What's Growing In Your Garden? Horticultural Science

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

Wow Mr. Turtle, that's some nice lookin soil der Consider me very much envious....which make me bout the only thing thaz green here

[Mercedes Benzene]

Originally Posted by Turtle

I started 5 new Youth-on-age plants in pots just so I could keep up with you. This is a native plant to my area and I collected the Momma plant at Lechtenberg Forest.

I just looked them up, and they seem really interesting. Did you let them propagate naturally, or did you take cuttings?

A Note On: Questioning unique plant reproduction.
MB

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Mercedes Benzene

I just looked them up, and they seem really interesting. Did you let them propagate naturally, or did you take cuttings?

A Note On: Questioning unique plant reproduction.
MB

They propagated naturally and I just cut them free from the parent stem & removed the the bulk of the old leaf that they sprouted from. In the wild, the old leaf with new babies would settle onto the ground where the babies would take root. Since I have mine in a pot there is no soil for the droopers to light on. I thought I had a photo of Momma but I just checked and found none. Will get it today after Super Bowl.

Originally Posted by Do9uble DD

Wow Mr. Turtle, that's some nice lookin soil der Consider me very much envious....which make me bout the only thing thaz green here.

Thnx.! It looks "nice"'cause I screened it through 1/4" hardware cloth. I only screened the soil from the sod I took out, & underneath the nice patch I spade-tilled the soil but did not remove the rocks. I'm a renter and always dancing on the edge of how much to do given I may loose it all the next month. My rental this time though is good through August though so I went for it with a little more gusto.

[Turtle]

Here's more goods on Tolmiea menziesii, aka Piggy-back Plant.

Parent plant today:

Close-up of root buds:

Plant when collected; detail of new plant buds at leaf axil:

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

gotcha....so glad I don't rent anymore....still envious.....looks so nice and black....bet it even smells nice (dependin on last time it was fertilised or type of fertilizer.....cow for instance always smell rosey to us farm boys when mixed with freshly turned soil) Course the best smellin soil is found in areas thickly forested with leafy (rather than needled) vegetation turn over all them leaves an mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmm damn thats some marvelous stuff

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by DFINITLYDISTRUBD

gotcha....so glad I don't rent anymore....still envious.....looks so nice and black....bet it even smells nice (dependin on last time it was fertilised or type of fertilizer.....cow for instance always smell rosey to us farm boys when mixed with freshly turned soil) Course the best smellin soil is found in areas thickly forested with leafy (rather than needled) vegetation turn over all them leaves an mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmm damn thats some marvelous stuff

I haven't used any fertilizers on the plots, just some Miracle Grow look-alike for sproutlings that I started from seed & while they were in their potlets. I have not bought any steer manure for this garden, but I have in the past for my gardens. Goin' on the cheap here as the pay now, loose tomorrow gets old. I have in this garden tilled in compost that I make from kitchen waste & yard/garden trimmings, but even so I think the "rich dark" look in my vid & photos is largely becasue the soil is very wet.

There is the matter of chemical soil test kits for consumers that I have tried in the past. I found the results vauge or inconclusive so I don't even bother any more. Any of y'all use these and have better results than I did?

Off to do some diggin' as the Sun has made an appearence in the Land of Perpetual Grey.

[Turtle]

Any of y'all into, up on, or otherwise cognizant of, gardening practices scheduled on Moon phases? I had heard of it, but looked into it a bit this evening as I happened to have planted my pea seeds in some peat pots to get an indoor start tonight and I thought to check the Moon phase which is New. Seems I picked the right time to plant above ground crops! I got a grip of new seeds this evening at 40% off & will give a rundown later. In the mean time, here's a bit on the Lunacy in the Garden.

Planting by the Phases of the Moon

Originally Posted by Marion Owen

...According to a National Geographic news article more gardeners today are turning to the moon for sage advice on the best time to plant, prune, weed, and harvest. The practice, known as moon or lunar gardening, centers on the moon's gravitational effect on the flow of moisture in soil and plants.

Gardening by the moon is as old as time. Long before man (and women!) ever had a watch on his wrist or a calendar on the refrigerator, everything was governed by the phases of the moon.

May the Force be with you!

Moon gardening has been passed down through many generations. "There are firm believers in moon gardening today who will not plant anything unless a favorable moon sign is indicated," says Ed Hume, one of the Pacific Northwest's favorite garden gurus and proponent of the moon's influences on gardening. Hume publishes an annual Garden Almanac which gives month by month moon sign gardening calendar -- you can buy your own Almanac through my online catalog.

The moon controls ocean tides, influences the groundwater tables beneath our feet and the movement of fluids in plants. Even continental land masses are said to rise 2 to 3 feet in elevation with the passage of the moon. Understanding the effects, and timing your gardening chores accordingly, is the basis of moon gardening. ...

[freeztar]

Interesting. I'd never heard of moon gardening.

A quick search produced little to know actual scientific information on this. The best I found was an experiment performed by a student for a science fair. The quoted text below is from the results section.

The New Moon Cycle had the fastest seed germination for each Lunar Cycle experiment. The radishes planted on the New Moon Cycle-1st Lunar Cycle grew 0.9 centimeters higher on average than any other moon phase. The radishes planted on the New Moon Cycle-2nd Lunar Cycle grew 0.1 centimeters higher on average than any other moon phase. The Perigee Cycle appeared to have a small negative influence on
plant growth, while the Apogee Cycle indicated plant growth acceleration. The Descending Moon Cycle data indicated a negative influence on germination of seeds and on plant growth. The Ascending Moon Cycle indicated a small positive influence on both plant growth and seed germination. The Moon Nodes data showed no influence.

http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2007/Projects/J1723.pdf

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by freeztar

Interesting. I'd never heard of moon gardening.

A quick search produced little to know actual scientific information on this. The best I found was an experiment performed by a student for a science fair. The quoted text below is from the results section.

http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2007/Projects/J1723.pdf

I seem to recall it from The Old Farmer's Almanac, but I haven't bought a copy in years. The Ed Hume guy the lady mentions in my story/link is well known in these parts for his television shows and seed lines. The Wildflower seeds I bought last year are from Ed.

Anyway, today I am going to apply, for the first time, a 4-10-10 commercial fertilizer to my plot and seed Beets, Carrots, Leeks, Green Onions, Spinach, Red Radishes, and Romain Lettuce. If they go, they go, if no, then a Full Moon is only 2 weeks away & I'll plant again. My plots are so small that I never use up all my seeds anyway.

Also starting inside besides my Peas, some Heirloom Tomatos , Heirloom Cantalope, Cherry Tomatos, and some Guords. (My gourds from last year still have not dried!?)

I better hurry, , as the Moon is already 4% past New and Waxing its Crescent.

[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.