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Does Moon Phase Planting REALLY Effect Plants? Old Wives Tale OR Based In Science? | Garden Science
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Apr 25, 2022
Moon phase seed starting is something that people swear by! But is there any science to suggest that moon phase planting will affect the seeds? What about moon phases affecting our actual plants? This video looks at how the moon interacts and affects our garden and even our houseplants. Join our monthly newsletter! newsletter.gardeningincanada.net Website/Blog & FREE printables: https://gardeningincanada.net Leave Me A Voice Message To Be Included In The Podcast: https://memo.fm/gardeningincanada/ —————— 👩🔬 Grab A Planner! Paperback Houseplant Planner: https://geni.us/NFTrl2 Paperback Garden Planner: https://geni.us/s9zc Digital Download Planners https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/GardeningInCanada Seed Purchasing: Zappa Seeds:
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0:00
Hello plant people, how are you guys doing today? If you're new around here, my name is Ashley and I'm a soil scientist. On this channel I like to take that science and apply to all things plants, both indoors and outside. And in today's video we're talking about moon phases and harvesting or planting seeds according to these moon phases. Is there any science to back this up or is it just folklore and kind of farmer's almanac-y type stuff? So let's just jump straight into it
0:28
this entire video was inspired by a reel that I did. And essentially the reel was if you were planting by the moon phases right now is
0:36
the time to plant things that carry seeds such as tomatoes, zucchinis, cucumbers, peppers, that sort of thing. Now
0:45
some people were like, Oh my goodness, is this a thing? And then other people absolutely swore by it
0:52
And then others were like, we need more information. Please do a video
0:55
So well, uh, here we are. Here is the official video. So a little bit of history about the moon
1:03
phases. This is not new knowledge. This is something that ancient civilizations such as
1:09
the Celts and then even the natives in New Zealand, all over the world, even the Romans
1:15
referenced this. So overall, this has been used for millennia, for generations. It is more mainstream
1:25
now thanks to the Farmer's Almanac which is kind of the gardener's Bible for some people
1:30
and they actually do recommend this and they usually will give kind of lunar calendars for
1:37
you to plant by. But the question is is there any science to back this up? Well in order to know
1:44
exactly if this is the case we actually need to look at the rules behind the moon phases. So I'm
1:51
to give you the rules to each of the four types and what's supposed to be planted when. So the
1:59
first quarter moon cycle is a new moon to a half full. So it's not a specific moon, it's the phases
2:06
or the transition between moons. And in this cycle or phase, we want to plant leafy greens. This can
2:13
be things like lettuce, cabbage, spinach, that sort of thing. The second quarter moon cycle is from
2:21
the full half or half full to the full moon and this is when you plant things
2:28
that have seeds inside it such as the tomatoes the peppers the cucumbers the
2:32
zucchinis the third quarter moon cycle is full moon to half full and this is
2:39
reserved for things that grow underground or perennials so this would be things like potatoes beets carrots or perennials such as raspberries blueberries
2:49
apple trees that sort of thing and then the fourth quarter moon cycle is half
2:54
full to the new moon and you do not plant anything this is the time to weed or cut your grass or prune and so that kind of the rules behind the whole moon phases now i personally do not do this
3:12
so i'm not fully familiar with even how to read the moon at all so i highly suggest you pick up
3:20
lunar calendar or something of that nature if that is something that you
3:25
were interested in I know the farmers almanac is generally a good reference
3:30
point for this so some of the science behind this we already know that the moon
3:34
on a very large scale can affect things such as oceans and on a smaller scale
3:41
there is some science to suggest that it does affect mammals and humans as well
3:48
What's affecting in particular when we're looking at mammals and humans is our biological clock or circadian rhythm
3:56
it's not uncommon for Parents of newborns to say that their children are a little bit more wild or sleepless on full moon nights
4:05
And I'm sure a lot of ear nurses that we talked to you would also tell you what it's like to work in ER on a
4:13
Full moon So the question would be do plants have a circadian rhythm or some sort of internal biological clock and the answer to that is yes
4:23
As far as we know plants do have a circadian rhythm or some form of a biological internal clock
4:30
It's what tells the plant to do very specific things Now this hasn't been fully understood and it kind of was
4:38
science that was reserved for certain circles for a longer period of time but recent studies are
4:46
showing that certain things or certain weather events transitions and pressures that sort of jazz
4:53
will ultimately affect the biological clock in otherwise unintelligent or unsentient beings
5:01
such as plants so one thing we do know is that the moon affects the ocean in particular it
5:08
affects tides. So in order to understand whether or not it's going to affect something in a seed
5:15
so small as a seed, we have to look at smaller bodies of water. And this is kind of where the
5:21
science gets a little bit murky for me. If we look at lakes and rivers, even if we look at the
5:27
Great Lakes, which are some of the largest or the largest lakes in the world, the moon phase or the
5:35
moon in general will not affect water movement these bodies of water are
5:40
considered too small so officially speaking the moon only affects water movement on the ocean scale and nothing less than that so I didn't find any
5:53
scientific studies although a lot of people reference scientific journals and there are some in particular such as this one ranch that only exclusively grows in the moon cycles and then there one doctor however i cannot find
6:11
these scientific journals so if anyone has access to these or the links to them please send them my
6:16
direction i would love to read them if they exist however i cannot find them what i did find though
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an interview with a dr barlow and he says that he studied the whole idea of
6:28
moon phases and plants for 10 years now he is from the Northwest Western
6:37
University and in that he stated he wasn't studying so much the seeds and
6:43
water but more so the actual plants and water and one thing he did discover is
6:49
that the moon phase and the movement of water in full-grown plants is affected
6:56
and in particular it's affected at the joint another word for this is the
7:01
polvenous and this is simply where the leaf meets the stem and in that joint
7:07
there tended to be fluctuations in the amount of water movement and ultimately
7:12
in the amount of nutrient movement in this area so with that being said when
7:17
look at moon phases and seed starting one of the arguments is that the moon affects how much water
7:24
is up taken into the seed at specific times and based on the type of seed it is the moon will
7:32
affect this there's no science to suggest this there's only science to suggest that moon phases
7:38
will affect full-grown plants with that being said though if you were to start seeds at a specific
7:44
time and they germinate and are kind of on this track or the cycle that you
7:50
initially started in then technically speaking moon phases could line up to
7:57
specific times in the plants growth or cycle of life and therefore when it is a
8:04
full-grown plant if the moon cycles are lining up in a particular way this
8:08
ultimately may affect the actual plant itself so besides the moon affecting
8:14
water movement it also affects gravitational pull and gravitation and plants I mean those two
8:22
are go hand in hand with exactly how they develop so this is something that we see more so in house
8:30
plants such as things like calatheas and that is just the movement of plant leaves based on the
8:40
presence of a of light and so when we have a full moon we can have a change in
8:47
leaf positioning and ultimately a change in just the biometrics of the plant does
8:54
this ultimately affect the growth of the plant or potential yields of the plant that are sensitive this there no studies to suggest that but this is something visually and antidotically we can say it does happen
9:07
one other really interesting fun fact I did find about moon phases and plants is
9:13
a study that was done by the University of Stockholm the person who studied this
9:18
was Katerina Ryden and the statements that they made is pretty good
9:26
I will just read exactly what the statement was. Unfortunately, scientific work on lunisolar
9:33
impacts on biological systems has sometimes been almost ridiculed, and the field has probably been
9:40
hampered by unjustified skepticism. Therefore, well-conducted and interesting papers like this are very important so they did a study on how full moons affected a rare type of plant called
9:59
epiphyderia foemenia i'll insert a photo of what this plant looks like and they found that full
10:05
moons actually governed the plants pollination and pollination formation very interesting stuff
10:13
and because of how compelling the evidence was from this study and the paper that they ultimately
10:20
published was they have determined that maybe we've been too harsh as a scientific plant
10:27
community on the whole phases of the moon and that there may be something behind this
10:33
so my conclusion in my literary research of this is maybe the science is a little murky
10:42
but there is some compelling evidence that moon phases affect plants do they affect scenes and
10:50
germination that's a little out there still but there is enough evidence to suggest it
10:56
affects the plant on a biological system level whether that be water movement or in the case
11:03
of this really rare plant pollen formation it can obviously afford affect the the morphus of the
11:12
plant in and of itself so should you plant by moon phases I don't know it's up
11:18
to you if you find it fun and interesting and then go ahead if you
11:23
find it more stressful to actually track this then just avoid it just plant your
11:29
plants normally that's what I'm going to do yet to let me know what you guys think
11:33
down in the comments below I want to thank you guys so much for watching if you enjoyed this video be sure to give it a thumbs up hit that subscribe button
11:40
button and I will talk to you guys next time. Bye
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