Has anyone else come across this being passed around? This was posted in a local organic farming community. I can’t seem to find any validation of this from any scholarly sources. I assume it’s nothing more than pseudoscience. Thought?
by BeginningDig2
7 Comments
“insects do not attack healthy plants”?
Uh, yeah. Okay.
Insects do feed on healthy plants they just don’t stick around. There’s still a chance for the insect to be a vector for disease in that short time.
Joe Gardener show has a great intro to brix. https://joegardener.com/podcast/understanding-brix-how-it-affects-plants-pests/
https://joegardener.com/podcast/understanding-brix-how-it-affects-plants-pests/
I haven’t become familiarized with Brix, but his article has a key takeaway: healthy plants (with higher sugar content from photosynthesis or BRIX) are more likely to resist insect pressure.
The takeaway seems obvious, but has subtleties:
-sugar production is an indicator of plant health.
-insects and other pests prey on weak plants.
-improving plants’ photosynthetic capability can make them resistant to pest pressure.
I’m gonna call bs…..I know people that make wine that use brix meters, it measures the total solids/sugars and that is it – the idea that you could get anything else from the is, imo, absurd!
Garden Myths explored it at [https://www.gardenmyths.com/tag/brix/](https://www.gardenmyths.com/tag/brix/)
and Garden Professors at [https://gardenprofessors.com/building-a-house-of-straw-with-brix/](https://gardenprofessors.com/building-a-house-of-straw-with-brix/)
Without a tissue elemental analysis there’s no way anyone could know.
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*this section can be safely ignored…..my coffee kicked in haha*
The closest information I have found is that molybdenum helps to transport sugars and helps to convert nitrates into amino acids…….so, in theory, a plant that is deficient in molybdenum could have higher levels of sugars which could, once again theoretically, be a lot more visible (in scent) to insects – all of that came from my own personal thoughts/studies so should be taken with a grain of salt (sugar) ……IF that theory is correct, it means a healthy plant would have less sugars ‘visible’ or available for insects……potentially also, a molybdenum deficiency reduces the ability of plants to produce defensive chemicals and thus become more prone to attacks
in saying that though, a brix meter would still be useless, there are other ways to spot a deficiency.
**UPDATE**: I asked some advice and got this;
***Your theory suggests that a molybdenum-deficient plant could have higher levels of sugars, making it more attractive to insects. While there is no direct evidence supporting this theory, it is known that molybdenum deficiency can lead to poor plant growth and development, with symptoms such as pale leaves, nitrogen deficiency, and stunted growth .*** *In some cases, molybdenum deficiency has been associated with a drop in total soluble sugar and sucrose content in functional leaves of winter wheat plants after low-temperature treatment. However, this does not necessarily imply that molybdenum deficiency would lead to an increase in sugar content in other plant species or under different conditions.*
*Regarding the potential impact on plant defense against insects,* ***there is no direct evidence linking molybdenum deficiency to a reduced ability to produce defensive chemicals. However, it is worth noting that a molybdenum-deficient plant may be more susceptible to stress and overall poor health, which could indirectly make it more prone to insect attacks.***
*In conclusion, while your theory is interesting, there is currently no direct evidence supporting the idea that molybdenum deficiency would lead to higher sugar levels in plants, making them more attractive to insects. Further research would be needed to explore this possibility and its potential implications for plant health and pest management.*
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In the pic above it shows the ideal brix levels – but brix levels change during the day and also are affected by irrigation times so it has to be nonsense.
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In closing, there is another thing – if high brix levels meant no insects, than the worldwide ag industries could not only protect their investments, they would also save money, and then finally, they could advertise their food as pesticide free and demand higher prices……with such a win win for them, they would have adopted it a long time ago
insects attack everything sadly
Grasshopper group cracks me up. They seem to prefer the healthiest plants and they stick around until the bitter end (pun intended).
Anyone who can’t spell the word “lose” correctly can’t be peddling useful information.