Planting By The Phases Of The Moon

I will be putting up a short series of posts that are about planting by the moon phases, from the book, How To Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible On Less Land Than You Can Imagine, by John Jeavons. This makes a lot of sense to me and I hope it will benefit you, too.

Planting by the Phases of the Moon

One of the most controversial aspects of the Biointensive method is the planting of seeds and the transplanting of seedlings by the phases of the moon. Short- and extra-long-germinating seeds are planted 2 days before the new moon, when the first significant magnetic forces occur, and up to 7 days after the new moon. Long-germinating seeds are planted at the full moon and up to 7 days afterward. Seedlings are transplanted at the same time. Both planting periods take advantage of the full sum of the forces of nature, including gravity, light, and magnetism. The greatest sum of increasing forces occurs at the new moon. The lunar gravitational pull which produces high tides in the oceans and water tides in the soil is very high. And the moon, which is dark, gets progressively lighter. The importance of the time of the month in planting seeds and transplanting is not so much in the exact day on which you perform the task, but rather in generally taking advantage of the impetus provided by nature.

When you place short-germinating seeds in the ground 2 days before the lunar tide forces are greatest, the seed has time to absorb water. The force exerted on the water in the seed helps create a "tide" that helps burst the seed coat in conjunction with the forces produced by the swelling of the seed. No doubt you have wondered why one time beet seeds come up almost immediately and another time the germinating process takes 2 weeks in the same bed under similar conditions. Temperature and moisture differences, pH changes and humus levels may influence the seeds in each case, but the next time you note a marked difference in germination time, check your calendar to determine the phase the moon was in when the seeds were sown. You may be surprised to find the moon had an influence.