medmanmike
Well-Known Member
Hello everyone, stay tuned for getting this site in gear again!
Doc Bud's High Brix Q&A With Pictures
- Thread starter Doc Bud
- Start date
If you start researching soil mineralization, you'll learn that it works by providing an enhanced environment for soil biota - bacteria and fungi. The biota use sugars exuded from plant roots to break down minerals that are then returned to the soil in a form that the roots can absorb.
Further research will eventually lead you to Dr. Carey Reams, who was one of those odd scientists who was curious about everything, kinda like Dr. Linus Pauling. He developed ratios of soil minerals that are most beneficial to the soil, and that led to some more soil scientists who now use the method for produce gardens and hobby farms.
The kit is a mix of ingredients designed to be perfect for cannabis when added to Pro-Mix. Since you can't remove minerals, most soils are too toxic to be amended, so the Kit only works with Pro-Mix HP or Sunshine #4. When things are "perfect" you can then design foliars to specifically change the sugars that the plants produce, and shift growth one way or another. So the Kit is just a finely tuned mineralization.
The hobby farmers submit a sample of their soil and the guys mix up an amendment mix for that specific soil. For the Kit, a bunch of samples of commercial soil were submitted and only Pro-Mix and Sunshine were bland enough to pass the initial test. The others had too much potassium primarily, which interferes with calcium uptake. High Brix requires a lot of calcium.
So in your case, not only is the Kit expensive, but you would have to mix and pH your own peat if you can't get Pro-Mix or Sunshine.
(Or just stick with 6-5-3 and see how it goes.)
Im in as soon as I heard naked nymphsHello everyone!
My last journal was getting too long, so we'll switch over to a new one. What I'm doing on this journal is showing what I'm doing and what I'm learning and experimenting with in my garden. High Brix is where all the action is and that's what I'm all about. This is also an open forum for questions on high brix. I'll try my best to answer them as clearly as possible.
Disclaimer: If someone joins of page 18 or other random page and says, "What's your soil mix. What do I add to get the brix up," or something like that, I'm going to ask them to do some homework on their own. I will not post my soil mix every other page, unless something changes.
Here's a short description of what I mean by High Brix Gardening.
Brix is a unit of measurement that tells us how much sugar, minerals and other dissolved solids that are in a liquid. In our case, the liquid is leaf juice and occasionally a small bud. Average brix for a solid organic grow is going to be 7 to 10. Moderate brix levels clock in at 10-12. Once you get over 12 brix you're in High Brix territory. The highest I've measured to date is 17.
Once brix gets over 12, pests aren't a problem and it is very unlikely any diseases will ruin your crop. The higher the brix, the healthier the plant.
The high changes a bit as well. It's still strong, but its also softer and fuller. I've tried to describe it many times but tonite I'll say it like this:
Let's say you're cold and want to get warm. If you smoke organic or hydro weed, and electric blanket appears and you soon warm up. However, if you had smoked High Brix weed, a thick down comforter appears instead and you soon warm up. If I could get brix over 23, a naked nymph appears with the blanket. So, I've got some work to do. But I digress.
Soil Mix:
ProMix HP
Worm Castings
HIgh Brix amendment
Lot's of microbial products, biochar, humic acids, fishy ferts and groovy foliar sprays, all formulated by a lab for my specific soil.
4000 watts total light, covering a 3x6 tray and a 4x8 tray. The lights on the 4x tray are on movers.
The environment is 100% climate controlled. I can make it whatever temperature I want, anytime I want. Same with RH.
It's all in my kit!!!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, here's what I'm learning at the moment.
In my quest for the stickiest, best tasting weed possible, I'm experimenting with different forms of nitrogen and changing the ionic balance in the soil.
Nitrates are readily available to the plant, but they also leach out of the soil easily with watering. Ammoniacal nitrogen (NH4) is different. It has a positive charge, whereas the nitrate (NO3) has a negative charge. Cation is positive, Anion is negative.
NH4 is captured by particles in the soil and are stored there until the roots and mycorrhizae on the roots break them loose and feed them to the plant.
When you feed with strongly cationic forms of nitrogen, like Ammonium sulfate or ammonium phosphate, you get these cations and it stimulates reproductive growth from the plant.
The question is when to add this?
So, I added at the onset of bloom on these plants and immediately noticed more triches than I'd ever seen before, right off the bat.
At the same time, I've also noticed that the buds aren't swelling as much as usual for these strains. So I'm hoping to change that by getting the soil back into the anionic range a bit, by feeding with Calcium Nitrate, which is rather unique.
Calcium is a very powerful cation, which will dislodge the NH4 and also boost calcium in the plants. The nitrate is readily available to the plant as well. This will very slightly favor reproductive growth and should bulk up the flowers a bit.
Next cycle, which is 3 weeks behind this one, I'm going to bulk up the buds first and then hit them with the cations and see what happens.
As you can see, this isn't your run of the mill soil grow. The stuff I'm using is very powerful and makes big changes. We'll talk about all of it as we go. The topic will be whatever is going on in my garden right now.
Stick around for a few weeks and you should see just about everything from seed, to cutting, to harvest.
Flump
Well-Known Member
Thank you @Graytail , this is very helpful.If you start researching soil mineralization, you'll learn that it works by providing an enhanced environment for soil biota - bacteria and fungi. The biota use sugars exuded from plant roots to break down minerals that are then returned to the soil in a form that the roots can absorb.
Further research will eventually lead you to Dr. Carey Reams, who was one of those odd scientists who was curious about everything, kinda like Dr. Linus Pauling. He developed ratios of soil minerals that are most beneficial to the soil, and that led to some more soil scientists who now use the method for produce gardens and hobby farms.
The kit is a mix of ingredients designed to be perfect for cannabis when added to Pro-Mix. Since you can't remove minerals, most soils are too toxic to be amended, so the Kit only works with Pro-Mix HP or Sunshine #4. When things are "perfect" you can then design foliars to specifically change the sugars that the plants produce, and shift growth one way or another. So the Kit is just a finely tuned mineralization.
The hobby farmers submit a sample of their soil and the guys mix up an amendment mix for that specific soil. For the Kit, a bunch of samples of commercial soil were submitted and only Pro-Mix and Sunshine were bland enough to pass the initial test. The others had too much potassium primarily, which interferes with calcium uptake. High Brix requires a lot of calcium.
So in your case, not only is the Kit expensive, but you would have to mix and pH your own peat if you can't get Pro-Mix or Sunshine.
(Or just stick with 6-5-3 and see how it goes.)
I've been using Doc's kit for a number of years now with great success. I think the shipping price is just an excuse for me; I just want to understand how everything works.
I already read Reams book, as well as Astera. I should probably read Albrecht's work as well... I understand the basic concepts of adsorption, CEC, soil energy and nutrients/minerals ratios... But there seem to be more to the kit that "just that".
Thank you for sharing knowledge about the PromixHP/Sunshine tests and their low potassium content, this is useful. Thanks as well for the knowledge about the foliar able to shift growth one way or another; again very useful.
I want to become a better grower by understanding things and not simply "blindly" using the kit.
FLUMP!
Flump
Well-Known Member
WEEN!!
Heheh, well now I feel foolish.
You're actually ahead of me, 'cause I've never had enough ambition to read Ream's work, much less Astera. A couple times, I've wanted to study what Albrecht has found ...I know that the amendment contains a lot of micro nutrients, and I recall that boron was important for instance. Doc posted some of the ingredients in his early work ...
Frankly, and I've posted it repeatedly, what I like most about the kit is that it's a black box that works. I don't need to understand the details.
I'd like to, but I haven't found the energy and drive to do the work yet. Doc had that gorgeous grow room setup with the high ceiling and the humidity and CO2 control, etc., and I'd jones all over his pictures with the perfect, glittering leaves, and I thought about learning enough to be a wizard with the Kit, but I'd need a better environment to see a big difference, so ... meh. In fact, my experience is that it's hard to improve on the basics of alternating drenches and foliars on a schedule. The environment clouds improvements.Owens and Frank have their Masterclass Series, and I've considered that for a good starting point, and I know that SweetSue must have posted some of her research somewhere - more leads there. It just looks like a lot of genuine study - like school - botany and agronomy.
If you go for it, let us know what you find.
medmanmike
Well-Known Member
I’m with Graytail - if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
Still trying to replicate Duggan’s multi-run grows in Docs soil - haven’t got it down yet.
Tomorrow I’m soaking seeds for a Lemon Paki pheno hunt. I’ll be journaling here. Hope you’ll stop by.
Still trying to replicate Duggan’s multi-run grows in Docs soil - haven’t got it down yet.
Tomorrow I’m soaking seeds for a Lemon Paki pheno hunt. I’ll be journaling here. Hope you’ll stop by.
Hey Graytail,
Ya I had fantastic results right from the start and it put me on track to finding a whole bunch of stuff and people in the cannabis space
Flump
Well-Known Member
Thanks @Graytail.Heheh, well now I feel foolish.
I know that the amendment contains a lot of micro nutrients, and I recall that boron was important for instance. Doc posted some of the ingredients in his early work ...
Frankly, and I've posted it repeatedly, what I like most about the kit is that it's a black box that works. I don't need to understand the details.
Owens and Frank have their Masterclass Series, and I've considered that for a good starting point, and I know that SweetSue must have posted some of her research somewhere - more leads there. It just looks like a lot of genuine study - like school - botany and agronomy.
If you go for it, let us know what you find.
I've been going at it sparingly for a while and will continue, if just for the sake of posterity.
I will take a look at the masterclass series, thanks for sharing.
I'm not trying to fix anything. I just want to understand all of it. It would be a shame if all the research Doc and others made got lost.
medmanmike
Well-Known Member
Just started up a new journal. Hope you'll take a look
Doc Buds Lemon Paki Pheno Hunt.
Doc Buds Lemon Paki Pheno Hunt.
Doc Bud's Lemon Paki Pheno Hunt!
After a nearly three month break and a deep, deep clean of the grow room, it’s time to fire up the lights and get back at it! As the title states, this grow will primarily be a hunt for the perfect pheno of the Lemon Paki cut that Doc Bud acquired many years ago. The genetics remain unknown...
www.420magazine.com
Seymour Green
420 Member
Does anyone by chance mix their own salts and know of ratios that consistently produce high brix? I recently reduced my K:N ratio from 1.43:1, to a 1.16:1 and finally achieved a brix reading of 10 on an unknown OG Kush hybrid. Goes against most everything I was told though on how to achieve a higher brix level. I know most folks on this thread are using organic inputs to achieve high brix, but it doesn’t hurt to ask right?
@Skybound was a salt mixer, and looking at high brix thru' those methods...not sure if he ever checks in here anymore, but was a great resource for those so inclined...cheerz... 
...h00k...
...h00k...
I just checked - searched for posts by him on this thread - and yup, it's all still there. I don't remember that he went into a lot of depth, but there's a lot of info there.@Skybound was a salt mixer, and looking at high brix thru' those methods...not sure if he ever checks in here anymore, but was a great resource for those so inclined...cheerz...
420
Founder
If you guys come across anything you feel should be moved to the high brix forum, just report it and we can do it.
Journals will probably stay where they are for now, but other threads specifically about high brix, we can move.
Journals will probably stay where they are for now, but other threads specifically about high brix, we can move.
Seymour Green
420 Member
He’s not in the scene anymore, but I still speak with him sporadically.@Skybound was a salt mixer, and looking at high brix thru' those methods...not sure if he ever checks in here anymore, but was a great resource for those so inclined...cheerz...
Seymour Green
420 Member
If you notice, the very last post in His thread is from me. From almost 2 years ago. He reached out to me and we continue the conversation about high brix and growing in general. My quest for high brix hydro still continues, though my current run is in a mineralized mix like a la the Doc. I do very much appreciate everyone’s help and suggestions though.I just checked - searched for posts by him on this thread - and yup, it's all still there. I don't remember that he went into a lot of depth, but there's a lot of info there.
420
Founder
I reached out to @Skybound via email with an apology and invitation to rejoin us. We shall see what happens. If there is anyone else you would like me to do this for, please send me a DM moving forward, so we can handle the matter privately
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