Seven different strains of Phalaris Brachystachys were harvested and wet vs. dry weights are reported.

Samples were air dried in an average relative humidity of 15-25%.

Results... (fresh/dry)
57.4g/9.3g = 16.2%
173.5g/23.4g = 13.5%
382.7g/50.4g = 13.2%
232.1g/41.0g = 17.7% [Revised: 35.1 = 15.1%]

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845.7g/124.1g = 14.7% (Ave fresh/dry weight)[Revised: 845.7/118.2 = 13.98%]

The first sample consisted of younger growth while the 2nd and 3rd samples were harvested after slight drooping in 2 of the 7 strains (due to lack of watering). The fourth sample is most representative of a well watered and mature plot.

The first two samples were later weighed to see if additional drying occurred and the difference was found to be insignificant (below the measurement accuracy).

Further results will be measured on an individual strain basis. The current results show that P. brachystachys has a water content ranging from 83.8%-86.8%.

All samples seemed to be fully dried, but you might notice that the more well watered (last) sample seems to have the lowest water content. No explanation is given, except that the last two samples were dried using forced air circulation, and the last sample did not dry as long as the others. I will update this thread if the last sample loses weight.


Edit: Revised numbers added. The last sample was chopped into thirds and dried another 24 hours or so, which dropped its' weight by 5.9g. The results now only range by 3%, which is probably pretty close to the measurement accuracy of the current data. Chopping the material into thirds or at least in half seems to be a good idea for complete drying. The finer material is a little harder to work with and more prone to being lost in the drying setup, but is worth it IMHO.

Hi Fastfred,

it looks like you may have quite a bit of info about Brachystachys, maybe it would be better to put it all in a single working thread so the info is all in the same place.

This is very helpful information. Thanks so much for taking the time to collect and share it with us.

Does the Nexus have a user contributable section in the wiki?
I feel a wiki suits the research of various plants far better than forum posts, things can easily get lost amongst the threads (pun, somewhat intended)
Just a thought.

I actually found this forum through my searches and research on P. brachystachys. This seems to be the place that real research on the plant is taking place.

I'll certainly put everything together into an article, but there's still a lot of work to be done. I figured I'd get out any useful info as it comes in, hopefully I'll get some good input in the process.

First thing I tried to search for was germination info, then I thought it might be useful to run tests on wet material and realized I'd need wet to dry ratios. Little mini-experiment results with specific titles is exactly what would catch my eye in a google search.

I found quite a bit of conflicting info out there, with no way to judge the reliability. Hopefully this forum can be THE place for the most reliable information, it already is IMHO. It's really easy for threads to get sidetracked, and I'm hoping others can add to the data pool.


As you can see, my sample size is pretty small. When I start doing strain by strain weights the numbers will be around 1/7th what they are now.

I updated the last number based on some more drying, but the last sample is still a higher D:W ratio than I expected. The middle two samples were collected just after 2/7 of the strains started drooping, while the last one was collected with no signs of drooping.

I'd figure that the water content would be higher in the more well watered sample, thus show a lower dry weight ratio.

Any ideas out there? It's possible that the water content changes with the maturity of the specimens. Or the droopers were just outliers and didn't really represent the hydration state of the group. Or the last sample might have been cut at a slightly different height. Or some of the dried ends of the lower blades that were previously cut got collected and threw things off.