THE MOON AND SEED SOWING.

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 245, 17 October 1942, Page 2

THE MOON AND SEED SOWING.

Several correspondents have recently advocated attention to the cbservance at some given phase of the moon (writes Mr N. R. Thomas in the Auckland Star). In view of the interest that the truth of this claim would arouse, experimental trials were carried out in 1940 at the John Innes Institution. These were carried out inside a greenhouse and outside with radish, cabbage, bean, carrot, and onion seedS. The results were summarised in the October, 1941, Journal of the Royal Horticul - tural Society : Cogent comments were: "No phase of the moon shows departures even of consistent sign, still less of consistent magnitude — the effect of a moon phase is very small indoors and seldom more than two days outside. This is negligible as compared with the fluctuations aue to climatic changes. Indoors germination speed is very constant, whereas outside it is much more variable. Temperature, and more especially moisture, clearly have profound effects; thus, sowing in good condition of soil and weather will always give good results, while sowing with the moon will have little or no advantage, at least with the five types of plants used."