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Germinating Seeds by Lunar Cycle

Excitement!! Dave started germinating seeds by lunar cycle.  He was bouncing around the house, smiling all morning. It’s a happy time when he can get his carefully selected seeds out of the Johnny’s seed and Territorial Seed mail order boxes and start the planting season. Some of you may be wondering what he’s been up to out in the garden lately. Take a look at our Spring Garden Projects.

Germinating Seeds By Lunar Cycle. Http://Homemadefoodjunkie.com

Germinating seeds by lunar cycle.Dave is planting seeds for 2015 on Feb 1st. in 2016 he’s starting even earlier. January 22, the moon cycle is perfect and he’s germinating seeds!

Last month we attended a class on lunar cycle gardening . This old mythological approach to gardening is under intense study in scientific circles these days. Turns out you can do ‘everything garden’ by Lunar cycle, for a more effective result. Even weeding!

Are you just planning a garden for the first time? Or Moving a garden plot? Before you begin take a look at  garden plot location considerations

2018 Update on Germinating Seed by Lunar Cycle:

Dave was very impressed with the results he saw using this method of gardening in 2015. This year he’s jumping right in with the lunar calendar. We had stellar gardening weather in 2015, so we don’t know for sure how much of an impact Germinating seeds by lunar cycle actually had on the garden production. He feels good about doing the same method this year. So we’ll have more information on it.

Now after several years of Lunar Planting and gardening by the moon phase Dave will tell you…he thinks it’s worth doing. The results cannot be conclusive in our little garden project but He does see improvements in the crops as he uses this method of planting and maintaining the garden.

Our Garden 2015

Our garden in 2015. Amazingly bountiful. We had a great summer, but Dave attributes at least some of the garden’s success to lunar cycle gardening. Let us know if you have experience with this gardening method!

Lunar Cycle

This is the moon cycle Dave uses. Different gardening activities, (even weeding!) are best done in the proper moon phase.

Why  use the Lunar  Calendar?

According to our class teacher at our local Garden Spot Nursery; gardening by the phase of the moon method, if followed correctly, can produce a 20 percent boost in garden yields!! That’s what the new research is showing and we want some of that!

Scientific studies suggest the  changing gravity pull of the lunar cycle affects the water level in our soils and other important gardening variables, even the plant cells. Go here for more info on the scientific research on this interesting subject. Here is a visual moon calendar that we found helpful in understanding the terminology and timelines involved in planting by the moon.

Lunar gardening is a fairly complex system to understand. This calendar method includes lots of new terms like apogee(far away)  and perigee(close to earth) moons. Here’s a link to a free printable gardening lunar Calendar for 2018. You’ll need this calendar for Germinating seeds by lunar cycle.

Lunar cycle gardening is under scientific investigation right now and there is lots of controversy about it. We’ll let you know our take on it as we attempt to follow the moon cycles in our garden growing this year. Which is starting right now at our house!

Germinating Seeds By Lunar Cycle. Http://Homemadefoodjunkie.com

Dave is selecting seeds to plant. Notice the green tape strip along the edge of his seed tray. Ready for labeling

Germinating seeds by lunar cycle:

The moon is full now, so we are starting to Germinate seeds. We plan to germinate the seeds in their trays in our warm sunny kitchen. Then we will move them out in the greenhouse until we can transplant them to  our outdoor garden. The tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers will mostly stay in the large raised greenhouse beds but we do have some outdoor peppers and cukes.  If you don’t have a good indoor setup  or you don’t have a greenhouse. Delay germinating until it warms up outside. Nothing sadder than lovely starts dying from unexpected frost!

The process to start seeds:

  • Bleach and wash any used seed starting trays to kill any spores of mold or bacteria. Or purchase new trays. 
  • You can, of course, plant directly into the garden ground or containers in the outdoor growing season. Some seeds will do better that way. But now it’s winter, so we are starting the seeds indoors.
  • Read the seed packets! It will tell you how to plant the seed. Lots of important info on the packets!
  • Fill the trays with sterile seed starting soil! It’s important NOT to use trays full of old dirt, or your garden soil for germinating seeds indoors. The fungi and bacteria in non-sterile dirt is harmful to the seeds, will reduce germination and can cause damping off and other problems, to the sprouts.

    Germinating Seeds By Lunar Cycle. By Http://Homemadefoodjunkie.com

    Dave’s choice this year for sterilized seed starting medium

  • Put green painters tape along the starting tray edge to label the seed trays.

Seed labeling is important.

  • You will never remember what you planted, or where in your trays or garden, if you don’t label them. This can be problematic when you have a carefully designed garden plan and a chaotic mix of freshly sprouted baby seeds with no names. Ahem. I have been guilty of this and weeded out my own seedlings as the rows get all mixed up in weedy starts. Know what you grow and label those rows so you can find your plants!

    Germinating Seeds By Lunar Cycle.

    See the single seed in each hole? That’s how to get strong healthy sprouts! One plant to a hole! Notice the labeled tape.

  • Make your drills. Dave uses a kitchen knife to make his drills(holes) for his seed. Any sharp object will do.

Carefully place a seed into each hole you drill into the dirt pockets in the trays. Dave uses tweezers for easy seed handling.

  • Ahem. This is another big deal. Take it from me: Miss lazy! Last year I planted teeny tiny petunia and lobelia seeds as carefully as possible,… and then I got tired, there were a lot more of them then I had trays for. So I got a little sloppy in my trays and oh boy what a mess when they sprouted!

And then I looked at Dave’s carefully done, perfect vegetable trays and felt very small and embarrassed. Sloppiness has no place in this seed starting business! Transplanting those petunias was a nightmare for me. Didn’t do the petunias any good either.

  • Now they are planted. Follow the seed packet directions on where and how much heat and light they need. We keep ours in our kitchen windows until they get tall and strong.

    Seed Starting Tray Germinating Seeds By Lunar Cycle. Http://Homemadefoodjunkie.com

    seed starting tray fully loaded

Watering is a big deal too!

  • Follow the packet directions for each seed to know how much wetness they require to germinate properly. Usually they do best in moist, not drenched, soil with plenty of light and heat. Depending on what type of seed your planting they can pop up in a few days to up to eight weeks for some peppers!

We took a moonlit walk up and down our driveway lane last night; as the moon played hide and seek with the clouds. We wound up eventually in the greenhouse, visiting about our greenhouse plans. It’s lovely out there in the cool moonlit night. Can’t wait for our summer evening garden walks! It’s great to get started on Germinating seeds by lunar cycle!

Garden Peppers

This is one trip out to the garden. Dave brought in this enormous basket of gorgeous peppers!

These pics are just a bit of inspiration. We harvested AMAZING amounts of produce of stellar quality from our lunar garden in 2015. In these last several years we have reaped many hundreds of pounds of gorgeous produce like this. Dave attributes at least some our or garden success to gardening by the lunar moon cycle.

Garden Vegetables June 2015

2015 was an excellent gardening year!

 

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Rhubarb Apple Fruit Crisp | Homemade Food Junkie

Monday 25th of January 2016

[…] just too busy with his business! He didn’t get much of a break though.  He’s already germinating seeds for the new  2016 tomatoes and peppers. Around here, gardening is going on in some stage of other, […]

Tina Marie

Tuesday 18th of August 2015

Wow! This is some great information. I would be the one to add more seeds than needed! My husband has the patience and is very meticulous when it comes to seeding.

homemadefoodjunkie

Tuesday 18th of August 2015

That's the case here as well. Believe me when I say I'm grateful for my husbands passion for gardening! And BTW, he just told me last night, his opinion is the Lunar gardening worked really well. His crops are growing well and profusely! :) Probably plant by the lunar cycle again next year!