Moon Planting

Let’s just start out by clarifying that this in no way, shape or form requires getting up at 1am and
spending a couple hours in the garden. All of your moon planting will hopefully occur during daylight
hours. By bug hour, you should be safely within the confines of four walls. I also want to add the caveat
that this post is a lot less sciency than other tips and tricks posted here, so full disclosure: I ignored the
moon when I planted. Mostly it was a convenience thing – I work, so I plant when I have time.

Now, let’s chat about moon cycles for a hot minute. A moon cycle is the time it takes for the moon to
orbit the earth, roughly ~29 days, with four phases of ~7 days each.

• Quarter 1:  new moon to quarter moon (waxing / increasing moonlight)
• Quarter 2:  quarter moon to full moon (waxing / increasing moonlight)
• Quarter 3:  full moon to quarter moon (waning / decreasing moonlight)
• Quarter 4:  quarter moon to new moon (waning / decreasing moonlight)

If the moon has enough gravity to move oceans, then doesn’t is also make sense that it can pull the
water in the ground as well? Seeds absorb the most water at full moon.

Waxing Moon
From the new moon to the full moon, the gravitational pull is up and moonlight is increasing, making
this a good time to plant things that grow above ground. This site even gets in more detail, saying
that plants with external seeds should be planted in the first quarter (in my garden: lettuce, spinach,
broccoli), while plants with internal seeds do better when planted in the second quarter (in my garden:
beans, peas, peppers, squash, tomatoes).

Waning Moon
The gravitational pull is high from full moon to new or no moon, and decreasing moonlight means it’s a
good time for a plant to put the energy into its roots. This is a good time to plant underground veggies,
especially in the third quarter (in my garden: carrots, onions, garlic, potatoes, radishes). The fourth
quarter is a good time to transplant, prune or harvest. To inhibit lawn growth, mow the lawn during a
waning moon.

Once again, I have not looked at the science behind any of this and I think it is based more on folklore
than fact. That being said, it can’t hurt to try moon planting, right? Put it on the list for next year, I
guess.

Source 1 and Source 2