According to almanac tradition, the last quarter moon opens a rest period. From that phase until the new moon, gardeners who plant by the Moon set sowing aside for the jobs of weeding, pruning, turning the soil and composting. It is a custom, not a proven effect. The next last quarter falls on November 1, 2026, at 3:28 p.m. ET, and the rest period runs to the new moon on November 9 at 2:02 a.m. ET.
What the tradition says about last quarter moon
The Moon takes 29.53 days to run through its phases, a span astronomers call the synodic period. Almanac gardening slices that cycle into four quarters and gives each one a task. The first three are for planting, sorted by the type of crop. The fourth, which begins at the Last Quarter phase and ends at the new moon, is for rest.
The almanac rule for that fourth quarter is short: weeding, pruning, turning the soil and composting. No crop group is attached to it. So the planting windows on this page, built from the quarter rule plus the Moon’s sign, never fall between a Last Quarter and the next new moon. This holds even when the Moon is in a sign the convention labels fruitful (Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces carry that label, while Taurus, Libra and Capricorn are labeled semi-fruitful). The rest quarter stays closed to planting.
All of this is almanac tradition and unproven. No effect of the Moon’s phase or sign on germination or yield is established. Treat what follows as a custom that some gardeners follow.
| Quarter | Moon span | What the tradition assigns |
|---|---|---|
| First | New moon to first quarter | Leafy crops that bear above ground (lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, celery) |
| Second | First quarter to full moon | Above-ground crops that bear seed inside the fruit (tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash, corn) |
| Third | Full moon to last quarter | Root crops, bulbs, perennials (potatoes, carrots, garlic, onions, beets) |
| Fourth | Last quarter to new moon | Rest: weeding, pruning, turning the soil, composting |
One naming trap is worth knowing. The “third quarter” in the table is a stretch of time, while “Last Quarter” is a single moment, the one that closes the third quarter and opens the fourth.
The next last quarter moon dates
This month’s last quarter is already behind us. The next one is almost a month away. All times are Eastern, computed with JPL DE421 and checked against the U.S. Naval Observatory, so readers in other time zones should convert from ET.
- Last Quarter on October 3, 9:25 a.m. ET, followed by the New Moon on October 10, 11:50 a.m. ET
- Last Quarter on November 1, 3:28 p.m. ET, followed by the New Moon on November 9, 2:02 a.m. ET
The rest span, in the tradition, runs from phase to phase. In October that means from 9:25 a.m. ET on October 3 to 11:50 a.m. ET on October 10. During those hours the Moon passes through Cancer (until October 4, 6:54 p.m. ET), then Leo, Virgo from October 6 at 10:52 p.m. ET, and Libra from October 9 at 4:10 a.m. ET.
The November span runs from 3:28 p.m. ET on November 1 to 2:02 a.m. ET on November 9. The Moon is already in Leo when the phase arrives, having entered at 12:18 a.m. ET that day. It then enters Virgo on November 3 at 3:27 a.m. ET, Libra on November 5 at 9:38 a.m. ET, and Scorpio on November 7 at 5:39 p.m. ET. Signs here follow the tropical zodiac, the one almanacs use.
Which crops this phase is for, in the tradition
None. That is the point of the fourth quarter. According to almanac tradition, the days between the last quarter and the new moon are set aside for upkeep:
- Weeding
- Pruning
- Turning the soil
- Composting
Crops belong to the other three quarters, and the almanac sorts them by what part of the plant we eat. The table below shows the traditional windows that follow each rest span, built from the quarter rule plus a fruitful or semi-fruitful sign. These are dates from the tradition, not planting dates for any place.
| Crop type (tradition) | Named crops | October windows | November windows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leafy, first quarter | Lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, celery | October 10-13 (Moon in Libra/Scorpio), October 16-18 (Capricorn) | November 9 (Scorpio), November 13-14 (Capricorn) |
| Fruiting, second quarter | Tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash, corn | October 21-23 (Pisces) | November 18-19 (Pisces), November 22-23 (Taurus) |
| Root crops, bulbs, perennials, third quarter | Potatoes, carrots, garlic, onions, beets | October 26-27 (Taurus), October 30-31 (Cancer) | November 26-27 (Cancer) |
Windows start and stop when the Moon changes sign, not at midnight. The October fruiting window, for instance, runs from the morning of October 21 (the Moon enters Pisces at 8:35 a.m. ET) to the afternoon of October 23 (it enters Aries at 3:53 p.m. ET).
Whether a given crop can go in the ground at all depends on your location. For that, your state’s planting guide is the place to look.
How much weight to give it
The effect of the Moon on crops is unproven, and the physics gives little reason to expect one at the scale of a seed. Using the constants on NASA’s Moon Fact Sheet (a 29.53-day phase cycle, a 27.32-day orbit against the stars, a mean distance of 384,400 km), the Moon’s tidal pull at the Earth’s surface comes out to about 1.1 millionths of a meter per second squared. That is roughly one ten-millionth of gravity (1.1 x 10^-7 g) at its strongest. This is a calculated figure, not a garden measurement, and it is far too small to move anything as small as a seed or a root. For the wider question of whether any of this holds up, see the dedicated section in our guide to planting by the moon.
Frost dates and soil temperature decide whether a crop can go in the ground, and the Moon never overrides them. A gardener who follows the custom would only use it to choose among days the local calendar already allows. The rest span can serve as a marker for the four upkeep jobs, and your state’s planting guide sets the dates for everything else.
Questions
Is every day of the waning Moon a rest day?
No, not in this tradition. The waning half starts at the full moon, and the stretch from the full moon to the last quarter is the third quarter, assigned to root crops, bulbs and perennials. This October the full moon arrives on October 26 at 12:11 a.m. ET, and the next Last Quarter follows on November 1 at 3:28 p.m. ET. The rest period begins only at that second moment.
Does the Moon’s sign change anything on a last quarter day?
Not under the quarter-plus-sign rule used here. The Moon is in Cancer at the October 3 Last Quarter and in Leo at the November 1 one. This convention labels Cancer fruitful and Leo barren, but neither label opens a planting window in the fourth quarter. Biodynamic calendars following Maria Thun sort days differently, into root, flower, leaf and fruit days by sign, and that is a separate system from the phase rule.
What if my local planting date falls inside the rest span?
Then the local calendar decides, and the Moon does not. The rest span that opens with the last quarter of October 3 ends with the new moon on October 10 at 11:50 a.m. ET. The first traditional leafy window listed after it runs October 10-13. Your state’s planting guide gives the dates that matter for your ground.