative for the whole plant/crop, more than half of measuring errors comes from sampling…. (like your soil test) it's better you to take more fruit from a couple of plants and make a mixture. On a side note, when you are testing different vegetables clean with distilled water and dry with a soft tissue, your pants will scratch the glass, this will give you fals results. You can check your refractometer by measuring distilled water, this should give a zero reading.
I'm smiling as you wipe the instrument off on your shorts…….how country boy is that?
have you ever tested the same thing after you cooked it
Very interesting results, Luke! You're so right about the weather having a big impact on the sugar content of crops. I also like that you emphasized that Brix is primarily a measure of sugar content, not nutrient content. The more I look into Brix as an indicator of nutrient density, the more doubts I have about it.
Wow, getting it planted in good soil, keeping it weeded, watered in compost tea and debugged is good enough for me! I am going to let you do the testing. Thanks for another great video.
all that hard work and such terrible results!!
Hey Luke, thanks for sharing 🙂 still on the matter of comparison with shop bout products, there's another point, in my view, that you could have mentioned!
Where ever in this corporation driven economy that we live in, someone develops a test to access the quality/security/etc of something, that same thing starts to be manufactured/produced to get high scores in the test… not to be better, but to beat the test… example – the tests developed to assess the security of cars… now they have to develop new tests because cars where not being made to more secure, but to get higher scores in those tests…
Most likely scenario if you tested your vegetables against the store bout, is that the store bout, would have a higher bricks scale… that would just serve to prove the validity of what i´am saying… I´am sure that your vegetables are better 🙂 I paused your video to right, lets find out if you scored good, i´am hopping so but wont give much importance to it if you don´t, i´am still sure your vegetables are way better! you are still growing big, no need to go home! 🙂
I think your right on the money my friend! it is great for measuring the sugar content for brewing as well 😉 following some research i believe @OneYardRevolution is correct its detection limit is not low enough to measure micronutrients typically associated with nutrient density.
Great video, Luke, and very good point about the weather affecting our gardens! Seems like many gardeners all over are having some difficulty with production, or sweetness of certain crops. Has been an off year for many, including myself. However, even if the brix numbers are not where you want them to be, you are still getting very high quality produce and healthier food than you would buy in the store! Awesome job growing and producing more food than you can eat and also can share with others! That's a success in my book!
Great video! That looks like a really cool tool to have 🙂
Love your music with your videos!
That is an instrument that I too want to invest in. Thanks for the example on using it 🙂
Cool test. You can test your honey with that too (for proper moisture content) before you bottle it.
Interesting! Maybe a more accurate way of estimating the nutrient density of what your growing would be through soil testing. It would seem logical that if your soil is mineral rich and not deficient, and the soil ecology is good, you're going to get nutrient dense food, assuming you do your part LOL. Thanks for sharing!
why are you so cute? why?? get divorced, come marry me–i need your gardening skillz 🙂
Great information Luke. I really like all the great information you provide for gardeners.
That is interesting, Luke. I would love to have a Brix testor. Thanks for sharing this information.
Positivity is always better! That's a really interesting apparatus, Luke. I will have to investigate this further.
Since it just measures solids in the liquid, couldn't we just use ppm meter in the same way?