Science Forums 2

[JMJones0424]

The idea of planting by moon cycles has always troubled me. I can not think of any conceivable force that would be measurable to a seed that would make it be able to sprout and grow differently under a full moon rather than a new moon, especially because both bodies are in constant motion in relation to the earth. Certainly the gravitational pull against the earth's center of gravity would be greater during a new moon rather than a full moon, but is this really enough to be statistically significant to a seed? I would think difference in elevation would have a greater gravitational effect than the difference in gravity of both the moon and the sun, rather than the moon minus the sun. This whole thing always smacked of superstition to me, and I never bothered to test it.

It is important to note that historically, guidance of the phases of the moon was not just limited to gardening, but also to harvesting timber, slaughtering animals, and many other subjects that I find equally unreasonable.

I think this is simply a perversion of using the moon as a seasonal calendar, as it is easier to count reliably and repeatedly to 28 days than it is to 365 days.

One must remember that many industries are rather conservative in their application of new technologies. Agriculture is not alone in this regard. Construction and engineering, especially in times before the scientific method, relied on trial and error. If something worked, than it worked, any attempt to question why is futile. My belief is that those who proposed planting by the moon found that it worked, and didn't bother to test the hypothesis correctly to find that (local climate permitting) planting two weeks earlier or two weeks later would not have resulted in a statistically different result.

ETA: Modern agriculture, specifically in regards to crops sold locally at the peak of ripeness, use interval planting to produce a consistent amount of harvestable crop continuously throughout the growing period. This would tend to dispute the effects of planting by the moon.