|
Frequently asked questions....
..... here you can post Questions & answers
(hopefully) & other gardening topics
webmaster@chezcalou.fr
for the moment .. this we hope will build into a useful source of answers to
information for gardeners of all levels. |
|
The Apple Question and some more about the Lunar Planting Calendar.
Gardener’s Question Time 10 December 2009
Carol Temple received an email question from someone who had Googled apples Dordogne and on the day of the GQT she gave it to the team to answer. The basic question was whether Cox apples and Bramley apples could be planted successfully in the Dordogne. The collective wisdom is that the Cox apple can be and a few IGC members have been successful with these trees, although it is recommended by apple experts to plant somewhere with some cool shade part of the day. The Bramley seems not to be planted here at all and the RHS says that the heat makes the fruit cells grow too quickly and the apple becomes mushy. Belle de Bosksoop is the suggested replacement, an old Dutch apple considered dual purpose, a culinary and an eating apple. An apple worth trying in the Dordogne with its summer heat is the Granny Smith which prefers this degree of warmth and isn’t grown in England.
There was also a question about planting according to the lunar calendar, and coincidentally the same week my French gardening magazine had an article on controlled trials conducted by Toby Buckland who presents Gardener’s World. He tested carrots, spinach, peas, parsley, lettuce, sown straight into the ground and dwarf beans, tomatoes and French marigolds sown into pots and then planted out. The results were as follows: No difference for carrots, tomatoes, spinach or dwarf beans. The peas were sweeter and bigger planted by the lunar calendar. The French Marigolds germinated at the same rate but the lunar sown plants were slightly bigger. The lettuce germinated and grew better planted according to the lunar calendar. The parsley germinated and grew better and was ten times more abundant planted according to the moon. As parsley can be very difficult to get started and indeed there is one belief that only women can get it to germinate this ties in with a moon influenced seed.
Erica Laine December 16 2009
Some useful web sites on this subject are:
|