planting by the moon

[helen2]

I am going to give this a go next year. I am convinced by an allotment friend's sprouts. Mine all blown (despite planting in firm ground and whatnot) and his all tight. Apparently his were planted on a fruit day and mine on a flower day. Can anyone recommended a complete fool's guide to this method? By complete fool (as opposed to part fool) i mean one that will tell me exactly what day (eg March 4) is a flower, fruit or root day. I am no scientist or astrologer and won;t be able to work it myself from moon phases and tide tables! Helen.

[Chantal]

You can buy a book called "Planting by the Moon" on Amazon. It gives you all the info plus a chart. The only downfall is the chart only lasts one year and you need to buy a new chart each year thereafter.

[Cider Boys]

Hello Helen

Planting by the moon, what a lot of complete nonsense! If I were you I’d save my money. (How people can believe in these fairy stories is beyond me.) I believe in harsh reality, accepting that you consolidated the earth sufficiently after planting, it more likely is due to not watering through the dry weather. You would be better spending your money on some organic matter to work in the soil rather than reading poppycock.

But perhaps I am wrong, does the Soil Association approve of planting by the moon?

Yours arrogantly

Barney

[helen2]

Thanks Chantal. The Soil Association's website doesn't seem to actively promote biodyamics - but it does have links to lots of books and courses on it - so they are not quite so dismissive as cider boy. And it was only a few years back that organics was thought of as stuff and nonsense remember!

[Cider Boys]

Yes,exactly!

All the best

Barney

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Helen, i have never tried biodnamic's, but i know people that have and would never go back to
planting the ordinary way again.
Everybody to thier own, thats wat i say.

[carlseawolf]

so what day can i get the moon around to my plot to do some planting, march the 4 th is taken ( any one got his / her phone number

[Chantal]

That's my birthday!

I did buy the book last year, had a read and decided to give it ago, BUT I could never plant when I should 'cos it was raining, cold, I was at work, etc etc. As a result I did as I always do and planted whenever I could.

I think to follow this pattern religiously you need to be able to adjust your own timetable to fit with the moon phases. Someone like Steve Partridge would probably be able to experiment with this as he can devote a lot of time to his plot. Much as I'd like to, I simply can't do that.

[Granny]

A lot of new ideas are often based on old ones. I understand that traditionally, potatoes were always planted on Good Friday. That might, of course, have just been because people had a day's holiday. However, Easter Sunday is calculated as the Sunday after the first full moon of Spring (ie after March 21st). So Good Friday would usually be very close to a full moon, even if the full moon were on Easter Saturday. Might the planting of potatoes have anything to do with the moon, or am I just being fanciful?

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Granny

[Marge]

I was talking about this with Retired Father the other day. He is a Yorkshire man and I thought he would agree with me that all this planting by the moon stuff was complete nonsense - He stunned me by saying he thought it was an excellent idea

[Weed]

I have this strange picture in my mind of you all planting spuds by moonlight sometime around Easter

Must make a note to get my digital camera working

[Chantal]

No Weed, we plant the spuds by day and then dance naked round the plot by moonlight; I though everyone did that

[Primrose]

I just get out and planting when the soil is warm enough. I feel there's enough battling to do with nature anyway without needing the moon's permission as well!

[Tigger]

Hmmnnn ......I'll just plant and sow as per usual........ not by the lunar cycle............

[Alison]

I bought the book recently. Gardening and Planting by the Moon 2007, by Nick Kollerstrom, published by Foulsham (hilarious name in the circumstances!) ISBN 13: 978-0-572-03271-5 and ISBN 10: 0-572-03271-4. £8.99, paperback.
I expect one can get it cheaper through Amazon, but do consider ordering it through a local bookshop, as otherwise Amazon will sweep them all out of business, and then how will we be able to leaf through books in advance of buying them, and get inspiration from a browse?! (Which is how I came to buy it in the first place.)
The book gives quite a lot of details as to why the moon should make a difference and cases when it has appeared to do so. Given that humans and plants alike are composed of a staggering percentage of water, and looking at the moon's effect on tides, I don't find it at all odd that the moon might well have an effect on water content of beings, and that utilising the phases of the moon might be worthwhile. After all, human moods have long been thought to be influenced by the moon, hence lunatic, and I do think our ancestors were clued into a lot of connections that perhaps we have drifted off from, simply because modern scientists tell us "not to be silly, it can't work and therefore it doesn't" (which has always struck me as a most unscientific way of proceeding...)
I shall try to use the book and its calendar but, as has been said already, far too often one does things because this is when you have the free time or because it has finally stopped raining!
Alison.