Brix

http://bionutrient.org/bionutrient-rich-food/brix

An addition that I am adding to my project is that every week I am going to measure the Brix levels of my produce and see how the Brix levels change as the soil quality increases as I implement the biodynamic practices in my garden. As the Brix levels of the plants in my garden increase, I will observe how the plants change in any way over time, I am also interested in seeing how they are affected by insects, because on the bionutrient food association website they say that "...any crop with 12 or better leaf Brix will not be bothered by insect pests." I believe that we have a refractometer at school in the science labs that I may be able to use, but I will have to check.

To use a refractometer to measure Brix levels the following steps are followed:

1. Squeeze some sap out of the plant, with some plant matter this may need to be done with a mortar and pestle.

2. Drop two drops onto the prism of the refractometer, and spread thinly.

3. Close the cover of the prism

4. Point to a light source

5. Focus the eyepiece

6. Read the measurement - where the light and dark fields intersect is the Brix reading.

With a digital refractometer put a few drops of liquid in the well hole, and press the switch. The Brix number appears in the digital readout.

The part of the plant that is used to measure the Brix levels is the part of the plant you eat, or otherwise mature leaves from the plant which have had at least two hours of sunlight. It is best to measure the Brix levels of plants at the same time of day when looking at patterns over time.