My Bridgeway Biostimulant trial

There can be a fine line with nutrition and toxicity, is there a risk therefore that plants may take up too much metal ions?

Hi, excess calcium in a plant is not considered toxic, but it could influence the efficient uptake of other nutrients. Amino acids are part of the solution when it comes to improving tolerance (for example heavy metals) in plants. We have never heard of a negative effect in this way, and a healthier plant should be able to maintain a better nutritional balance.
 

Oat

Member
Location
Cheshire
Hi, excess calcium in a plant is not considered toxic, but it could influence the efficient uptake of other nutrients. Amino acids are part of the solution when it comes to improving tolerance (for example heavy metals) in plants. We have never heard of a negative effect in this way, and a healthier plant should be able to maintain a better nutritional balance.
If I remember correctly, a high uptake of calcium can often be at the expense of magnesium, or maybe an confusing the fact that soils high in Ca tend to have Mg locked up?
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Plant nutrients Mulder's Chart.jpg
 
Hi Clive, I would suggest trying a measurement around 10 - 14 days after application. In one set of results we were seeing improvements of up to nearly 40%. There is some information online around the benefits of having higher Brix readings, for example plants with higher brix are less prone to frost damage. Bridgeway helps improve the uptake of metal ions, especially calcium, which strengthens the vascular system, allowing more efficient uptake of water and minerals. The more water and minerals are assimilated by the plant, the higher the brix.

All Brix gives you is a measurement of the sugars in a plant at a very specific time. It could be totally different later on the same day, a week later, week before etc. If a plant is photosynthesising actively its adding sugars (sucrose) so the brix reading can be higher. If its cold, plants slow growing or dark the brix reading could be lower. At the moment its cold so its likely brix readings will be low - by Friday they may explode if its as warm as predicted.

Plants being the marvellous little organisms that they are can produce their own chelates which make metal ions more available to them. Better still a good healthy soil with OM has its own chelating properties inherently. Marvellous stuff soil and plants you see - the main nutrient shortage plants have always had for agricultural production has been Nitrogen.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
All Brix gives you is a measurement of the sugars in a plant at a very specific time. It could be totally different later on the same day, a week later, week before etc. If a plant is photosynthesising actively its adding sugars (sucrose) so the brix reading can be higher. If its cold, plants slow growing or dark the brix reading could be lower. At the moment its cold so its likely brix readings will be low - by Friday they may explode if its as warm as predicted.


but if you compare a treated vs untreated plot same day / same time and there is a difference what might it mean ? (if anything) ?
 
but if you compare a treated vs untreated plot same day / same time and there is a difference what might it mean ? (if anything) ?

Well Brix itself isn't that accurate really. I mean you have to take a leaf, analyse it and then record the reading but the same plant could show a lower reading an hour later dependent on loads of factors. And even if you did have a high/ low reading is it logical to extrapolate it over the whole field? And furthermore whats the end game anyway for a combinable crop?

We know crops in Scotland/ North have potential for higher yields because they have more daylight which means more photosynthesis opportunity. The brix may be higher but for a snapshot. It would be fun to be able to measure the brix of a plant throughout its whole growing life and see the variability of Brix.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Measure Brix in the afternoon and you'll have higher readings than in the morning too.

And by Friday they drop before the plants start easing down for the weekend

but measure treated and untreated 5 mins apart ? I'm not considering taking measurement on different days, but testing plots same time / same day and seeing if here is a difference

Are you saying if there was a big difference between plots tested like that it would be meaningless ? to my mind it surely means something that there would be a difference, if that difference is good / bad or indifferent is another question all together though
 

jonnyjon

Member
but measure treated and untreated 5 mins apart ? I'm not considering taking measurement on different days, but testing plots same time / same day and seeing if here is a difference

Are you saying if there was a big difference between plots tested like that it would be meaningless ? to my mind it surely means something that there would be a difference, if that difference is good / bad or indifferent is another question all together though
I'd say it has got to be a big positive if brix rises after treatment, there are many soil health gurus saying that brix is a very good indicator of plant health, I've done some testing on food and have found higher brix = better taste, better taste = more nutrition
 
I'd say it has got to be a big positive if brix rises after treatment, there are many soil health gurus saying that brix is a very good indicator of plant health, I've done some testing on food and have found higher brix = better taste, better taste = more nutrition

I don't want to sound like I'm on your case as I'm not (we have differing views on things that's all) but a lot of Soil Health Gurus are self styled and a lot are flogging stuff. That's not to say I'm not into soil health because I very much am but I also like to know what I'm spending my money on and I like to see clarity when people make scientific claims. I think its important to say so if I think something is scientifically a bit suspect especially if it involves farmers spending money they may not need to.

In terms of Brix higher brix = sweeter (more sucrose) so thats possibly where you get the better taste from. Better taste doesn't = more nutrition. Taste is a subjective thing. For example - a gone off banana is likely to have a higher brix than freshly ripened one because its sugars are more concentrated but its hard to think its taste is better
 

jonnyjon

Member
I don't want to sound like I'm on your case as I'm not (we have differing views on things that's all) but a lot of Soil Health Gurus are self styled and a lot are flogging stuff. That's not to say I'm not into soil health because I very much am but I also like to know what I'm spending my money on and I like to see clarity when people make scientific claims. I think its important to say so if I think something is scientifically a bit suspect especially if it involves farmers spending money they may not need to.

In terms of Brix higher brix = sweeter (more sucrose) so thats possibly where you get the better taste from. Better taste doesn't = more nutrition. Taste is a subjective thing. For example - a gone off banana is likely to have a higher brix than freshly ripened one because its sugars are more concentrated but its hard to think its taste is better
Fair enough, I don't agree
 

snarling bee

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
Not missing the point at all - soil is simply dirt without biology and biology need OM to feed it. It’s not hard to understand what happens to a cow if you don’t feed it, livestock in soil is no different !

Of course OM needs N to break it down but also eaten by a multitude of soil biology that eats and process it for you. N that goes into breakdown OM isn’t lost, it’s simply banked for later

You really should come have a look around our place - it would be really interesting as you were very familiar with a lot of our land and soil 10 years ago ....... I expect you wouldn’t recognise it now. Focusing on improving SOM and soil biology has lifted yields at least 10% over that period while using much lower inputs to get them

That's a bold statement. Have you any fields that you have kept under the old regime to see if that is true? My yields have risen but that is not due to a major change in what we do.
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
That's a bold statement. Have you any fields that you have kept under the old regime to see if that is true? My yields have risen but that is not due to a major change in what we do.
Why would he keep fields under an intensive high fixed cost Cultivation system using loads of inputs when it’s quite obvious on Clive’s light land that is a road to nowhere.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
That's a bold statement. Have you any fields that you have kept under the old regime to see if that is true? My yields have risen but that is not due to a major change in what we do.

its not a bold statement because that's what's happened to my sold yields over the last 10 years. I'm not claiming (and never have claimed) that's all down to zerotill / conservation agriculture though as a number of factors all probably contribute to that result

The biggest single change I have made over the same period is our move to zerotill however. I'm not here to prove anything to anyone else but all involved with our farm can see the significant difference it has made and how our soils are changing significantly already
 

fudge

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire.
its not a bold statement because that's what's happened to my sold yields over the last 10 years. I'm not claiming (and never have claimed) that's all down to zerotill / conservation agriculture though as a number of factors all probably contribute to that result

The biggest single change I have made over the same period is our move to zerotill however. I'm not here to prove anything to anyone else but all involved with our farm can see the significant difference it has made and how our soils are changing significantly already
I could put my average yield up by 10% tomorrow but stopping growing second wheat.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
I could put my average yield up by 10% tomorrow but stopping growing second wheat.

Would the different rotation make the whole farm margin any greater? I'll bet you'd have less grass weeds unless you swap 2nd wheat for winter barley or winter oats. I'll refrain from any remarks about changing the tillage regime :)
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
No change in yield trend here from min till to strip till, only lower spring crop yields but I put that down to dry weather after planting and wet weather in March stopping us sowing on time.
 

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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