Maria Thun - Telegraph The principles of biodynamic agriculture were first proposed by the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner in 1924. He spoke of life forces not detectable by the physical senses, yet linking together the universe and all living things. He believed that the energy of plants can be affected not only by human actions and the weather but also by the energy of the moon, stars and planets. Decisions about when to sow and prune, he suggested, should be made according to patterns of lunar and cosmic rhythms. Beginning in the 1950s Maria Thun decided to subject his principles to controlled trials on her farm on the outskirts of Darmstadt in Germany, beginning with radishes. Planting the vegetables when the moon was in different constellations, she discovered, resulted in their growing into different forms and sizes. Over years of research she concluded that root crops (including onions and leeks, which are not technically root crops) do best if sown when the moon is passing through constellations associated with the earth element; leafy crops do best when the moon is associated with water signs; flowering plants do best associated with air signs, and fruits did better with fire signs. Beginning in 1962, she produced a series of annual sowing and planting calendars and later set out the principles of her methods in Gardening for Life: the Biodynamic Way (published in English in 1999). In 2010, with her son Matthias, she published When Wine Tastes Best: A Biodynamic Calendar For Wine Drinkers, setting out the most propitious days for wine-tasting based on the position of the moon. Though sceptics dismissed biodynamics as hocus-pocus and were wont to point out that movement's guru, Rudolf Steiner, had arrived at his theories after consulting telepathically with unearthly spirits, biodynamics has attracted some prominent adherents. Several leading supermarkets reportedly try to ensure that their wine tastings are held when Maria Thun's moon-related biodynamic calendar dictates that wines will be at their best, as does Les Caves de Pyrène, the leading proponent of natural and organic wines. Other followers include such respected gardeners as John Harris at Tresillian House Gardens in Cornwall. Maria Thun was born near Malburg, Germany, in April 1922. Her father had a small farm and the children were involved in the farm work. In the early 1940s she met her future husband Walter Thun, who introduced her to farmers who were attempting to put Steiner's ideas about biodynamic farming into practice. Fascinated, she attended an introductory course at the Institute for Biodynamic Research in Darmstadt. Rudolf Steiner had pointed out the connection between cosmic forces and the growth of plants. Maria Thun began studying the astrological calendar of the Goetheanum (the centre of Steiner's philosophy) and discovered that every two or three days the moon passed into in a different constellation of the zodiac. This led her to study whether the crop cycle might be affected by the astrological calendar. Maria Thun is survived by her son and daughter. Maria Thun, born April 1922, died February 9 2012.