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Moon gardening


Cassis
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What does anyone think about gardening by the phases of the moon?

All the French gardening magazines have a moon calendar to guide the reader as to when it is best to plant and harvest root crops v. fruit v. other veg.  Some of our neighbours swear by it but I can't for the life of me see how it can make a real difference compared to weather and planting conditions.  I suppose it could be based on some idea of the moon's gravity acting on ground water and sap but ....

[Www]

Phil

PS I have been told on two separate occasions that some French folk cut their hair by the phases of the moon ....

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I've also heard about the hair cutting...

The year before last we spent the whole spring/summer/autumn seasons

gardening strictly by the "moon" calendar - and apart from being a

total pain cos we couldn't do things that we wanted to on certain days,

it seemed to make no appreciable difference at all.  Yields were

not any better, weeds were not any less.  So we've gone back to

our more haphazard way of doing things when they seem to need to be

done.

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I always follow the moon calendar. When we first came to France I was a bit cynical but have been caught out by too many frosts not to obey. Just when everything in the garden looked rosey we might have a frost this weekend. [6]

Jan

Lost in the Lot

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Being oop north we tend to garden the same way as we did in the UK - we probably plant out frost-tender stuff only a couple of weeks earlier than we would have done there (Kent).

I think it may be a little unfair to blame late frosts on the moon!

Phil

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I thought to myself "Is that right?", and looked it up on Wikipedia. Where I found this:

An approximate formula for the average time of New Moon N (conjunction) is

,

where D is the number of days (and fractions) since 2000-01-01 00:00:00 TT, and N is an integer.

(Note that the number 29.53.. is the synodic month.)

To obtain this moment expressed in Universal Time (world clock time) for future events (N>0), apply the following approximate correction:

days

Periodic perturbations change the time of true conjunction from

these mean values. For all New Moons between 1601 and 2401, the maximum

difference is 0.592 days = 14h13m in either direction.

The duration of a lunation (from New Moon to the next New Moon)

varies in this period between 29.272 and 29.833 days, i.e. -0.259d =

6h12m shorter, or +0.302d = 7h15m longer than average. This range is

smaller than the difference between mean and true conjunction, because

during the lunation the periodic terms cannot all change to their

maximum opposite value.

I hope that clears something up - I've no idea what. I like the bit that says this is an approximate calculation!

But does the weather really change at a new moon? I can't say I've ever noticed it.

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Some geezer in New Zealand called Ken Ring reckons he can predict the weather by the moon, although his method seems to be keeping a weather diary rather than having any proper theory. He says on his website

"So what causes cold? The main factors include

Aphelion, Full and New moons, also perigees and apogee. In the picture

too are the astrological aspects of some of the major planets, but they

are relatively minor compared with Moon position correlations."

Yeah, right.

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WAKEY ! WAKEY!  You should all have seen the moon last night with the times you were all sat posting.

too late, you have missed it, you should have planted a golden grahams under your favorite tree before 8 am (french time of course) to reap your rewards!

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[quote user="Cassis"]What does anyone think about gardening by the phases of the moon?

[/quote]

Our farmer neighbour works his farm and his giant veg patches on this basis while accepting that sometimes soil conditions require a slight bending of the rules. Though some say that we live a good distance beyond nowhere.

Try it, you have nothing to lose.

John - who cannot tell his wax from his wane

not

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What about the full moon then? Where do you think the word lunatic

comes from? I once used to visit a psychiatric hospital where they

locked up the patients at full moon. Not here, in Malaya. And the

menstrual cycle of some animals is triggered by the full moon. There's

more to this than meets the eye. Pat.

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Apparently the menstrual cycles of all the nuns in a given convent is identical.  Not sure what that has to do with the moon, though!

Maybe the full moon is associated with frosts because a full moon is more noticeable when the skies are clear and so there is more danger of frost.

Pity the poor mental patients in Malaya - does that still go on, do you think, Pat?

Phil

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[quote user="Cassis"]Apparently the menstrual cycles of all the nuns in a given convent is identical.  Not sure what that has to do with the moon, though!

Maybe the full moon is associated with frosts because a full moon is more noticeable when the skies are clear and so there is more danger of frost.

Pity the poor mental patients in Malaya - does that still go on, do you think, Pat?

Phil
[/quote]

It's always been know that the moon affects people with mental illness.  One theory is that as we have such a high percentage of water, in our bodies, that any slight change in gravity (the same gravity that creates waves) affects the brain. 

As for the nuns - any large group of girls (be it in a school or just a large group of friends) will have their menstrual cycles at the same time (around the full moon) is again thought to be because we evolved from water based creatures - & the best time to be fertile, was at the high tide. 

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We also had a light frost and these Golden Grahams were up bright and early.  But the weather's been up and down on an almost daily basis this month.  So is anyone suggesting that clear skies, which are the direct cause of the frost, might in some way be caused, in whole or in part, by the full moon?  Because the previous full moon was overcast and mild here.  But maybe Venus was in the ascendant.

Phil and Jude (Graham)

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I know Ali meant tides, not waves - but hasn't it taken hundreds of

millions of years for the moon to have that effect?  The gravitational

effect of the moon on a monthly basis is practically immesurable.

Re nuns and groups of women, if it is a moon related phenomenon, why is it only when women are in a big group that

their menstrual cycles coincide - why would it not be the same for

women everywhere?

Sorry, I still can't get my head around this moon theory![8-)]

Phil

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The gravitational effect of the moon on the Earth is quite large, hence tides.

There is no evidence at all for the moon affecting people's mental health. Read this:

"Everything from

increases in violent crime and psychotic behavior to stock market

fluctuations has been blamed on the effects of the fully illuminated moon.

In 19th century England, lawyers used the “guilty by reason of

the full moon” defense to claim that their “lunatic” (based on the word

“luna” which is Latin for “moon”) clients could not be held accountable for

acting under the moon’s influence. In his 1978 best seller, How the Moon

Affects You
, psychiatrist Arnold Lieber argued rather unscientifically

that the moon has an effect on the human body (which is 65 percent water)

that is similar to its pull on the ocean’s tides.

Despite these many

assertions, scientists who have investigated the matter have come up

empty-handed. University of Sydney researchers found no link to the moon’s

cycle in two separate studies: one on violent or aggressive behavior, the

other on number of dog bites that required hospitalization of a human. And

in an analysis that ought to put to rest any lingering doubts, Ivan Kelly, a

Psychologist at the University of Saskatchewan reviewed over 100 studies of

lunar cycles and human behavior (including emergency room admissions and

suicide attempts) and found nothing to suggest that humans are affected by

Earth’s satellite.

So why do 81% of

mental health professionals, according to a University of New Orleans study,

believe that lunar cycles affect human behavior?  Part of the reason is

historical:  The illuminated moon played a more prominent role for our

ancestors as both a calendar and a night-light. Before electric lighting

became ubiquitous, a bright moon was more likely to disrupt sleep, producing

widespread grouchiness. Kelly also cites what psychologists call

“confirmation bias” which is a selective thinking process whereby we seek

out information that confirms our beliefs and ignore evidence that

challenges them.  Says Kelly, “Some beliefs are just exciting to hold,

whatever the evidence.” 

Marissa Kantor

Psychology Today Magazine"

Menstrual cycles - the same length, roughly, but they don't match lunar cycles, and not all women menstruate on the same day - we'd have noticed. National PMT day - no thanks.

Mating and other behaviour of some animals - probably

Biorhythms - don't make me laugh!

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Dick,

You should know better than to believe everything you read on the Internet!!  I read yesterday that John Prescott had an affair with a nice looking blond woman.  Nah!!  I'd never believe that could happen!!  [Www]

I have a friend who suffers from ME - she kept a diary for about 2 years & someone told her to compare it to the lunar cycle.  Her moods swings matched virtually 100%.  Makes you wonder. 

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I didn't say that keeping a diary was "science" - maybe you should re-read mine! [:)]  Only quoting something I had been told.  I would also imagine that there are plenty of peer-reviewed studies which have found a link between the two - it just depends where you look & what you choose to read.
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[quote user="Russethouse"]We had a neighbour who was more prone to be argumentative and bad tempered when there was a full moon. It was noticable as the rest time he was an amiable chap.[/quote]

Thank you, Gay.  I was worried that I was the only one who thought that, on here.  Maybe I am going mad - & it's not even a full moon!!  [:D]

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