Hi all, I hope everyone is looking forward to the coming season to grow some lovely plants and therefore food.
I aim to make sowings at favourable times, usually a couple of days before full moon. However, this February, when I would like to get cracking with sowings of shallot, onion, salads etc. full moon is falling rather early in the month (3rd). Is there a danger of the benefits of moon sowings being counteracted by sowing too early next month?
Would be interested to hear from anyones past experiences or thoughts in general on this!
Yes I think that its worth waiting, especially in view of the likely cool temperatures in early February. I have found that sowing onions that early is not always as successful as later sowing.
Moon dates are tricky, for example if you follow the constellations way of apportioning dates, there are root days on 8th-10th, and around new moon on 18th-19th. I think either can work for onions & beetroot, preferably if you can provide some warmth for germination.
I use Maria Thun mostly but find it strange that they do not acknowledge waxing/waning, so I add that in. A lot is about using a moon calendar where possible, often I do not have time on the best day. It offers a good structure at least, to my sowing calendar.
Thankyou, that is helpful and interesting. I’ve ordered her (her Son) biodynamic calender for 2015 so it will be tentative first steps for me this year using it. I won’t beat myself up if I don’t make every recommendation ‘on the nose’!
I did very well with potatoes and tomatoes using that calendar for the first time last year.
My first set of tomato seeds (just Red Alerts as a super-early experiment) sown on a fruit day in January this year were all through within 3/4 days and were transplanted on day 6. They now have several true leaves.
I can’t comment on onions as this is my first year growing those.
