20 Days Later

It's been 3 weeks and some seedlings have emerged, with around 3 pots left not showing any progress.

So even the moon is on the rise it's not guaranteed that you will successfully plant just about anything.

I'm planning to transfer some of the surviving seedlings into the ground this weekend, where the moon would probably about halfway towards its full moon phase.

Will take photos later...

5 Days Later...

The moon is on 5% today, and a few seedlings have emerged.

Seemed like the ones in the blue pots are growing nicely and also one of the yellow pots also have something going on. Unfortunately as I forgot what seeds I put in (I was guessing they're caul flower & broccoli), I could only wait till they grow a little more and see what they are... Other pots still not showing much growth.

Sign of Life

Some sign of life appearing today. But the weather hasn't been warm - so it might take a while for the seeds to grow...

I think having a good batch of morning sun would play a crucial role in the seed growth...
The gravity of the moon may help to maintain moisture in the soil so that it encourages plant growth, but I don't think at this moment that it is a cure-all solution to seed growth.

Seeding Stage

Ok, at noon today the moon phase has only remaining 8% before flipping over to the next phase. As I probably won't have time during the weekday to start seeding I thought what the heck and let us start seeding now.

There's about 8 different kind of seeds that I put into various pots:
- Broccoli
- Pak Choi (chinese vegie)
- Lettuce
- Cauli flower
- Spring Onion
- Carrot (theorically this would fail as the moon is about to start a new phase and this is a downward growing crop)
- Coriander
- Basil
- Parsley


I've decided the best location would be on my alfresco deck, as it gets full morning and noon sun, until about 1pm. Then it will be relatively warm for the rest of the afternoon, as I don't want the soil to dry out. I just need to remember to put some water on the pots every morning before I go to work, and check the condition of the soils after I'm back from work. Gotta keep the soil drained and moist to encourage the seedlings growth.

Now it's time to sit back, relax, and wait for them to grow...

Waiting for the moon

Today the moon phase is only 14% left. So it is going less in a rate of around 5% a day. Tomorrow will be the day to prepare the seeds for the new moon phase...

A Sceptic Mind

Ok, there I was one night watching the tele about this show Better Home and Gardens, and towards the end of the show it was mentioning about "Moon Gardening'.

A quick search on google yield a few results, for example:
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s734935.htm

The concept was to use the gravitational force of the moon phase (somewhat similar to the high and low tide) to help your plant grow. On every new moon, start planting plants that grow up, and at the end of the phase, grow plants that grows downwards (carrots, potatoes, etc).

Having worked in IT industry with numbers and data, things that quantify rather than something with heads up in the cloud... I am a bit skeptical about the approach. As always my experience with planting had never been successful except for a few indoor plants (an Aloe Vera, a strange succulent spotted blade shaped leave plant, and a pair of 1 small and 1 large chinese money trees).

So I had some vegie seeds lying around from Bunnings, which I spent about $25 for them, and when I looked at the current phase of the moon, today is the waning crescent of the moon with 19% left. So that means the new moon phase might start soon in a few days, and probably is the best time to start testing the theory.

For easy checking what the current moon phase is, I used the moon phase calculator, which is also available as a web/iGoogle gadget here:
http://www.calculatorcat.com/moon_phases/moon_phases.phtml

So stay tuned and follow my experiment...