Planting by the moon experiment......

[David from Dothan]

Planting by the moon.....Folklore or system with merit......figure that only a "controlled" experiment could confirm or debunk. All tests will be done using 12 Emerald okra seeds, 2 per pot, that have been pre-soaked for 4 hours (ALL seeds planted had "sunk" during after soaking time). Each test will have a duration of 7 day.
TEST #1.......Seeds planted on 8/24, a day listed as a "barren day" for planting by Farmer's Almanac......2 sprouted on 8/26, 1 sprouted on 8/28 and 2 sprouted on 8/29.......3 were healthy, 2 were not.....only 5 out of 12 seeds germinated.

 

[Becky]

Doesn't look very barren to me

 

[David from Dothan]

Doesn't look very barren to me

Well......That depends on what you're used to......I have always been able to, during the spring planting, get an almost 100% germination rate with this particular kind of okra.....This was almost 42% germination.

 

[La Garden]

Don't care one little bit for the okra,......but the Experiment, now that is something interesting. 100% or close to it down to under 50% is quite the showing. Back in the day people had to be more observant, crops where a life line. A loss of 50% would be devastating to a farmer. Going to have to hunt down a Farmers Almanac give it a read.

 

[Jesse Glessner]

The "Old Farmer's Almanac", the original of course, is usually spot on!
EVERYONE should read this year's copy - not so much for gardening, but for a look to the future.
About the first 1/3 of the book are short quips and articles of what they see as the future.
I tell all young people I meet to read it as it is discussing industry, farming, living, jobs, technology, etc.
Some of it is pretty far reaching, but, look at the first sentence again.

 

[David from Dothan]

EXPERIMENT #2......Seeds planted on 9/2, a day listed as, "Seeds planted now tend to rot in the ground", by Farmer's Almanac. Since it said, "....in the GROUND", seeds were planted in the ground, instead of peat pots. 9 seeds sprouted on 9/5....1 seed sprouted on 9/7......6 seedlings were healthy, 2 were deformed and 2 never completely emerged......CONCLUSION: We know that 83% of the seeds DID NOT "rot in the ground".

 

[La Garden]

This part I wonder if loc plays a much bigger role. 'Bama instead of Ohio. Still, holding its feet to the fire, 80% sprout is good not great but good.

 

[David from Dothan]

This part I wonder if loc plays a much bigger role. 'Bama instead of Ohio. Still, holding its feet to the fire, 80% sprout is good not great but good.

Wondered about location factors, too.....Guessing that the "predictions" are moon-phase based only since no matter where you are in North America, the moon's phase and it's perceived effect would be, supposedly, "constant"....... with all other factors (time of year, soil temps, yada, yada, yada) left up to the gardener.

 

[David from Dothan]

EXPERIMENT #3.......Seeds planted on 9/15.....a day listed as a "do not plant day" by Farmer's Almanac......3 sprouted on 9/18, 3 sprouted on 9/19, 2 sprouted on 9/20......7 seedlings were healthy and 1 was, somewhat, deformed.....germination percentage : 66.5%.

MY FINAL 3 EXPERIMENT CONCLUSION: While the results of the 3 tests did show an apparent germination effect.....percentage-wise, for a home gardener, can't see worrying ( a WHOLE lot) about paying a LOT of attention to moon-phase planting......BUT, if I were a farmer planting hundreds, or thousands, of acres and my livelihood was at stake.....I can seed where the percentages could be detrimental, if not catastrophic. ("barren day" :41.5%......"seeds rot in ground" :83%...."do not plant" :66.5%)

 

[La Garden]

Been interesting to watch these tests. Thanks for posting them up.