Lunar Planting and Germination Rates.

My latest lot of seeds was bought on an on line auction. The price was great, the seeds were plenty and I could get a good 80% of the varieties I wanted from the same person. Win! I knew they were home collected seeds, so maybe they wouldn't be as stringently quality controlled as if I bought a commercial packet, but they were a third of the price and five times the quantity, so if there's a misfire, I'm not going to sob over it.

These seeds came with two additions:

1) A bible quote in each packet (alright, if that's your thing).

2) A caveat stating that if I planted on a full moon, I might only get 25% germination rate, but if I planted on a new moon, the rate would be around 90%.

The second one sounds a bit loony to me. (Yes I said loony on purpose: Luna/loony. Yes, I thought it was funny, yes you're supposed to laugh. Please laugh now at my weak etymological joke, OK? Cheers.) I've heard of planting by the moon before though, so I figured I'd at least look it up.

Without looking it up though, I'm not really convinced. If this were the case, surely seed production companies would have it written on their packets? They want you to believe they have the best quality products, so if you only get a 25% germination rate, maybe you'll try another brand if you don't know about this lunar stuff.

Another thing is, when I did look it up on line, most of what I saw said that, if anything, the opposite was true. Full moons apparently pull more water to the surface of the earth, where seeds and roots live, and so more growth happens. But it's purely a water thing, and I plan on watering my seeds well whatever time of the month I plant them.

So I'm going to do an incredibly basic experiment, just to check.

The next new moon is Wednesday the 14th, so I'm going to plant radishes. I'll plant them in a recycled egg tray that holds 30, and put 1 seed in each compartment, then count the germination rate, speed and overall growth rate.

I'm choosing radishes because they're just so darned quick and easy to grow, and we could probably manage to eat 30 radishes every two weeks once they're ready, without straining ourselves. Also, hopefully they'll be happy enough in the small amount of space an egg carton affords. If not, oh well.

I'll repeat it in a couple of weeks when there's a full moon, and then again during the next new moon just because there may be a temperature issue since we're moving into summer and I want to rule that out.

It's not a perfect experiment, since the weather won't be a constant, but it'll probably be enough to convince me if there's anything significant about the idea enough to make me change my current "plant any old time" practices.

In the mean time, if anybody out there plants by the moon, I'd love to hear your experiences! Let me know either on facebook, or in the comments section below.


Cheers! Knight N Daze.





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My Plants Live in Toilet Rolls?

This garden was planted August 18th, It contains
celery, cabbage, carrots, beetroot and also gave us
30 radishes in the bare space, which is now
replanted with more carrots.
It's had no weeds despite the forest of them
surrounding it!

I mentioned in a previous post, that Square Foot Gardening is my plan of choice for an easy, productive garden, that I can remove in a matter of weeks if necessary.

Square foot gardening was dreamed up by Mel Bartholomew as a space saving, time saving way of growing plants. He quite literally wrote the book on it. This won't be the first time I've tried it, and I had some great success before, so I'm fairly certain of success going in.

What they are, actually, is raised gardens, built on top of the ground with none of your existing soil. This immediately gets rid of the hassle of having a bad soil type, and also the weed seeds that are impossible to get rid of.

The gardens I'll put in, are four feet by four feet, which is a pretty standard size. You don't want any part of the garden to be more than two feet from a walkway, because you don't want to walk on it and compress the compost mixture. I'm deviating from the growing medium Mr Bartholomew suggests, mostly because of price. He suggests an equal mix of compost, peat moss and vermiculite. I'm just using compost - a vege one from a landscaping centre - and I've not had a problem yet.

All the different items I'm using (so far!) to grow
seedlings.

Before I set the gardens up though, or even buy the compost (I'd use my own, but it hasn't composted yet) I need something to plant in them, and also a plan so I know what to plant. Well, I have a plan, but that's a whole other post - you get to see my geeky pictures - lucky you! So I know what to plant, so I know what seedlings I want.

One of them is corn, which should probably be in by now, but I'm not scared. The seedlings are sprouting right now, in recycled punnets from the pansies and tomato plants I bought, and in toilet rolls, when I ran out of other things to use. That'll be one whole garden done right there. There's also lettuce, broccoli, cucumber and cauliflower trying to germinate in the other various receptacles. Use what's available, I say! No point buying little pots when you have an egg carton available. I even caught myself staring questioningly at a bean can last night, wondering if I shouldn't put a few holes in the bottom and use it as a plant pot.

So, in another week, I think the corn will be ready to go, and in the mean time, I'll plant some more seeds and keep waiting, waiting, waiting...




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