Sowing by the Moon - Myth or Science?

American truck farmers and some of the most skilful market gardeners in the world, like the “maraichers” around Paris, have long planted certain vegetables according to the phases of the moon, the rule generally being to plant some varieties of seed with a waxing moon and others with a waning moon. The idea goes right back into the midst of antiquity. Foresters in many parts of Europe will quit a job rather than fell trees at a time of full moon when they know that the timber contains the most sap.

Theorists who were out of touch with Mother Nature have often ridiculed the peasantries of the Balkans and Southern Europe for “moon-gardening” and blamed the superstitions of pagan times, for what they airily dismissed as “mere nonsense”. It was not until the German philosopher, Dr. Rudolph Steiner, persuaded his co-worker, Mrs. Kolisko, to undertake a series of exhaustive tests, started back in 1925, that any real attempt had been made to obtain scientific proof that the moon really had any effect on plant growth. The evidence that has accumulated from these trials (which, since Nazism put an end to cultural work in Germany, have been carried on in Britain by Mrs. Kolisko, at a research farm at Bray-on-Thames, under the auspices of the Anthroposophical Society), is so convincing that ever-increasing numbers of amateur and professionals gardeners and ordinary farmers, are now following the method with confidence. Mrs. Kolisko’s research work, however, shows conclusively that, contrary to the old peasant beliefs, the best results are secured when the seed is sown two days before full moon.

There seems to be a set notion among critics of the method, who have not taken the trouble to fully investigate its adherents’ claims, that it is suggested that the moon exercises some mystic influence over plant growth. This is quite wrong. Actually, the explanation is a perfectly simple one. During full moon, a tremendous force is “pulling” on the earth, as we know from the tides. The moon also draws up the moisture in the soil in a similar way and as much of the manurial virtue in the earth is washed down into the sub-soil after heavy rains, it is obvious that when this moisture is again drawn to the surface, it must be highly charged with the fertilising elements which are so beneficial to germinating seeds. Apart from this, Mrs. Kolisko and other scientists have also shown that the seedlings derive considerable benefit from the fact that moonlight turns certain properties in the foliage of a plant into sugar which is extremely good for its growth.

It has been found, almost without exception, that sowing two days before full moon gives the best results. Although the moon’s “pull” is greatest at full moon, seeds planted then have very often not sprouted until two weeks after those planted two days before full moon. The poorest results have come from planting two days before new moon. Tests have been carried out with all sorts of crops ranging from carrots, beets and parsnips to potatoes, wheat and maize. The difference in growth in crops of tomatoes has also been amazing even grown out of doors in cool English summers. Generally speaking, the yield from seeds sown two days before full moon have been thirty to forty per cent higher than other sowings. Mrs. Kolisko utters a word of warning, however, regarding weather conditions. She says that “if you sow two days before full moon and there is too much rain before and after sowing, the roots or tubers of below-round plants, sometimes get soft,” so that discretion must naturally be used. On the other hand, if plants get too much of the new moon force, as when seed is sown two days before the new moon, there is a risk of getting root crops like turnips, too “woody”, which cannot happen when one follows the moon-gardeners’ advice to sow two days before full moon. So we see that yet another ancient country custom is vindicated, rather late in the day, by Science. Readers who would like to go further into this extremely interesting question can not do better than make personal experiments themselves, as the writer has done on his farm, and read Mrs. Kolisko’s highly interesting account of the research work, in her latest book, “Moon and Plant Growth”, published by the Anthroposophical Society’s book department in London, England.

It is comforting to remember that even if Germany gave us Adolph Hitler, she also gave us Dr. Rudolph Steiner, one of the most original thinkers on agriculture the world has seen and, but for the farming depression in Germany after the last war, it is highly improbable that he would have ever turned his thoughts to this moon-planting idea, which may revolutionize ordinary farming and cereal growing in the years to come.

by R. M. Sivier