The almanac calendar for January 2027 has five traditional planting windows, the first on January 8 and the last from January 26 to 28. They come from an old rulebook, and the Moon’s effect on crops is not established. Below you’ll find the phases, the sign changes and a day-by-day table, all in Eastern time (ET).
January 2027 at a glance
January 2027 opens in the waning fourth quarter, with the Moon 31% lit at noon ET on January 1 and in Scorpio. The new moon falls on January 7 at 3:24 p.m. ET, and the Wolf Moon (the Old Farmer’s Almanac name for January’s full moon) is full on January 22 at 7:17 a.m. ET, with the Moon in Leo.
According to almanac tradition, the month’s planting windows are:
- Leafy crops (first quarter): January 8 (Moon in Capricorn), January 11-13 (Moon in Pisces)
- Fruiting crops (second quarter): January 16-17 (Moon in Taurus), January 20-21 (Moon in Cancer)
- Root crops, bulbs and perennials (third quarter): January 26-28 (Moon in Libra)
All of this is almanac tradition. Your local frost calendar comes first, and the Moon never overrides it. Frost dates and soil temperature decide whether a crop can go in the ground at all. Gardeners who plant by the Moon use the calendar only to choose among days that already fit the place.
Each window combines two parts of the convention. One is the quarter of the Moon’s cycle, which tradition ties to a type of crop. The other is the Moon’s sign on that day, which the convention labels fruitful, semi-fruitful or barren. A day counts as a traditional planting day only when the quarter matches the crop type and the sign carries one of the first two labels.
The fourth quarter, from the last quarter to the new moon, is a rest period in the same tradition, and it covers January 1 to 7 and January 29 to 31 on this calendar. If you are looking back, the December 2026 page covers the month before. The planting by the moon hub explains the method from the start.
What to plant in January
Almanac tradition sorts crops into three groups, and each group follows its own quarter of the Moon. The lists below are the tradition’s own examples. They are not a recommendation to sow any of them in January.
- Leafy crops that bear above ground, tied to the first quarter: lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli and celery.
- Fruiting crops, above-ground plants that bear seed inside the fruit, tied to the second quarter: tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash and corn.
- Root crops, bulbs and perennials, tied to the third quarter: potatoes, carrots, garlic, onions and beets.
Whether any of these can be planted in January depends on the state you garden in, and sometimes on the county or the microclimate of your yard. A January calendar for Florida or southern Texas looks nothing like one for Minnesota or Vermont. The Moon calendar cannot settle that question, so start with your state’s planting calendar and the guide published for your region. Then, if you follow the tradition, look at which of the dates below fall on days you could plant anyway.
Each crop also has its own page on this site, titled “When to Plant (crop) by the Moon.” Those pages take the same Moon rules and apply them to a single vegetable across the year. The crop names above are the starting point if you want to check one.
The tradition also has a fourth category that involves no planting. The fourth quarter is the time for weeding, pruning, turning the soil and composting. On this calendar those days are January 1 to 7 and January 29 to 31, and they may be more relevant in January than any sowing window.
Moon phases in January 2027
| Phase | Date and time (ET) |
|---|---|
| New Moon | January 7, 3:24 p.m. |
| First Quarter | January 15, 3:34 p.m. |
| Full Moon | January 22, 7:17 a.m. |
| Last Quarter | January 29, 5:55 a.m. |
The Wolf Moon peaks on January 22 at 7:17 a.m. ET, with the Moon in Leo. The Moon entered Leo at 3:45 a.m. ET that same morning, so the full moon and the sign change fall within a few hours of each other. At noon that day the Moon is 100% lit. The convention labels Leo barren, and in the biodynamic calendar Leo is a fruit day. In the almanac’s quarter system, the full moon is the point where the second quarter ends and the third begins, which is why the tradition’s fruiting window closes on January 21 and its root window opens later in the week. For how gardeners treat that night and the days around it, see planting on a full moon.
Traditional planting days in January 2027
The almanac rule combines two checks. The Moon must be in the quarter the tradition assigns to the crop type, and it must be in a sign this convention labels fruitful or semi-fruitful. Days that meet both checks are the traditional days listed here.
The five windows
| Crop type | Quarter the tradition assigns | Days | Moon sign on those days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leafy crops | First quarter | January 8 January 11-13 |
Capricorn Pisces |
| Fruiting crops | Second quarter | January 16-17 January 20-21 |
Taurus Cancer |
| Root crops, bulbs, perennials | Third quarter | January 26-28 | Libra |
Every crop type has at least one window this month, so none of the rows reads “none this month.”
Reading partial days
Days in this calendar are read at noon ET. The Moon changes sign during the day, so the first or last day of a window may be only partly inside it. On January 8, for example, the Moon leaves Capricorn at 5:10 p.m. ET. On January 28 it leaves Libra at 12:21 p.m. ET, only a little after the noon reading. The exact sign change times are in the next section.
Several days sit in the right quarter but outside a window, because the convention labels their sign barren. In the first quarter, January 9 and 10 fall in Aquarius and January 14 and 15 in Aries. In the second quarter, January 18 and 19 fall in Gemini. In the third quarter, January 22 to 25 fall in Leo and Virgo. Sources differ on Virgo, Sagittarius and Aquarius, so some almanacs would draw these lines differently.
The two pieces of the rule are worth keeping apart. The quarter is a fact about the Moon’s cycle, and the sign is a position against the zodiac. The link between either of them and a crop is a custom handed down in almanacs. For the practical question of what can be sown in your state this month, the state planting guides are the place to look.
Moon sign changes in January 2027
The Moon moves into a new sign fourteen times in January 2027. The table gives the time of each change (tropical zodiac), the sign entered, the almanac label for that sign, and the day type in the biodynamic calendar of Maria Thun.
| Date and time (ET) | Moon enters | Almanac label | Biodynamic day |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 1, 5:15 a.m. | Scorpio | Fruitful | Leaf |
| January 3, 3:56 p.m. | Sagittarius | Barren | Fruit |
| January 6, 4:17 a.m. | Capricorn | Semi-fruitful | Root |
| January 8, 5:10 p.m. | Aquarius | Barren | Flower |
| January 11, 5:35 a.m. | Pisces | Fruitful | Leaf |
| January 13, 4:13 p.m. | Aries | Barren | Fruit |
| January 15, 11:43 p.m. | Taurus | Semi-fruitful | Root |
| January 18, 3:32 a.m. | Gemini | Barren | Flower |
| January 20, 4:21 a.m. | Cancer | Fruitful | Leaf |
| January 22, 3:45 a.m. | Leo | Barren | Fruit |
| January 24, 3:44 a.m. | Virgo | Barren | Root |
| January 26, 6:12 a.m. | Libra | Semi-fruitful | Flower |
| January 28, 12:21 p.m. | Scorpio | Fruitful | Leaf |
| January 30, 10:13 p.m. | Sagittarius | Barren | Fruit |
The two label systems are separate conventions. The fruitful, semi-fruitful and barren labels belong to the moon sign almanacs, which rate Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces as fruitful, Taurus, Libra and Capricorn as semi-fruitful, and the rest as barren. The biodynamic calendar instead groups signs into root, flower, leaf and fruit days. The two do not always point the same way, and a gardener who follows one rarely needs the other. The moon sign gardening page explains both systems in full.
Day by day: phase and Moon sign
How to read the columns
Each row shows the Moon at noon ET. The quarter column runs from 1 to 4 and follows the almanac convention: quarter 1 runs from the new moon to the first quarter, quarter 2 from the first quarter to the full moon, quarter 3 from the full moon to the last quarter, and quarter 4 from the last quarter to the new moon. Percent lit is given as listed, with no rounding. For the same month in the wider year, see planting by the moon 2027.
January 1 to 31
| Date | Moon sign | Quarter | Percent lit | Waxing or waning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 1 | Scorpio | 4 | 31% | Waning |
| January 2 | Scorpio | 4 | 22% | Waning |
| January 3 | Scorpio | 4 | 15% | Waning |
| January 4 | Sagittarius | 4 | 9% | Waning |
| January 5 | Sagittarius | 4 | 4% | Waning |
| January 6 | Capricorn | 4 | 1% | Waning |
| January 7 | Capricorn | 4 | 0% | Waning |
| January 8 | Capricorn | 1 | 1% | Waxing |
| January 9 | Aquarius | 1 | 3% | Waxing |
| January 10 | Aquarius | 1 | 7% | Waxing |
| January 11 | Pisces | 1 | 13% | Waxing |
| January 12 | Pisces | 1 | 20% | Waxing |
| January 13 | Pisces | 1 | 29% | Waxing |
| January 14 | Aries | 1 | 38% | Waxing |
| January 15 | Aries | 1 | 49% | Waxing |
| January 16 | Taurus | 2 | 59% | Waxing |
| January 17 | Taurus | 2 | 70% | Waxing |
| January 18 | Gemini | 2 | 80% | Waxing |
| January 19 | Gemini | 2 | 88% | Waxing |
| January 20 | Cancer | 2 | 95% | Waxing |
| January 21 | Cancer | 2 | 99% | Waxing |
| January 22 | Leo | 3 | 100% | Waning |
| January 23 | Leo | 3 | 98% | Waning |
| January 24 | Virgo | 3 | 93% | Waning |
| January 25 | Virgo | 3 | 86% | Waning |
| January 26 | Libra | 3 | 77% | Waning |
| January 27 | Libra | 3 | 68% | Waning |
| January 28 | Libra | 3 | 58% | Waning |
| January 29 | Scorpio | 4 | 48% | Waning |
| January 30 | Scorpio | 4 | 38% | Waning |
| January 31 | Sagittarius | 4 | 29% | Waning |
Two rows show how a noon reading differs from the exact event. January 7 reads 0% lit and still counts as quarter 4, because the new moon comes later that day at 3:24 p.m. ET. January 22 reads 100% lit and counts as quarter 3, because the full moon came at 7:17 a.m. ET, before noon.
Questions about January 2027
When is the full moon in January 2027?
The Wolf Moon is full on January 22, 2027, at 7:17 a.m. ET, with the Moon in Leo. That is the Old Farmer’s Almanac name for January’s full moon.
When is the new moon in January 2027?
The new moon falls on January 7, 2027, at 3:24 p.m. ET, with the Moon in Capricorn. The first quarter follows on January 15 at 3:34 p.m. ET.
Which days are the traditional days for root crops in January 2027?
According to almanac tradition, the root window runs January 26 to 28, with the Moon in Libra, a sign this convention labels semi-fruitful. The Moon leaves Libra at 12:21 p.m. ET on January 28, so the last day is only partly inside the window. The same tradition covers bulbs and perennials in that third-quarter stretch, and your state’s planting calendar still decides whether anything can go in the ground.