Checking the news today I was astounded to see this link on the BBC Web site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/lunar/
I have never heard of lunar gardening, or using “lunar energies” to enhance your green thumb. What the heck is this practice, and how diffuse is it? Since lunar gardeners are probably New Agers, I very much doubt that the “lunar energies” in question have anything to do with gravitational pull or reflected photons.
Its amazing what people will believe.
“The second step in [lunar gardening] is to consider which sign of the zodiac the Moon is in.”
It is explained thusly in Nancy Bubel’s The Seed Starter’s Handbook:
Planting by the moon is another example of applied folklore that is still widely practiced. Now that the moon’s influence over bodies of water is universally accepted, the assumption that living things are also affected by changes in the moon’s relationship to the earth seems reasonable. If the moon really does exert a force that raises groundwater as it does the ocean tides, perhaps the rising of nutrient-carrying water from the roots through the stem to the leaves is stimulated too. Research studies at Tulane University in New Orleans have shown that seeds absorb water and germinate on a regular cycle that coincides with the lunar month, and other studies on trees and potatoes have demonstrated a similar periodicity.
While it is not something I practice, I’m not ready to dismiss it out of hand.
At the very least it offers a way to order the work of the garden. During the first 2 quarters you plant or transplant above ground crops; root crops are planted during the 3rd quarter; the last quarter, considered a barren time, is reserved for weeding and cultivating.
Robinh, that’s pretty interesting take, however I am far from convinced there is any validity to those claims. To begin with, I think we can dismiss the Zodiacal influences (thanks Ned for highlighting that).
Secondly, the moon exerts an extremely weak force on everything on the earth, however such force is negligible in most instances. Cecil wrote the following:
It would seem that scale is the significant factor when it comes to Lunar influence on water, which is why we have tides on very large bodies of water and not small ones. I have not heard about the results of the studies at the University of Tulane, can anyone comment on them and their accuracy?
Also, the moon causes tides (in the seas and on the planet) twice a day, and not on a monthly basis as the results cited above would imply. Has any mechanism been (seriously) proposed by which the Lunar cycle could have an impact on anything at all, much less gardening?
This site looks briefly at some of the scientific explanations. Excerpts:
(The following is taken from “Agricultural Ecology” by Girolami Azzi): Radishes sown with a rising moon blossom in 50-60 days when temperatures are reasonably high: sown with a waning moon, the interval between sprouting and blooming is much longer, so permitting the plant to develop the meaty root mass utilised by man.
The main environmental factor triggering flowering is the length of the night, (a form of photoperiodism). Plant photoperiodic processes are perfectly capable of responding to light levels much lower than those experienced at full moon, so it would be surprising if plants did not respond to the phases of the moon.
If the moon can affect the flowering times of plants, then the distinction between “above ground plants” and “below ground plants”, makes more sense: in the case of “below ground crops” (onions, carrots, turnips etc.) flowering is usually undesirable; but this is not the case with many “above ground crops” such as sweetcorn and beans.
Now, this does make a certain amount of sense to me. I know from some research I did in response to another question on this board that artificial light (eg. streetlights) can affect plant growth and health, often negatively. In the example given above, radishes produce good root growth until they flower, and begin to produce seed. At that point, the plant’s energy goes into seed production for next year’s crop. So if I can time my planting so there is a longer period before the radish plant is cued to begin seed production, I get a longer period of root growth. With a plant like peas or beans, where the seed is what we eat, I want the plant to flower as soon as possible.
Another possibility:
Lunar cycles can influence the activity, behaviour and breeding of animals. Plants are vulnerable in the first few days after germination, planting at a phase of the moon when pests are active could reduce the yield. The Malayan black rice bug is a serious pest, and seems to be caught more in light traps at full moon. Gerbils in the Negev desert forage for food most at new moon, when they are less at risk from owls. It seems likely to me that mice and rats (which can eat a lot of newly planted seed) might do the same.
That doesn’t sound unreasonable, either.
I doubt that there is a single factor at work here. Perhaps some plants are more affected by seasonal light differences, others are more susceptible to pests, and still others might be affected cyclically by something else we haven’t yet thought of?
It’s not necessarily that the tidal force has a specific effect on a specific plant, in and of itself. But perhaps that force, in combination with other factors such as length of daylight and the variable nighttime light from the moon, cues the plants to grow in ways that are most beneficial.
In any case, I’m still open to the possibility that following the lunar cycle does help gardeners give their plants the best start.
To begin with, I think we can dismiss the Zodiacal influences (thanks Ned for highlighting that).
Unless we look at the zodiac not as some outside determinator of personality and fate, but rather as a method of charting, more specifically, the monthly and yearly cycles of growth and dormancy. You know, a way to keep track of what to do and when, created in the days before we got a calendar from our insurance agent every year.
Seems to me then that some of these Lunar Gardening folks are taking phenomena associated with Lunar brightness and ascribing them to “energies” best left to pseudoscience.
I have no problem believing that varying light levels have an effect on the development of plants, but to call variations in light levels “Lunar Energy” smells a bit New Age to me. It almost seems like a technique to take perfectly valid scientific evidence and disguise it as evidence for “Mysterious Energies and Hidden Powers”.
As for the Zodiac, sure, if it functions as a calendar I can see your point, although it would seem strange to follow such a system when we have had reliable calendars for much of civilization. But what jumps to my mind, and to the minds of a few others when you bring astrology into the picture, is something like “how much more vitamin A carrots germinated during Uranus’s ascendancy on Leo contain owing to the positive effects of magnified lunar energy” or some similar rubbish.
I still think the piece on the BBC’s portal is surprisingly misinformative, especially since the BBC is one of the world’s most respected news media!
I haven’t had a chance to check everyone’s links yet, but Lunar gardening sound like a method of agriculture invented in 1924 by Rodolf Steiner called biodynamics. It is essentially organic farming carried out wearing a toga as far as I can work out 
.
This is currently very trendy in the wine industry. I’ve tried two of these, and although they were both excellent, I was unable to taste any obvious lunar influences. I guess, the improvement is due to either respect for the soil, or a very high price tag. Better than Concord in a box, anyway.
Lunar gardening is indeed a facet of biodynamic farming, but they are not the same thing. The ideal in biodynamic farming is a self supporting system where, for instance, livestock feed off the land and provide manure that is composted and used to fertilize the plantings. Rather than having a goal of maximum yield, bio-dynamic farming seeks to produce the healthiest foods with the least environmental impact. This article gives a basic description.
Bio-dynamics uses principles of organic farming and lunar planting, but goes beyond these with theories of “life forces” that are probably a bit much for those who are more scientifically inclined.
People who are not familiar with Rudolph Steiner in the context of bio-dynamics might be more familiar with the Waldorf Schools, who base their curriculums on his educational theories.
Lunar gardening isn’t new; it’s incredibly ancient. People were planting by the phases of the moon long before the principles of modern science were put to use and the concept of double-blind studies was familiar. Terms like “lunar energy” reflect the fact that farmers have long recognized that they can improve their yields by working with rather than against the monthly and yearly cycles of plant growth, but that they have not always understood why. I think there is great value in studying, with our modern methods, this phenomenon in an attempt to understand it more fully. And perhaps we do ourselves a disservice by continuing to use the outdated terms, because it does allow “New Age-y” types to co-opt this ancient lore.
But I would also put forth this idea: it doesn’t matter whether or not we come up with a scientific explanation. If my grandmother finds that she gets a better yield from her peas if she plants them during a particular phase of the moon, and she teaches me to do so as well, it really doesn’t matter whether or not we are able to figure out why. We still get a great crop of peas.
Well, I tried to do a little research on this, and only got confused. Perhaps someone who is better educated on this subject (or has better search engine skills) can help, but I wonder-for how long has the average peasant farmer used a modern calendar? Also, different calander systems have been used by different civilizations, and calendars have been changed, sometimes abruptly, by governing bodies. But the cycle of the moon’s phases and the changing patterns in the night sky remained constants that could be taught to anyone.
Again, I agree that some people do get rather silly about attributing cause and effect. But people have been giving what we might consider superstitious explanations for scientific phenomona since forever. I think there is value in both looking for those scientific explanations (because we can then better use those phenomena to our advantage) and in accepting the possibility that we might not be able to fully explain the process.