SCIENCE-DRIVEN
PERFORMANCE
RESULTS
SAVINGS
Soil structure.
The foundation of a soil’s growing potential.
The first thing we look at when assessing a farm’s ground is soil structure. This is what determines the ground’s ability to hold air, water—and life. It is a simple measure of a soil’s health.
A tight or compacted soil, with small pore spaces, restricts the amount of air and water in the soil—while a more open soil allows more particles, solutes and air to pass through. This type of soil is said to have more structure.
Poorly structured soils have smaller aerobic zones and are poor environments for roots and microbes. Plants and soil microbes need a deep aerobic zone to survive, thrive and store nutrients. They also need the water that can only be absorbed by soils with deeper aerobic zones.
Measuring the aerobic zone.
Using a penetrometer to measure the pressure in soil can tell us how deep the aerobic zone is. Generally, the aerobic zone is soil with less than 300 psi, as feeder roots won’t grow in pressure greater than this.
Because of common agricultural practices, and years of traditional chemical applications, the vast majority of soils we see are in fact compacted and not providing optimal environments for microbial life and healthy plant growth.
We can easily fix soil compaction with our COMPACTION PROTOCOL.
Improving soil structure.
Soils can begin to be improved by changing the ratio of minerals in the soil and their electrical charge, as measured with a EC meter. With the application of our COMPACTION PROTOCOL, we can rehabilitate soils and attain ratios of minerals that will result in healthier soils that are said to be flocculated.
Flocculated soils provide the environments necessary for proliferation of soil microbes. They are high in available calcium and electrically strong. Their soil colloids will not disperse when saturated—instead they will aggregate or clump together. By clumping together, the soil’s pore space increases and their critical aerobic zones will deepen.
°Brix
A measure of plant health & quality.
°BRIX (symbol °Bx) is the sugar content of an aqueous solution. We can measure a plant’s °BRIX by squeezing any part of its sap onto a refractometer and looking at the sample’s refractive index.
The higher the refractive index °BRIX, the healthier and stronger the plant. And because high °BRIX tissue will produce more alcohol from fermented sugars, higher °BRIX plants are more resistant to the predatory insects that are unable to process them.
In crops, higher °BRIX means sweeter-tasting, more mineral nutritious food. And harvested fruits and vegetables with high °BRIX have shown better resistance to post harvest disease and lower water loss in storage.
Crops with higher sugar content will also have a lower freezing point and therefore be less prone to frost damage.
An early indicator of success.
A plant functioning at its genetic potential will have high °BRIX. You can often can predict potential problems by measuring °BRIX before they develop into yield losses or drag.
In general, plants with °BRIX readings of 3-5 (higher than average) have improved resistance to most plant sap sucking insects, such as aphids, spider mites, leafhoppers, whiteflies, leaf miners, cucumber beetles, squash bugs, potato beetles and others.
Healthy ranges of °BRIX measurement varies between crops.
See the chart at left or download for recommended levels.
