Star Planting - Citizen Science experiments: 2013

2005-2008 / 2013 / 2014 / 2021

Implicit in the creation of a planting calendar is the thesis that it makes a difference where the Moon and Sun and planets are when we sow our seeds: a greater yield, healthier plants or perhaps a better flavour in our crops. Some of these assertions come from old traditions whilst others come from more recent considerations, perhaps with a little support from experiments.
 
A few compilers of modern planting calendars have responded to a suggestion to focus on this thesis through experimentation, particularly as a way of honouring Maria Thun's extraordinary work. In their calendars for 2013 they have put in reminders of this collaborative 'democratic' research.

A few dates have been agreed to hold promise for a contrast in the crops planted over those days. These days have been chosen for the Northern hemisphere spring but are still viable for some of the Southern hemisphere planting season. Most importantly for our purposes, these days witness some fairly energetic heavenly arrangements (such as eclipses and nodal crossings) against all the elements of the background zodiac.

The hope is that readers (plus their friends and even their skeptical associates) will be inspired to plant before, on and after these dates.

If the effort and focus of being organised for this experiment can be sustained right through to evaluating the crops and sending the evaluation in for compilation and analysis, then perhaps there will be some noticeable patterns in the results from which we can begin to draw some tentative conclusions. If all goes well we could even attempt to test these conclusions in subsequent seasons and work towards open, experimentally-founded, benign and effective recommendations for growers. With that distant goal in mind the suggested dates and times for 2013 are:

 

	GMT (NB! GMT becomes BST on last Sunday in March. eg, April 25th at 20.57 BST for first example.)		Australian Eastern Standard Times
April 2013
	Apr 25th 19:57 Full Moon flower		Apr 26th 5:57 Full Moon flower
	Apr 25th 21:09 Lunar eclipse flower Pg 28th		Apr 26th 7:09 Lunar eclipse flower Pg 28th
	Apr 26th 14:06 Moon node flower		Apr 27th 00:06 Moon node flower
May 2013
	May 9th 19:12 Moon Node fruit day		May 10th 05:12 Moon Node fruit day
	May 10th 00:28 Solar eclipse fruit day		May 10th 10:28 Solar eclipse fruit day
	May 10th 13:21 Venus Node root day		May 10th 23:21 Venus Node root day
	May 11th 09:55 Mercury Node root day		May 11th 19:55 Mercury Node root day
Late May 2013
	May 24th 00:39 Moon Node flower		May 24th 10:39 Moon Node flower
	May 25th 04:24 Full Moon leaf		May 25th 14:24 Full Moon leaf
	May 25th 05:11 Lunar eclipse leaf Pg 26th		May 25th 15:11 Lunar eclipse leaf Pg 26th
	May 25th 07:51 Mars Node leaf		May 25th 17:51 Mars Node leaf

For example, one might plant each day for 5 days with the middle day being the one mentioned in the table above. So, if using the 'Late May' planting one might sow at 10am on the 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th of May 2013. Each day, at the same time of day, one would sow 20 plants and clearly label them with the planting time. This would also be the best time to write down the weather and other pertinent details. This will be an invaluable record when one comes to the harvest.