As many know, a 'water witch' is a stick or rod hat supposedly finds water below ground. My guess is that a 'root witch' is one of those rods used for that purpose. Roots like to find water, so surely they would make the best divining, or dowsing rods.

"The Farmer's Almanac seems to like the idea" The Farmer's Almanac likes anything that sells almanacs.

I personally like dancing widdershins under the full moon, sky clad. then tupping in the fields for ensuring fertility, after sacrificing last year's harvest king and eating him.

FAIK a root witch is one of the forms of witchcraft, a witch who basically works with powders and charms made from roots of various trees and plants. AKA an earth witch whose powers come from the earth and its products. Plays a big role in voodoo in the deep south.

But as with Companion Planting and so many of the other fad schools of gardening thought, few of its claims hold up to even minimal investigation.

As for Farmer's Almanac I think they still include so many of the tales/fads/mysterious claims (whatever you want to call them) just for human interest.. It was one of the almanac's original claims to fame.

Dave

PS: but I will add that thanks to water witch and his sticks we have the best and deepest well in our area on the first attempt. ;-)

I have heard and do believe that plants do most of their growing at night so maybe it is the moon light. As for planting by the moon phases, I don't pay any attention.

Well, I don't know if the moon does affect plant growth, but if I understand it correctly, the reason plants grow at night is because of the conversion of glucose to starches. When the sun is shining, photosynthesis is creating sucrose. At night, when there is little to no light, and the amount of glucose is flush in the plant, glucose conversion to starch happens at a greater rate than during photosynthesis. Interestingly, the process can reverse and during times of less light (cloudy days, just before dawn...) starches are re-converted to glucose... thus fruits can be said to be sweetest in the early morning, and corn aficionados swear that corn should be cooked and eaten right there in the field immediately after picking. I don't know though, corn gardeners are a fanatical bunch!

Yeah rgreen, I was just spoofing on it being the moon light causing the plant growth but thanks for the detailed explanation of it all. I notice when I leave for work in the early morning that my tomato seedlings are often growing up into the turned off lights but then when I get home from work they are back to ~1" from the lights.

Sorry Jack... I'm not always good at picking up cues in written form. I find such superstitious subjects to be irritating, and that just further clouds my discernment.

Some scholars believe planting by moon phase was due to using the moon phases and star location as their calendar.

There is a location with 13 notches cut into a ridge. Each full moon will shine through a different notch, the people who cut the notches may have used the event of a full moon to signify seasons or when to plant.

Thanks for that information rgreen48, it explains why I've heard to pick things like corn and lettuce right before dawn. it might also explain why all of my customers loved the greens that I sold them that I had picked right before or right around dawn.

Dawson

Dawson, don't forget that vegetables like corn, although they have high sugar content when picked at the right time, lose that sweetness very soon after harvest when the sugars are converted back into starch.

The joke among some of the more devoted corn lovers is to bend the stalk into the boiling water right there in the field.

Yes, I am aware of that rgreen48. There are many hybrids out there that take longer to convert the sugar back to starch but IMO the old fashioned sweet tastes best and if you're growing it in your backyard all you've gotta do is step out back to get some for dinner.

Corn for breakfast then... lol.

I don't plant according to the moon but did look into it last year when we topped off our very VERY old and incredibly big mango tree. It made sense to me that if moon phases affects the tide, it may also affect where in the plant moisture and perhaps nutrients are. So not really knowing much about it but needing to deal with a huge (super productive tree) that was overtaking our and our neighbors property we decided to top it off during the waning moon hoping that nutrients will be in the lower part of the tree and therefore more likely to bounce back. We had one arborist and one tree cutting company advise against cutting back as much as we wanted to, in fact both thought that tree will not come back at all from it. We did it in November last year and although we will not have any fruit this year the tree is already incredibly lush with lots of new growth.

Dawson, plant cells are more turgid in the early morning. Hence the greens are crisper.

I don't plant according to the Congressional schedule, but I did look into it early this year when I planted my canteloupes. It made sense to me that if congressional action could affect my rights and finances it may also affect plants. So not really knowing much about it, but needing to deal with a large bed that was just begging for plants, I decided to plant out during a historic vote. I did that last year in March, and while everyone said that was too early, my plants are incredibly lush with lots of new growth.

The moon doesn't even make enough light to see well, how is it going to grow plants...

Plants grow at night because they are using the sugar build up in their leaves from daytime sun.

There are a lot of good sources of gardening information, Farmer's Almanac is definitely not one of them.