Ya got to plant by the signs ???

[TomHillbilly]

Unknown to me at the time. The person that would one day become my father-in-law, was a guy named Alvin. He was born in the 30's. And was about 20 years younger than the usual men that hang out in the local seed store. I was sitting on the long porch at the store, which also was a loading dock. Us kids could hang out there, providing we stayed out of the way. The older guys came out of the store behind Alvin, arguing with him. They said, he couldn't plant his taters that day, because the signs was wrong. Alvin was the cool rebel of his day. He often opposed older views, and wive's tails. He asked those guys what signs was they talking about? Even though he knew full well what they meant. They began to explain to him the moon was wrong. Alvin looked at them and said, " I got 9 young-yuns in the field waiting for these seed taters. I'm not planting on the moon this year. So I could careless what the moon does. My ground is dry enough to plant today."  It took 60 bushel of taters for Alvin to winter those kids each year. It was actually 2 families combined. He grew 91 bushel of huge unblemished taters that year. Besides the ones he harvested in early digging. And everyone knew about it. Alvin made sure he offered to sell some taters to those that was short on supply. Some of those men had tater problems that year. Alvin's problem was finding enough people to tell his story to. I had to hear that story many times, as he was my father-in-law. I never once told him, I was one of those snotty nose kids standing on the loading dock. He took to much delight in the story for me to ruin it for him. Just another example of "Childhood crop methods dispelled." Which I wrote on before.

[worth1]

My dad was born in 1914 he planted by the signs.
He always had a great garden.
But correlation doesn't prove causation.

[TomHillbilly]

@worth1.. I think you pretty well nailed it. Your dad's generation era in my parts, believed all corn had to be hoed 3 times, even field corn. This caused those of my generation much work. Later we found out that wasn't right. LOL. But your dad's generation could do something I don't believe can be duplicated today. Its a lost art. My mother was born in 1923, and was raised on a produce farm. She was the one that worked us kids. Dad always worked hourly somewhere. Your Dad's generation had no refrigeration. They could store things a unbelievable amount of time, apart from caning. .
I know how they did cabbage, apples, peppers, and such. I've tried to do it their method without any electrical aid of sorts. The only thing I can say is-- I would have starved my family. LOL. That generation got many things wrong. But somethings they really got right.