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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: Market Farming <marketfarming@lists.ibiblio.org>, permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Fwd: [SANET-MG] High Brix Project
  • Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 12:26:02 -0500

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] High Brix Project
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 12:10:37 -0500
From: Joel Gruver <jgruv@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Project members are growing crops in mineralized soil and comparing them with
the same crops grown in soil without mineral amendments; comparing the
Brix and then sending a crop sample in for laboratory testing for
mineral content. Then we are comparing the lab results with the USDA
charts. So far we are getting good results, with some crops showing 2
to 4 times the level of minerals shown in the USDA charts.

A couple questions:
How have you standardized your brix measurements? Same time of day? Only on sunny days? Same soil moisture levels?
Lots of factors other than soil fertility impact the dissolved solids in plant sap.

Are you having lab analysis done on crops grown in soils with and without mineral amendments?

Trace element uptake is extremely variable - see trace element data in Tables 2 and 4 in the article at the following link:

http://www.ipni.net/far/farguide.nsf/926048f0196c9d4285256983005c64de/4dc89dbe85315ab085256f18004f664e/$FILE/NJ-19F%20Nutrient%20Removal.pdf

Only comparing lab results for crops from the mineralized soils with USDA chart data is not going to tell you much.

****************************

Are you familiar with the research described below:

"In a collaborative research program initiated in 1978, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) aimed to determine the trace element contents of important food crops in the USA, and correlate them with soil content and other properties such as CEC, organic carbon, and pH (Wolnik et al., 1983a, b, 1985; Holmgren et al., 1993). The program targeted heavy metals, but all micronutrients except boron were investigated. Crops and soils were sampled from more than 3000 sites representing more than 300 soil series in important agricultural production areas across the conterminous USA."

This excerpt is from an article titled Mapping Soil Micronutrients in Field Crops Research Volume 60, Issues 1-2.

Joel Gruver
School of Agriculture
Western Illinois University
jgruv@hotmail.com



  • [permaculture] Fwd: [SANET-MG] High Brix Project, Lawrence F. London, Jr., 01/11/2011

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