Subject: Planting by moon calendars, Nick Kollestrom || Lunar seed germination studies, E. Zurcher

From: Steve Diver <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 09:25:23 -0600

Three items relating to lunar gardening and biodynamic research:

1. Nick Kollestrom calendars and noteworthy online chapter providing
    background explanations and studies

2. E. Zurcher studies of lunar effects on tree seed germination; Kolisko;
    observation-based emperical knowledge; phenology; bio-electric
    potential; documentation.

1.

Planting by the Moon 2000, A Gardeners' Calendar
By Nick Kollerstrom
http://www.kal69.dial.pipex.com/shop/pages/isbn939.htm#Planting%20by%20the%20Moon

Book for sale through Prospect Books
http://www.kal69.dial.pipex.com/shop/pages/prices.htm

Sample Chapter::

Chapter 4
THE MOON AND CROP YIELD (Frames)
http://www.kal69.dial.pipex.com/shop/pages/939frame.htm

Chapter 4
THE MOON AND CROP YIELD (No Frames)
http://www.kal69.dial.pipex.com/shop/pages/939right.htm

2.

Gardening and Planting By The Moon (2004)
Nick Kollerstrom
http://www.plantingbythemoon.co.uk/

Ordering the Book
http://www.astro3.demon.co.uk/order.htm

The book 'Gardening & Gardening and Planting By The Moon' published
by Foulsham, UK is available from all good bookshops, or order from from
http://www.amazon.co.uk,

How Bio-Dynamic Calendars Developed: the Chronology
http://www.astro3.demon.co.uk/chron.htm

FARMER'S MOON COMPUTER PROGRAM
http://www.astro3.demon.co.uk/program.htm

3.

Chronobiology Of Trees: Synthesis Of Traditional Phytopractices
And Scientific Research, As A Tool Of Future Forestry
By E. Zürcher
http://iufro.boku.ac.at/iufro/iufronet/d6/wu60603/proc1998/zurcher.htm

Ernst Zürcher, Chair of Wood Sciences, Department of Forest and Wood 
Sciences,
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, ETH Zentrum, HG F 21, CH-8092
Zürich, Switzerland.

Presented at Third IUFRO Extension Working Party Symposium, "Extension
Forestry: Bridging the Gap Between Research and Application," July 19-24,
1998, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.

International Union of Forestry Research Organizations

Introduction

The subject presented here is linked to the fact that most organic 
processes and
the structures which result from them have a rhythmic character. In the 
plant world
in temperate latitudes, it is immediately obvious that the germination, 
growth,
maturation and perennial structure formation in trees are marked by an 
alternation
between active and resting phases. This alternation is materialized in 
the morphology
of the shoot or in the architecture of the tree, and on an anatomical 
level, in the
succession and the internal structure of the growth rings.

**

This rhythmical characteristic of plants has always had to be taken into
account by man, a heterotrophic being, for his subsistence.

On reading works which deal with popular sayings or quote classical authors
concerning agricultural practice, or simply talking to gardeners, 
farmers or foresters
with an empirical experience based on tradition, one is struck by two 
things.

Firstly, in addition to the rhythm of the seasons, lunar rhythms are 
systematically
mentioned as having an influence on the growth, structures, 
characteristics or
properties of plants.

Secondly, one is struck by certain common factors, despite the 
geographical distance
of the sources; these similarities in the rules formulated would seem to 
suggest the
existence of possibly objective phenomena. For example, the general 
rules governing
the felling of trees are in accordance right across the continents; 
whether in the alpine
arc (Hauser 1973), in the Near East (Aichinger 1936), in India, Ceylon 
and Brazil
(Forstmann 1936; Kolisko and Kolisko 1953; Schrödter 1981), or in 
Guyana, all these
traditions seem to be based on matching observations. It should be noted 
that in the
past, people had more time and more peace and quiet to observe: it must 
even have
been of vital importance to them.

Etc.........

Comments on:

synodic lunar rhythm
tropical rhythm
sidereal rhythm

The Research

Various studies in animal biology and on annual plants seem nevertheless 
to confirm
some of the empirical rules and practises linked to lunar rhythms 
(Endres and
Schad 1997). In trees, Burr (1945, 1947) had indeed observed a rhythm of 
about 27
days in the "bio-electric potential" measurable along the stem, a rhythm 
in between
the annual and the daily fluctuations, and not directly explicable by 
the current site
or climatic factors. The author suggested at the time a connection with the
lunar cycles.

Etc.........

Materials and Methods

At first, we wanted to concentrate on the first of the 3 cycles 
mentioned: on the
synodic lunar rhythm, oscillating between the New Moon (NM) and the Full 
Moon
(FM). The aim was to study the effect of this rhythm on the germination 
and the
initial growth during 4 to 6 months.

For the precise moment of sowing (after a brief soaking of the seeds), 
we based our
experiment on the work of Kolisko (1927, 1929, 1934, 1935), according to 
which the
maximal effect precedes the phase in question by two days. At the time, 
this work
marked the beginning of the bio-dynamic method of agriculture, founded 
by Steiner
in 1924.

The trials took place in the Forestry Department of the Institut des 
Sciences
Agronomiques du Rwanda (aided by the Coopération Suisse - Intercoopération,
Berne), in 1990 and 1991 (with a brief preliminary trial in 1989).

Each sowing consisted of four replications of 50 seeds from the same batch.
Each replication was placed randomly in a compartment (20 cm x 20 cm) of a
wooden crate with 12 compartments kept in diffuse light by means of 
shade screens.
The seeds, already slightly buried, were thus preserved from a possible 
direct effect
of the moonlight, extremely weak compared to sunlight, which is known 
not to
penetrate further than 5 to 10 mm in the soil, with the red part of the 
spectrum
(authors cited in Egley 1995).

A series consists of 12 successive sowings, 2 days before the full moon 
(FM) or,
14-15 days later, 2 days before the new moon (NM), and lasts generally 
5.5 months.

Etc.........

Results and Discussion

The speed of germination or beginning of emergence already shows a 
significant
difference between the FM and NM sowings for all the sowings (A) and 
especially
for those corresponding to the dry season which took place in the middle 
of the
trial (B) (Figure 1).

Recent experiments on the radish by Fritz in 1994 show the same tendency:
faster germination at FM (Figure 2).

Etc.........

Conclusion and Outlook

These trials make clear, for the first time in trees or shrubs, the 
existence of a real
phenomenon, often mentioned in traditions or issuing from empirical 
experience,
consisting of a link between the lunar phases (synodic rhythm) and the 
behaviour
at germination and during initial growth.

Etc.........

Acknowledgements.

The author wishes to thank his Rwandan colleagues and associates for
their support etc.....

Finally, he wishes to dedicate this work to the Indian Culture of America,
which lived in harmony with the natural lunar rhythm. For the Oglalla, July
was for example the Moon of the Black Cherries.

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