Doc Bud's High Brix Q&A With Pictures

Duggan said:
Hey Gorilla, no, i have no experience with that Tea. When i made my own, i usta just put a few handfuls of EWC's in a bucket(with water) with some BSM and aerate it for a couple days and use that. Worked pretty good, but was messy friggen around with the airstones and junk. Doc's Tea is very strong , so if you decide to use it , be cautious. Good luck with this crop ,....we all wanna see you using our soil ....it's more fun, trust me/us! Just take a look around ...i'm sure you have already,..i'm just blabbering now....just puffed some DBHBB Durban Poison. Chillaxin with a cold Stella..cheers eh.:high-five:
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Duggan,

Hey man thanks for all of the quick responses. The soil mix I chose was b/c of breeding projects. I wanted to get rid of the nutes so that I can make decisions based upon the plants true expresssions. I’ll definitely go brix next time and moving forward. I judged puffed some GSC and am now enjoying the bullet over ice. Cheers man!
 
:high-five:.........:passitleft:
 
I'm still reading somewhere around page 400ish, so let me know if this topic has been discussed.

How do most growers foliar? I've noticed most articles and maybe even here, I've read to primarily spray the underside of the leaf, but that wasn't working for me very well. I'm on well water which leaves traces of lime, and I noticed about 2/3rd of flowering, the leaves were getting dull, droopy from the stem, and serrated edges were crunchy.

I recalled a musing by Doc that foliars mimicked nature by acting like rain. I flower outdoors in the lower rainforest and watch in real time the reaction of the plants after our typical short bursts of rain showers and after one downpour, something clicked.

What I found by observation and trial (and using bottled water)is to spray from top down concentrating on pooling the spray water on petioles, spraying on the sugar leaves, basically letting the foliar soak into the buds. Caveat here could be mold in the right condition but I'm blessed with steady breezes. Spray sugar leaves so that it works down towards their petioles just enough for the sugar leaves to drink.

Now, what compelled me to post this is that I had couple of plants near the end, looking dry and tired. The first day I used Brix this way, I sprayed the petioles directly downwards on the plant targeting the petioles. The foliar will pool a bit and the reaction is almost instant. All the yellowing leaves turned green in less than an hour!

I maybe stating what everyone here already knew. But in case any reader is new at growing like yours truly, I hope it will improve what this amazing Brix foliar can do.
 
Hi Girl...yes, glad you have noticed how effective the foliars can be in the right conditions. Our soil is designed for foliar feeding the soil microbes thru root exudes. Keep in mind that foliar spraying should be concentrated on the undersides of leaves if at all possible and to only spray every 7 to 10 days as too much can , and will stress the roots....Keep reading...good on ya btw! Cheers Girl!
 
Hi Duggan, thanks for the reply. But I'm not seeing good results spraying the bottom of the plants, barely maybe. I thought at first that I was spraying too much but the results were short lived.

It occurred to me that nature is saying otherwise on this method. Look at all the leaves on the plant, it's designed to direct water into the bloom via sugar leaves. And in nature, underside of the leaves stay dry, I'm thinking the reason to spray underneath is most effective delivering pesticides where pests enjoy shelter from the elements.

I'm testing Destress to see what effects it has on both leaf and bloom, but the Brix definitely put life back into the leaves, like it improved photosynthesis.
 
Another thing I noticed, spraying just the petioles and sugar leaves, the tolerance for Brix foliar seems to be quite high, like I've done targeted spraying 3 days in a row with no negative consequences as yet.

I'm going off the reservation here, I realize, but after months at high Brix growing, this seems to be the change in method that's really had profound "wow!!!" effect.
 
brixgirl said:
Hi Duggan, thanks for the reply. But I'm not seeing good results spraying the bottom of the plants, barely maybe. I thought at first that I was spraying too much but the results were short lived.

It occurred to me that nature is saying otherwise on this method. Look at all the leaves on the plant, it's designed to direct water into the bloom via sugar leaves. And in nature, underside of the leaves stay dry, I'm thinking the reason to spray underneath is most effective delivering pesticides where pests enjoy shelter from the elements.

I'm testing Destress to see what effects it has on both leaf and bloom, but the Brix definitely put life back into the leaves, like it improved photosynthesis.
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Leaves have transcuticular pores (i.e. pores between cell structures) and stomata through which nutrient sprays can enter the plant. The transcuticular pores are on both the upper and lower surfaces of leaves and are open all the time, so foliar-applied nutrients are believed to primarily enter through these pores. Stomata are present in far greater numbers on the underneath side of leaves, and if they are open and the spray is directed to the underneath side, this can be a good entry point for the nutrients. (The uptake efficiency was 10 to 12 times better through the leaves than through the roots).
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Good article, Mr. Krip. I've read many things from Robert Bergman but never opened his book that I downloaded.

Here's what led me to believe and test my hypothesis. If you look at a plant after a rain shower, the water pools on the leaf where leaf meets the petiole. The Stromata also regulates airborne inputs but how, other than water splashing up or leaf turning in nature does water make it the underside of the leaf? Now, the leaf has a little cup area where I presume pooled water runs to the bottom side slowly, and I believe that's why spraying there works well.

I could be wrong, but I'm just going by my observation after a good rain and it seems to replicate nature more accurately.

But if my plants drop dead from abuse, I'll be sure to report that too.
 
brixgirl said:
Good article, Mr. Krip. I've read many things from Robert Bergman but never opened his book that I downloaded.

Here's what led me to believe and test my hypothesis. If you look at a plant after a rain shower, the water pools on the leaf where leaf meets the petiole. The Stromata also regulates airborne inputs but how, other than water splashing up or leaf turning in nature does water make it the underside of the leaf? Now, the leaf has a little cup area where I presume pooled water runs to the bottom side slowly, and I believe that's why spraying there works well.

I could be wrong, but I'm just going by my observation after a good rain and it seems to replicate nature more accurately.

But if my plants drop dead from abuse, I'll be sure to report that too.
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I think we're confusing watering with feeding. In nature, plants don't foliar feed. They get their nutrients through the roots. When a plant is unable to uptake nutrients through the roots in nature, it dies.

As growers, we understand that the plant is capable of intaking nutrients through the stomata in the leaves. So, we can take advantage of this and foliar feed when the plants roots aren't working correctly and/or to provide supplemental nutrients directly to the plant that do not have to first be broken down in the soil by microbes into a form that's ingestible by the plants. This supplemental feeding is what we're trying to accomplish - not water the plant. ;)
 
Thanks Krip...great post! :high-five:
 
It was actually Doc who mentioned way earlier in the thread when skeptic also said there is no foliar feeding in nature, that there certainly is, it's called rain and dust.

I'm not disputing how the plant feeds. I'm simply reporting my observation that applying the foliar like it's catching rain has changed how my plants respond for the better. And for me, the foliar challenged, it's a dramatic difference. Plants are back to green and supple, not dull green and dry, and this is a week before harvest.

I'm just wondering if Doc would chime in to say spraying the top of the leaves are bad idea and why.
 
brixgirl said:
It was actually Doc who mentioned way earlier in the thread when skeptic also said there is no foliar feeding in nature, that there certainly is, it's called rain and dust.

I'm not disputing how the plant feeds. I'm simply reporting my observation that applying the foliar like it's catching rain has changed how my plants respond for the better. And for me, the foliar challenged, it's a dramatic difference. Plants are back to green and supple, not dull green and dry, and this is a week before harvest.

I'm just wondering if Doc would chime in to say spraying the top of the leaves are bad idea and why.
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I won't argue that if some nutrients happen to fall on the leaves that the plant can ingest, it will. I was really trying to differentiate between watering and feeding. There's nothing wrong with spraying the tops of the leaves. I'm just trying to point out why spraying the underside of the leaves (too!) is recommended.
 
BGirl....Doc recommends concentrating the foliars to the underside of our leaves cuz thats where more of the stomata are open to receive it.cheers
 
Indeed, it is recommended by everyone, and that's the practice I followed. But it wasn't working well, i didn't see the kind of color changes some have mentioned.

Also note, I'm flowering outdoors, so I see how happy the plants look after it rains. Our rains are short showers and don't really wet our soil but it dreches the buds.
 
brixgirl said:
Indeed, it is recommended by everyone, and that's the practice I followed. But it wasn't working well, i didn't see the kind of color changes some have mentioned.

Also note, I'm flowering outdoors, so I see how happy the plants look after it rains. Our rains are short showers and don't really wet our soil but it dreches the buds.
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One thing I think we'll all agree on is that, if something's working for you and you're happy with it, no need to change! :thumb:
 
Hey brixgirl - it’s interesting that you’ve seen a noticeable effect from doing some sprays that way - as opposed to the underside thing.

I’m curious as to why the underside thing wasn’t working for you tho. You mentioned that it seemed to cause
brixgirl said:
leaves were getting dull, droopy from the stem, and serrated edges were crunchy.
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So you suggest there that you think it was the underleaf foliar causing this - is that right? I only ask becasue maybe the foliar was too heavy, that’s all i can think of. I’m outside and haven’t seen adverse effects from underleaf foliar applications and do see an increase in plant vigour and colour in the days following. So I’m curious as to why it’s not working so well for you. How do you do it when you spray the underside of leaves?

Still - it is interesting that spraying the way you are is working well. As you say tho, it brings risk of budrot if they don’t get to dry out - but it sounds like you’re on to that!
 
I typically empty my sprayer over the tops of everything and I got that same puddling at the base of the petioles and never saw any burn there, so you probably have a point.

I think the issue is that we don't want to use too much, so it's best to hit the undersides, which absorb better, and would get nothing if we didn't.
 
Amy, they weren't always that way but seemed to move in that direction as they progressed. It could be my hard water that I stopped using for foliars, and I actually figured out half way through the grow that my Brix mixture was weaker than recommended. But I do recall some users with very green but warped leaves that Doc stated was overuse of Brix?

What convinced me is that rather than coating those leaves, it seemed more fruitful to target where you spray. This actually results in using less foliar spray, and leaves got their color back in one afternoon.

As for the dryness, we're actually going through spring drought, it didn't rain for over two weeks! It's strange to see the RH dip under 50%, that maybe the cause of the dry leaves.
 
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