[Swing Swang]

I'm also inclined to think that the whole biodynamic/moon thing is a load of tosh too.

All this stirring water with homeopathic quantities of horn manure, then anointing the land with the elixir produced sounds all very dubious.

Just because someone does well by it, or even if a single comparison crop does well, does not prove its worth. We have tools that would be able to validate it, for example something akin to a standard double-blind crossover scientific trial.

I wonder if anything has been published in a quality peer-reviewed journal?

SS

[Potiron]

Well, it looks like the three of us then Kagganz and compostqueen, Garlic cloves at dawn on the 12th. I have Messidrome (white ) and Arno (rose). I thought pink garlic was for planting in the Spring but on the ticket its Dec-Mar. Taken note of the book Mooky, will see if one can be had from Amazon.
 Have Fun. Potiron :salut:

[Kagganz]

Yep definately I'm up for it.  'Tis marked down on my calendar.

Planting 'solent wight'.  

 

[Clampit]

I've been interested in this Lunar planting for a while, do the diaries tell you when it's best to dig your soil, add compost etc? Are the planting times different for different parts of the country?

I put my garlic in at the end of October, i'll be interested to hear how you guys get on.

[mooky]

Dec 12t((h is a good day to plant all root veg. The moon is very high in the sky. It is best to work in the morning at planting today. Moonrise is at 15.10, full moon at 16.00. The moon is in perigree at 22.00. The is also a change from Taurus to gemini on that day.  13th changes to flower planting;

[compostqueen]

Garlic cloves at dawn

 

[anti]

I assumed this was going to be some clever way of growing things using actual moonlight, for some 24 hour growing...  

 :?

[DD.]

It is a bit misleading - I'll change the title to better reflect the subject matter as someone previously mentioned.

[shaun]

ohh no not again    

[anti]

Hah there's no need for such drastic action, I am just a little dense and more than a little clueless with gardening!

[Kate and her Ducks]

This seems to be an amazingly controversial topic and seems to have stirred up a lot of strong feeling.

There are so many people on here who are interested (one way or the other) that I am sure it would be easy to set up a small trial.

It would be easiest if one or two basic crops were chosen (like garlic which a number of people have mentioned) and then each person would need to split their crop and grow half by lunar planting and half by "conventional wisdom" (how you would get one opinion on what that is here I don't know but I guess thats a different argument ). Then at harvest time the yields can be compared to see if there is a significant difference. With a number of people doing it, it should be an adequately powered study and that way people would have some evidence as to its value rather than just a collection of opinions.

[vegmandan]

I saw a program where someone planted some spuds on a full moon and then planted the same sort of spuds on the next new moon to see the difference.

He dug the crop at the same time to compare results.

His observation was that the ones that were planted on the full moon were slightly larger than the ones planted on the new moon,and decided that the full moon must have had a beneficial effect.

What a joke this program was     --- the ones planted on the full moon were bigger because they were in the soil and growing for an extra 14 days,that's all. :roll:  :roll:

[Kate and her Ducks]

Hence the need for a properly designed study that negates some of these obvious flaws.

[Aunt Sally]

There's never been a real scientific study done to my knowledge.

[mumofstig]

I saw a program where someone planted some spuds on a full moon and then planted the same sort of spuds on the next new moon to see the difference.

He dug the crop at the same time to compare results.

His observation was that the ones that were planted on the full moon were slightly larger than the ones planted on the new moon,and decided that the full moon must have had a beneficial effect.

Funny how we remember things. This was the 'BIG DIG' prog i referred to earlier. My recollection of the programme was that the lunar ones were planted after the others but overtook then for yield. Which is why i made a note in my diary to look into it more.

But hey ho we all try what we think will work and we don't all think the same obviously. But it's weird the way people get all defensive about this kind of thing. It's almost like religion and politics and we all know we mustn't discuss them LOL