Planting tomatoes by the moon…..

[Rhys]

I planted four strains of tomatoes I created seeds from last autumn.

Seeds were planted on 6th February 2014, a ‘fruit day’ with the Moon in Aries. An ice cream tub with holes in the bottom was filled 2/3 full with John Innes Seed compost and then made really saturated with a mixture of rainwater from the butt and boiled tap water (to make it luke warm). Then a layer of dry compost was overlaid.

6 seeds of Maskotka, Black Cherry, Sub-Arctic Plenty and Glacier were sown and the tubs were covered with cling film.

Within 6 days, I had a 100% germination rate with very rapidly growing seedlings. I brought them inside from the boiler house this yesterday prior to transplanting them into 8cm pots tomorrow, the next ‘fruit day’ with Moon in Leo.

Not a scientific experiment, but clearly seeds germinate very well and grow very quickly when sown on a fruit day. We will see how they respond to transplantation on a fruit day into John Innes Number One compost mixed with a bit of Miracle Gro, horse manure, rock dust and Perlite.

[Stringfellow]

Hi,

Which calender are you working from rtj – Maria Thun? I’m sticking to simple waxing and waning phases this year but intrigued enough for future years.

Have you done much in this manner before – any noticeable patterns etc.?

Good luck anyway.

[charles]

 Nice sowing you have done.

As I understand it, germination is not influenced by whether it is a fruit day or leaf day (as per Maria Thun), but more by whether the moon is waxing, when seeds pop up quickly, or waning when they take longer. You sowed on a waxing moon, now today is full moon and the next fortnight is waning. Still ok for sowing, just a little less exuberance.

Sowing tomatoes on a fruit day affects how they develop and more energy should go into developing fruit rather than excess leaves and roots.

[Rhys]

It’s the first time I’ve tried it and my second set of seeds were sown last week on 5th March (a fruit day with the moon in Aries) and I got 100% germination on 8 strains within 5 days in a incubator kept at 25C. 8 seeds of each sown, all through by day 5 and a lot through on day 4.

The seeds were my own mostly: Alicante F3, Shirley F4, Ailsa Craig F2, Super Marmande F2, a Russian black variety, a big beefsteak variety, Riesentraube and Ferline purchased last autumn from a small operation who were at the RHS autumn show.

Now I’ve got all the seedlings for the season mostly sown, I’ll have a go doing a formal sowing experiment on different days over a 10 day period to see if there’s any difference.

The ones I sowed in February have grown on nicely but are slightly leggy – whether that’s just through sowing in February or sowing on a rising moon, I dunno. They are ready to be potted on to 15cm pots this week and final resting grounds of 30cm pots in mid April. As they are all cold tolerant, the aim is to try and get them outside as quick as is practicable.

[charles]

 Leggy plants are partly from lack of full light (inc. growing close together) and tomatoes are prone to it, pot them on deeper each time.

Sounds good, careful of ‘cold tolerant’ as we can still have frosts by night…

[Rhys]

Yes, absolutely, they go inside the garage every night until at least mid May, sometimes even into June, it’s just that the limiting factor for me is the number of windowsills for growing the young ones, so once things start getting into 15cm pots the realistic limit inside at any one time is about a dozen!!

Last year the only two I sowed really early (Shirley and Alicante) were two of my best croppers, so I’m hoping that the four this year will be equally prolific. Glacier and Black Cherry were still going strong in October last year when I had to shut down, so hopefully those two will have a longer season and be equally prolific as last year. The Maskotka I’m trying to get some really early fruit from (late June would be nice) and the Sub-Arctic Plenty is to see if the second wave of fruit will have time to mature fully if the first wave harvest earlier (last year they harvested mid-August, this year I’m hoping for late July).

Every year is different – it all depends on when it’s warm and sunny, when it’s cold and miserable!!

[Author]

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