idk. I feel like a lot of the things saying organic = higher brix/better, are conflating the best grown organic setups to the most mass-produced garbage hydro setups. Like the best grown organic strawberry vs the mass-produced grocery store strawberry.
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Honestly, this was my understanding. The plant can easily take up both.
edit: Nitrogen Uptake in Plants: The Plasma Membrane Root Transport Systems from a Physiological and Proteomic Perspective - PMC
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Iām sure broā¦ but againā¦ hydroponically attaining high brix is easily more difficult than just using a decent soil and having it naturally happenā¦ Iām a new grower and when I 1st started I went soil screwed everything up known to man and went hydroā¦ and as time went on hydro was just easier to screw up than organicā¦ once I learned to not drown my plants organic seems more simple and easy goingā¦ where as hydro I needed a nutrient calculator ec pens constantly was doing formulations and trying to understand each nutrient in the form it was providedā¦
Iām sure it is like that in commercial comparisonsā¦ but I eat strawberries and Iāve seen both sides beforeā¦
Hands down strawberries grown in a field are better than the strawberries grown in a buildingā¦
The entire country of Africa has pushed their government to demand higher brix plants for nutritional purposesā¦
So Iād think thereās really something to itā¦
Because they found overall health of the entire population increased
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I think I just misunderstood what he was saying. I think heās talking about what happens w/ those nitrogen ions after the plant absorbs them, but the other info is correct also so Iāll just leave it there I guess.
I think this is what @grow means? Nitrogen assimilation - Wikipedia
Either way more info is always better if you donāt already know it (like meā¦!)
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I wonāt touch the soil v hydro stuff but I donāt think itās fair to compare sweet fruits you eat to flowers that you smoke when the topic is sugar 
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idk. I had about the complete the opposite experience 
. I started with hydro, didnāt even know about a ph or ppm meter, and still got some decent bud out of the deal. Once I learned about the meters and reading what the plant is doing based on it and the changes in the water, things only got increasingly better. Years later I dropped hundreds of dollars and months of my time to do super soil and had some fucked up plants at the end. Needed to be psychic to know what needs ammended in the supposed water-only super soil before the plant ever shows signs of it otherwise thereās no way to fix it, damage is done. In hydro you can catch issues before the plant even displays them. My best soil runs werenāt any better or different than a good run in my hydro setup. Different dominant terpenes, but nothing else to discern a difference between the two flower types.
Iām saying, the method and materials of growing do not matter. The skill of the grower to give the plant what it needs and when, is all that matters. I think you can get equally high brix in either setup if you know what youāre doing. I donāt think running organics makes it automagically better nor easier 
I think finding the inputs that make the difference in brix level will be applicable to both.
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If Brix is sugar content, and sugar is produced by photosynthesis, the best way to increase brix is going to be whatever way increases photosynthesis in the plant. High fertigation while providing all the needed nutrients, minerals, co2, light, should, by default, increase the brix level of the plant. Have one of these things off or deficient and your brix level should drop, as the plant isnāt photosynthesizing, ie producing sugar, as much as it could 
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Yeah Iām definitely not trying to spark that debate lolā¦ just sayingā¦ as hydroā¦ you in my opinion will need to know hydro pretty damn well to get high brixā¦
I agree with @HolyAngel it can be attained by bothā¦
I found in hydro itās way easier to cause a lockout by too much ecā¦ and in soil like he saidā¦ you kind of need to know in advance what you will need or suffer consequencesā¦
Stillā¦ back to the brix itselfā¦ I still think itās easier figured out in soil anywayā¦ because you have to have a greater understanding of how hydro nutrients interact and what manipulation will cause high brix ā¦
I guess what I am trying to getā¦ isā¦ letās take an equally good soil grower against the same hydro grower., let them do their things with the brix level being the major goalā¦ in the end who do you guys think will have the higher brix plant? And whoever that isā¦ would that plant smell stronger have more shelf life and taste better? Iām inclined to say yes it willā¦ with that being saidā¦ which grower can keep the brix where they wantā¦ and with a sap ph of 6.4 consistently? Iām very curious about it all, and all I want to ensureā¦ is that I grow healthy high brix marijuana plantsā¦ because it truly seems to matter ā¦ This should be incredibly important to all of usā¦ especially we care about qualityā¦ which ā¦ thatās all I care about
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Honestly Iād think theyād be the same brix level. If they both give the plant what it wants, just because its in soil shouldnāt make any difference whatsoever. I notice no extra nuance from my or anyoneās soil grows compared to the same plant done just as well in hydro. The only thing Iāve noticed between well grown soil and well grown hydro on the same cut, is a dominant terpene difference, and I donāt know what the cause of that is. Like a hashy berry smelling/tasting plant in soil will come out berry hashy smelling/testing in hydro or vice versa. I noticed no other difference, granted I never checked brix 
but that flip-flop.
Sounds like we need to do some side-by-sides or something ^^
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Fairly well written over here. Gives me a lot to think about! I got here by wanting to see if brix is used at all for things like peanuts or tree nuts as they usually have very little sugar in the end product. Felt almost related to cannabis
I can see why it may be āeasierā to get higher brix with soils but canāt seem to find anything indicating the ceiling is higher with either method.
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Oooh yeah, thats pretty similar to the one i was just reading and was going to post here. Big things iām finding are definitely adding aminoās, humic acid, especially fulvic acid, donāt use too many nitrates, and generally just keep your plant well fed.
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The plant can take up both, but if nitrogen is absorbed as nitrate, it must undergo two reductions, first to nitrite, then to ammonium before the plant can incorporate that nitrogen into proteins. This is why nitrate is thought to be the energetically worst form of nitrogen, because it requires the plant to consume ATP before it can be used in protein building.
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Brix can be a useful tool to evaluate the health of the plant, but it wonāt be able to help you determine the cause of poor health.
Brix also varies quite a bit during the day, making the time of day the measurement is taken more important.
Perhaps Brix could be an indicator of declining health prior to visible symptoms, but what do you do then? Take a shotgun approach and hope you solve the issue?
I think a plant sap analysis would be a much more valuable tool. This test, while significantly more expensive, will tell you exactly what the plant is uptaking.
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No doubt. Useful but not so telling. Seems more of an overall check of the plants photosynthetic ability at the time of testing.
Would need to test the plants at the same time, every time, under controlled environment and feeding, to really know if itās going up or down.
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No it looks like the plant has to burn ATP from photosynthesis in order to create the glutamine synthetase needed to convert the ammonium ions (nh4+) (along with added carbohydrates) to amino acids 
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So it sounds like the opposite of what grow was saying. Nitrate is easily absorbed and used efficiently during photosynthesis, while ammonium requires the plant to burn ATP and use carbohydrates(sugar) in order to convert it to the amino acids the plant needs.
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One thing I like about the refractometer is that it does let you know if you need more calciumā¦ and it does let you know likely if you have a boron deficiencyā¦ I see alot of people struggle with enough calciumā¦ or mistaking an MG deficiency for what actually is a boron deficiencyā¦ things like that are awesomeā¦
I saw how testing the ph of the sap will also let you know whether you have a cation or anion problemā¦
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Wellā¦ I have to sayā¦ if all the hydro growers are not paying attention to the brixā¦ Iād think it ends up being a lower brixā¦ unless youāve gone down this rabbithole before anyway lolā¦ so Iād thinkā¦ if itās attainable each way
. We need to define how to do it perfectly in each growing style to improve everyoneās growing overallā¦ thatās why I am here as well to learnā¦ and share anything of importance and teach ā¦
I joined og because I could not grow
ā¦ I was and still am very new and lost in this abyss of the plethora of info needed to understand growingā¦
So I sayā¦ letās get to the bottom of how to ensure a high brixā¦ wellā¦ not highā¦ too high is bad as wellā¦ so the prime level of brix in marijuana growingā¦ so that we can all grow and enjoy our products to the very fullest degreeā¦ on a scientific level 
šŖ“ 
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