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Re: Moon Planting

Bill DeWitt wrote

> Vernon Webster wrote:
> > he wanted to conduct a large
> > scale experiment on lunar planting. He asks as many listeners as possible
> > to plant some seeds on Good Friday ,then to repeat a similar planting on
> > Easter Monday.
>
>         This, of course, is not an 'experiment' but a survey. An
> experiment would include controls to reduce the number of variables to
> only those studied. His method vastly increases the variables purposely.

Well he did ask participants to plant their crops a few days earlier
as well as on Easter Monday and compare the results.

I think that your comment 'vastly increases the variables purposely'
is untrue bearing in mind what can be achieved from a two minute
slot on a radio programme.  At least if a good number of people
respond it will overcome one of the usual criticisms of experiments
- that of providing an statistically valid sample.

> His participants are selected from a group of people already predisposed
> to find the results he wants. The controlled tests have been done and do
> not support the assertion that moon planting has any effect that cannot
> be explained by light values.

No,  I can assure you that listeners to 'Gardener's Question Time'
are best described as traditionalists and Bob Flowerdew appearing as
he does (on television) with trademark blue boilersuit and long
blonde plaited pony-tail is regarded probably as a very knowledgeable
eccentric.

I do not understand your comment on light values.  Surely in order to
claim that the very low level of light from the moon makes a
significant improvement to plant growth you would have to compare
those grown during low moon light levels and high moon light levels.
Since the theory is concerned with sowing dates and plants that
produce 'above ground yields and below ground yields' and plants take
such widely divergent period of time to germinate and therefore
appear above ground and subject to moonlight,  such as Broad
Beans (approx 21 days) and Radishes (approx 7 days) giving a half
moon cycle difference between germination times of those two crops
and that most crops are subject to moonlight for a number of 28 day moon cycles
(thereby even further reducing the supposed advantage of light advantage between
different moon phases) it seems unlikely that moonlight can alter
crop growth for a crop grown until maturity.

>         Not a slam at you BTW, I still think the results will be
> interesing. It's just that he will not be measuring the effect of the
> moon, he will be measuring the size of his dedicated audience.

Joe Hemmens
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