Effect of the phases of the moon in agriculture: the lettuce experiment

Is this true or not? One possible explanation for this belief of farmers around the world is that during the lunar cycle, and especially during the changes in the phases of the moon, the amount of light reflected to the Earth is changing. In addition to this, the gravitational force that the moon exerts on the planet Earth is also changing during the cycle. The most notable effect is the tides.

It is believed that the moon also will affect the movement of water on the soil and the solubility or availability of nutrients to the roots of the plant. This combined with the extra light reflected from the Sun to the Earth affects the growth of plants. Let’s see the phases.

As the moon is changing from new moon to crescent moon, the amount of light is increasing and the plants development is balanced having both leaf growth and root formation.

Then from the crescent moon to full moon, the amount of light is increasing even more but this favors the rapid growth of foliage and not the root development. Plants experience a great movement of fluids in their stems to the leaves containing nutrients therefore stimulating the growth rapidly.

In the third phase, full moon to waning moon, the amount of light decreases. Since light is less and the fluids and nutrients are lower, the plant does not focus its efforts on growing leaves but to the growth of their root system to aid in the uptake of fluids and nutrients. There is rapid growth of the roots in this phase. It also encourages the task of transplant because the roots are better developed in this period and this reducing the negative impact of transplanting the plant.

The last phase of the waning moon to new moon, the light continues to decline and disappear. This period is of little growth.

I'll do an experiment! I am sowing lettuce in all different phases of the moon to observe germination and growth. The experiment consists of 3 months of seedlings and observation. I will sow at different stages of the moon phases. All seedlings will be exposed to the same kind of light, water, soil and care. The result will be days of germination and germination rate.

Then I am going to observe the growth of plants after transplanting: half will receive transplants in the most favorable moon day and half in the worst moon day.