The Full Moon

December 27th 2012


     

     Planting on the full of the moon is, as I have been told, an old wives' tale.  Maybe so, but believers of moon planting believe in the effects as they believed in Santa as a child.   

     The theory is called geotropism- the growth of a living organism in response to gravity, as the downward growth of plant roots, according to www.thefreedictionary.com/geotropism. 
  
The planting on the full moon takes into account the gravity on the plants and it is believed to be greater during the full of the moon.  I am a believer.

    This is a picture of 16" long zucchini I planted last year. Corn, pole beans, and sweet peas grow taller if planted in the full moon phase.  The plants that fruit below the ground should be planted on the waning moon, plants like rutabaga, carrots, beets. But 14 days after the full moon, nothing grows well planted on the dark of the moon or the new moon phase.  

     Of course this is considered mythology to the scientific crowd, and I am okay with that.  They get coal in their stocking at Christmas!.  The truth is I know what I've been told and I tried other ways, but the old ways work and I like them.  I don't need proof.  I need a good garden crop.  

     Another myth I don't care to debunk is: never plant on a Sunday regardless of the moon.  God is watching always, but he'll take it out on your garden! I'm on the fence with this one. I think Dad's potato crop of '69 was so small because he didn't wait long enough and dug it up too soon.  I also believe God was watching and Sunday is not for planting!    

Whatever you believe, if it works, stick with it.  I still put tea bags on the Datura and in the compost heap. I still pour coffee grounds if the leaves on roses yellow up even when they have the right amount of water.  I don't plant on Sunday, and I am germinating seeds in the kitchen right now because that picture at the top is the moon outside my front door!  They will go into the ground in a month when the moon is full again.

Gardening is prepping.  Preparing for hard times means making the most of every dollar and every day.  I plant so I don't have to buy and I enjoy the rewards of the skills I hone against the day when gardening is the only way to feed your family.