According to almanac tradition, the new moon is a turning point, not a planting day in itself. The days before it belong to rest and chores. Once the Moon is new, the tradition hands the following days to leafy crops that bear above ground. None of this is proven. The next new moon falls on October 10, 2026, at 11:50 a.m. ET.
What the tradition says about new moon
The almanac rule has two steps. In the fourth quarter, from the last quarter to the new moon, the garden rests. The jobs the tradition assigns to that stretch are weeding, pruning, turning the soil and composting. Then the new moon opens the first quarter, and the tradition turns to lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli and celery. The reasoning handed down with the rule is that growth should follow the brightening Moon. That is a folk explanation, not a finding.
Gardeners who plant by the Moon often add a second filter, the zodiac sign the Moon is passing through. Almanac convention sorts the signs into fruitful (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces), semi-fruitful (Taurus, Libra, Capricorn) and barren (Aries, Gemini, Leo, Virgo, Sagittarius, Aquarius). Sources differ on Virgo, Sagittarius and Aquarius, so you may see another almanac file them differently. These are the convention’s labels, nothing more.
The four quarters, as the tradition lays them out:
| Quarter | Span | Traditional use |
|---|---|---|
| 1, first quarter | New moon to first quarter | Leafy crops that bear above ground (lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, celery) |
| 2, second quarter | First quarter to full moon | Above-ground crops that bear seed inside the fruit (tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash, corn) |
| 3, third quarter | Full moon to last quarter | Root crops, bulbs, perennials (potatoes, carrots, garlic, onions, beets) |
| 4, fourth quarter | Last quarter to new moon | Rest: weeding, pruning, turning the soil, composting |
The new moon sits at the seam between quarters 4 and 1. That is why almanacs treat it as a handoff. The rest period ends and the leafy window begins at the same moment. If you want the wider picture of how the method is built, the overview of planting by the moon covers all four quarters and both sign systems.
The next new moon dates
Two new moons are coming up, one in October and one in November. All times are Eastern (ET), computed with JPL DE421 and checked against USNO.
- October 10, 2026, 11:50 a.m. ET: New Moon
- November 9, 2026, 2:02 a.m. ET: New Moon
The phases around them set the spans. In October the Moon is waxing from the new moon on October 10 at 11:50 a.m. to the full moon on October 26 at 12:11 a.m. (the Hunter’s Moon, in Taurus, using Old Farmer’s Almanac naming). It then wanes until the November new moon. The first quarter in October runs from the new moon to the first quarter on October 18 at 12:12 p.m. In November it runs from the new moon on November 9 at 2:02 a.m. to the first quarter on November 17 at 6:47 a.m.
The rest period that comes first is just as easy to mark. For October, the fourth quarter starts at the last quarter on October 3 at 9:25 a.m. and ends at the new moon. For November, it starts on November 1 at 3:28 p.m. and ends at the new moon on November 9 at 2:02 a.m. The November full moon, the Beaver Moon, arrives on November 24 at 9:53 a.m. in Gemini.
An October 2026 moon calendar lays all of these out day by day, with the sign changes in between.
Which crops this phase is for, in the tradition
The first quarter belongs to leafy crops that bear above ground. The named examples in the tradition are lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli and celery. Before the new moon, the tradition calls for rest instead. It sets aside weeding, pruning, turning the soil and composting for the fourth quarter. A gardener following the rule would schedule those jobs in the final week before each new moon and hold the leafy sowing until the Moon turns.
The sign filter narrows the first quarter to specific windows. This convention labels Libra and Capricorn semi-fruitful and Scorpio fruitful. Here are the traditional leafy-crop windows for the next two months:
| Month | Window | Moon sign |
|---|---|---|
| October | October 10-13 | Libra, then Scorpio |
| October | October 16-18 | Capricorn |
| November | November 9 | Scorpio |
| November | November 13-14 | Capricorn |
Several of these days are only partly inside a window, so the clock times matter. The first October window opens at the new moon on October 10 at 11:50 a.m. The Moon enters Scorpio on October 11 at 11:21 a.m. and Sagittarius on October 13 at 8:59 p.m. The Capricorn window begins when the Moon enters that sign on October 16 at 8:57 a.m., and the first quarter arrives on October 18 at 12:12 p.m. In November, the Moon enters Sagittarius on November 10 at 3:35 a.m., which closes the November 9 window. It enters Capricorn on November 12 at 3:27 p.m. and Aquarius on November 15 at 4:24 a.m.
Biodynamic gardening, following Maria Thun, uses a different sorting. It calls Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces leaf days, along with root, flower and fruit days for the other signs. Its leaf days overlap only partly with the almanac windows above. If you follow one system, stay with it for the whole season. Your state’s planting guide is the place to learn which of these crops can go in the ground at all on a given date.
How much weight to give it
The effect of the Moon’s phase or sign on germination or yield has not been established. The Moon’s tidal pull is also tiny. We calculated it from NASA’s Moon Fact Sheet constants (a 29.53-day phase cycle, a 27.32-day orbit against the stars, and a mean distance of 384,400 km, or roughly 239,000 miles). At its strongest, the pull at Earth’s surface is about 1.1 millionths of a meter per second squared. That is roughly one ten-millionth of gravity, far too small to move anything as light as a seed or a root. So the tradition cannot lean on tides for its explanation. It stands as an inherited calendar, nothing more.
The calendar of your own place decides the season. Frost dates and soil temperature determine whether a crop can go in the ground. The Moon, if you choose to follow it, only picks among days that are already open. Your state’s planting guide sets those dates, and the new moon never moves them. If you like the ritual of the old almanacs, treat it as a way to order your gardening weeks. The full discussion of whether the method holds up sits in the guide to planting by the moon.
Questions
Does the tradition say to plant on the exact day of the new moon?
Not exactly. The tradition treats the new moon as the moment the first quarter begins, so the leafy-crop window opens then and runs on through the following days. For October 2026, that starts at 11:50 a.m. ET on October 10. Gardeners who plant by the Moon and filter by sign would also look at where the Moon sits that day.
Which sign is the Moon in at the October new moon?
The Moon entered Libra on October 9 at 4:10 a.m. ET and stays there until it enters Scorpio on October 11 at 11:21 a.m. ET. The new moon on October 10 at 11:50 a.m. ET falls in that stretch. This convention labels Libra semi-fruitful. It labels Scorpio, the next sign, fruitful.
Can I still weed and prune around the new moon?
Yes, and the tradition encourages it. Those jobs belong to the fourth quarter, the days before the new moon. Almanacs that rest the garden then are scheduling chores, not forbidding all activity. Nothing in the tradition stops you from doing the same jobs on other days.