Mystery at the Farm #72

It was a dark and stormy night…

And we were wondering why some of our seedlings wouldn’t grow.

Exhibit A:

Blood Sorrel and Good King Henry are actually supposed to be particularly hardy leafy greens. So it surprised us when no single plant emerged after seeding on February 21st.

Exhibit B:

The plot thickened when we compared lettuce plants that were seeded at different dates. Here we see that the Nancy lettuce plants seeded on March 7th are not growing as quickly as the lettuces seeded a week later, March 13th.

 The weather was very good following the first batch, so we have ruled out weather related problems.

Exhibit C:

Another March 7th seeding completely failed.

Our fellow apprentice Katie was disappointed when her herb seedlings of calamint wouldn’t take off. We were about to find out that it was more than a novice mistake.

Findings:

When the farm’s copy of Farmers’ Almanac 2012 arrived in the mail we used it as an investigation tool for our mystery. The Farmers’ Almanac has been published every year since 1818 and is still an invaluable resource for farmers.

We checked the section of the publication called Gardening with the Moon. There is a short explanation that you can see in the photo below.

And here’s what we found:

February 21-22: described as “Barren days”.  We planted the Good King Henry and Blood Sorrel on Feb. 21^st. This indicates that it is not a good time to plant seeds

March 5-8: is described as, “A most barren period”! This is when we planted the lettuces and herbs that didn’t work out!

Is it really possible that the Farmers’ Almanac could predict what would happen to our plants when seeded during specific phases of the moon? To me, it seems almost supernatural and very hard to believe. But at the same time, this publication has provided highly trustworthy information to farmers for almost 200 years. 

I decided to do a little more research and found some scientific evidence to back up our findings. We have all heard that the ocean’s tides are governed by our moon. I learned that the tides are highest during the full moon and the new moon. At these times the moon’s gravitational pull is at it’s highest. But it affects more subtle bodies of water too, including moisture in the ground. So if we plant seeds during the full or new moon, they will absorb more moisture and grow more vigorously.

In contrast, during the half-moon following the full-moon the gravitational pull is at it’s lowest point and so seeds have a harder time germinating.  This is when we planted the seeds in question above.

Somehow the moon can even tell us when “…seeds will rot in the ground”. The Almanac predicted this for last Wednesday and Thursday March 28^th and 29^th. So we decided to take the almanac’s advice and hold off seeding more lettuces until Friday.

This theory has much more depth than what I’ve summarized here. If you’re interested you can learn more at: www.gardeningbythemoon.com

I suppose we can't say for sure if the mystery was truly solved. There are so many factors that play into the success of any growing thing. And as a beginning farmer, it would take me a while to see all the variables. But I must say, this mystery made me a believer in gardening by the moon!