THE MOON AND SEED SOWING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 237, 7 October 1942, Page 2

THE MOON AND SEED SOWING

Several correspondents have recently advocated attention to the observance at some given phase of the moon. In view of the interest that the truth of this claim would arouse experimental trials were carried out in 1940 at the "Jolm Innes • Institution." These were carried out inside a greenhouse and outside with radish, cabbage, h«>a» carrot and onion seeds. The results were summarised in the Octobet 1941, Journal of the Royal Horticat' 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 due to climatic changes. Indoore germination speed is very constant whereas outside it is much more variable. Temperature, and more especially moisture, clearly havte profound effects; thus, sowing in good condition of soil and weather will always give good results, while sowing with the moon will have ifrffr or no advantage, at least with the five types of plants used."

N. R. \Y. THOMAS.