Brix Testing

Brix testing measures carbohydrates to assess how well the plant was able to photosynthesise as an indicator of nutrient density. Anybody can do this with simple, basic equipment. Record your data on our database and compare results with other grower partners. Make changes to your growing practices and check the results next season. 

A Brief History. The Brix Refractometer was invented by Professor Adolf Ferdinand Wenceslaus Brix, a 19th Century German chemist (1798-1890), hence the name Brix.

The use of a Brix refractometer in viti-culture is well established and is commonly used to determine grape quality before deciding when to harvest. The recording of Brix values year-on-year can also help indicate a good year with the potential of it becoming a vintage. Grffn are applying this concept to help assess the quality for a range of food plants.

How Brix Works. Brix refractometers measure the total dissolved solids in a liquid (density). When a light source is passed through a liquid the light will bend or refract according to the density of that liquid. The refractometer uses a prism to project the angle of refracted light onto a scale called oBrix, and from this a single numerical value can be recorded. Pure water is used to calibrate the device to zero because it does not contain any dissolved solids. If sugar were added to pure water, the sugar would dissolve making the liquid more viscous or dense and when tested this would refract the light at a more acute angle which would correlate to a higher oBrix value.