I really wanted to be out in the garden today but it is 38 degrees and the rain is blowing sideways
so instead i thought i would revisit an experiment i did last spring at about the same time so last
year i was talking to a colleague who happened to mention that his mother who had been a successful
market gardener for over 40 years attributed her success at least in part to planting by the moon
this was not the first time that i had heard about this concept but i never really given
it a lot of thought now it does sound kind of new age or woo-woo but planting with the moon
has actually been around for thousands of years peoples like the ancient celts the maori tribe
of new zealand and even pliny the elder in rome gave advice about planting by the moon's signs
now the basic concept is that there are optimal and sub-optimal times to plant and do
other gardening related chores based on what phase the moon is in now perhaps one of the
best-known proponents of doing things by the moon is the llewellen's guide so
when i started looking into this topic i went out and got a copy of the llewellyn's moonsign
book now this book tells you how to do everything in your life by the moon but
i was really just interested in the section on gardening so according to this book
timing is everything if you know how to use the moon you'll not only be in sync with nature but
you can sit back and watch your garden grow beyond your wildest dreams lunar gardening is simple
and the results are immediate it doesn't matter whether you're a beginner gardener with a single
pot or an old hand with years of master gardening experience your garden will grow bigger and better
if you follow the cycles of the moon and match the right time up with the right gardening activity
those are some pretty big and tantalizing claims i can just sit back and watch my garden fulfill its
full potential with barely raising a finger if only i follow the moon cycles
sounds too good to be true but i wanted to find out for myself now there are several different
methods of moon sign planting but i decided to go with the system that's laid out in llewellyn's
book now this is a fairly complex system and takes into account both the phase of the moon so whether
it's waxing or waning and also which sign the moon is in at any given time the waxing moon is
considered the phase of growth in the garden so starting with the new moon for two weeks while
the moon increases in size and light until you reach the full moon this is considered the best
time to plant above ground crops and prune for increased growth the waning phase of the moon or
the two weeks from the full moon to the new moon is when the moon is decreasing in size and light
and this is considered the maintenance phase of the garden and is also considered the best time
to plant below ground or root crops as well as tackling chores like weeding and pest control
so within each waning and waxing phase of the moon you also have to take into consideration
the sign that the moon is in or where the moon is in the zodiac so this is where it gets a little
woo-woo as the moon makes its 28-day path around the earth it passes through certain constellations
which are signs of the zodiac it will spend two to three days in each of these zodiac signs now you
may have heard like new age types say things like um the the moon is in capricorn and i'm
feeling really impulsive and i shouldn't make any big decisions right now or or something like that
i don't know that's probably all wrong i know nothing about astrology but it's that concept of
where the moon falls that we're paying attention to and as it pertains to gardening there are some
zodiac signs that are better for growth and some that are not the growth signs are taurus libra
cancer scorpio capricorn and pisces the no grow or maintenance signs are aries
gemini leo virgo sagittarius and aquarius now llewellyn's book gives you tips on how to put
all of these signs and the moon phases together and chart them all out on your own calendar so
i followed this and laid out all of my pertinent planting times and gardening chores for my main
gardening months now quick tip if you want to try this but don't want to go through all the work
outlined in this book the farmers almanac website actually makes this really easy for you you can go
to their site on any given day it will tell you which gardening chores to undertake on that day
so it's a much quicker and easier process
so to embark on my experiment i decided to take two spring crops and plant half of each on an
optimal day and half of each on a sub-optimal or barren day so this was in 2020 so the lettuce was
planted on april 1st which was an optimal day for lettuce as the moon was waxing and it was
in cancer the next batch was planted the following day april 2nd which was a barren day because the
moon was in leo a no grow sign the peas were done in the same way the first batch was planted on
april 5th which was a barren day in 2020 because the moon was in virgo the following day april 6th
was an optimal day because the moon was waxing and in libra so let's take a look at my results
so here are my two varieties of lettuce that were planted on april first the so-called optimal day
and here are the same two varieties of lettuce planted the next day april 2nd which is which was
a so-called barren day can you see any difference between the two because i cannot same situation
here this is the same p this group was planted on april 6th which was a so-called optimal day
this group was planted on april 5th a so-called barren day
i can't see any difference between these
either
so unfortunately my results were less than compelling i really couldn't see any difference
in any of the growth along the way germination rates were similar growth rates were similar
yields were very similar i wasn't really getting any benefit out of
planning on an optimal moon day versus a barren moon day
now i did have to dig a little more to see if there were some actual
valid scientific reasons that this moon planting might work and i ran across a few explanations
a lot of this had to do with theories about gravitational pull so the same gravitational
pull that the moon exudes on the tides also works on the water tables under the earth
and it may be possible that it pulls that water up just enough to help the young seedlings out
another idea is that geotropism or the effect the gravity has on planets may be stronger during
times of a full moon interestingly there have been some scientific experiments done on this
concept dr frank brown of northwestern university performed research over a 10-year period of time
and found that plants absorbed more water at the time of the full moon several studies including
some done by isabella guerrini at the university of perugia in italy have concluded that plant sap
flows more as the moon becomes full and lessens as the moon wanes scientific observation as early as
the 1970s showed that all plants grow differently during different phases of the moon but the exact
why is still unanswered so if nothing else there's definitely some interesting things to consider
but perhaps the most compelling argument i've heard so far for planting by the moon is from
my own sister she said she's unsure if it actually works but having a devoted system of what tasks to
tackle when in the garden has helped her immensely i would just plant and plant and plant and avoid
weeding at all cost if left to my own devices but knowing there are certain days that are optimal
for certain tasks helps me allocate my time more efficiently i thought that was a really good way
to look at it and as i mentioned earlier if moon planting is something that you swear
by i would love to hear about your experiences thanks for watching and i'll see you next time