February 2027 has a traditional almanac window for each of the three crop types: leafy, fruiting and root. The full Snow Moon arrives on February 20 at 6:23 p.m. ET. Every rule below is almanac tradition, since no effect of the Moon on germination or yield has been established. The general method is in planting by the moon, and the full year is in planting by the moon 2027.
February 2027 at a glance
The month opens in the fourth quarter, with the Moon waning and 21% lit at noon on February 1. The full Moon, the Snow Moon, falls on February 20 at 6:23 p.m. ET, with the Moon in Virgo.
According to almanac tradition, the planting windows this month are:
- Leafy crops (first quarter): February 7-9 (Moon in Pisces), February 12-13 (Moon in Taurus)
- Fruiting crops (second quarter): February 17-18 (Moon in Cancer)
- Root crops, bulbs, perennials (third quarter): February 23-26 (Moon in Libra/Scorpio)
These windows come from an almanac custom, and your local frost calendar comes first. The Moon never overrides the calendar of the place. Frost dates and soil temperature decide whether a crop can go in the ground at all. A gardener who follows the Moon only chooses among days the local calendar already allows.
The month moves through all four quarters. The new Moon is on February 6 at 10:56 a.m. ET, the first quarter on February 14 at 2:58 a.m. ET, and the full Moon on February 20. The last quarter arrives at 12:16 a.m. ET on February 28, so the month ends where it began, in the fourth quarter.
Two systems are at work, and they are separate. The first is the quarter rule, which ties crop types to the phase. The second is the sign convention, which labels each zodiac sign fruitful, semi-fruitful or barren. A traditional window here needs both: the right quarter for the crop type and a fruitful or semi-fruitful sign. All times are Eastern, and signs follow the tropical zodiac.
What to plant in February
Planting seasons differ from state to state. A February that suits one state’s calendar can fall well outside another’s. Your state’s planting calendar is the place to check what can go in the ground where you live. What the almanac tradition adds is a way of sorting crops by type, and each type has its own quarter of the lunar cycle.
Leafy crops
The tradition assigns leafy crops that bear above ground to the first quarter, from the new Moon to the first quarter. The almanac list includes lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli and celery. This month the first quarter runs from February 6 to February 14, and the traditional windows inside it are February 7-9 and February 12-13.
Fruiting crops
Above-ground crops that bear seed inside the fruit belong to the second quarter, from the first quarter to the full Moon. The almanac list names tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash and corn. For two of them, this site has a page with the tradition worked out in detail: when to plant tomatoes by the moon and when to plant peppers by the moon. This month’s traditional window for the type is February 17-18.
Root crops, bulbs and perennials
The third quarter, from the full Moon to the last quarter, is the one the tradition gives to root crops, bulbs and perennials. The almanac list includes potatoes, carrots, garlic, onions and beets. The page on when to plant potatoes by the moon covers that crop. The window for the type in February 2027 is February 23-26.
The fourth quarter, from the last quarter to the new Moon, is the rest period in this tradition. It is the time the almanac sets aside for weeding, pruning, turning the soil and composting. In February 2027 it covers the first days of the month through the new Moon on February 6, and it returns at the last quarter on February 28.
Moon phases in February 2027
| Phase | Date and time (ET) |
|---|---|
| New Moon | February 6, 10:56 a.m. |
| First Quarter | February 14, 2:58 a.m. |
| Full Moon | February 20, 6:23 p.m. |
| Last Quarter | February 28, 12:16 a.m. |
The February full Moon is called the Snow Moon in Old Farmer’s Almanac usage. In 2027 it peaks on February 20 at 6:23 p.m. ET, and the Moon enters Virgo at 2:59 p.m. ET that same day, so it is in Virgo at the moment of fullness. The full Moon is also where the almanac’s second quarter ends and its third quarter begins, which is why the fruiting window comes before it and the root window after it.
Traditional planting days in February 2027
The rule
The almanac rule has two parts. First, the crop type is matched to a quarter of the lunar cycle: leafy crops in the first, fruiting crops in the second, root crops in the third. Second, within that quarter, gardeners who plant by the Moon prefer days when the Moon is in a sign this convention labels fruitful (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) or semi-fruitful (Taurus, Libra, Capricorn).
The windows
| Crop type | Quarter | Traditional days | Moon sign |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leafy crops | First quarter | February 7-9 | Pisces |
| Leafy crops | First quarter | February 12-13 | Taurus |
| Fruiting crops | Second quarter | February 17-18 | Cancer |
| Root crops, bulbs, perennials | Third quarter | February 23-26 | Libra/Scorpio |
Every crop type has at least one window this month, so none of them is marked “none this month.”
Partial days at the edges
Days are read at noon ET, but the Moon changes sign during the day. That means the first or last day of a window can be only partly inside it. The sign change times are in the next section, and a few examples show how it works.
The Pisces window opens on February 7. The Moon enters Pisces that day at 11:31 a.m. ET, so the first part of the morning still belongs to Aquarius. It closes on February 9, when the Moon enters Aries at 9:48 p.m. ET. The Taurus window starts when the Moon enters Taurus at 5:44 a.m. ET on February 12.
The Cancer window gets a similar edge. The Moon is in Cancer at noon on February 17 and February 18, and it enters Leo at 2:31 p.m. ET on February 18. The root window ends the same way. The Moon is in Scorpio at noon on February 26 and enters Sagittarius at 5:52 a.m. ET on February 27, which is outside the window.
Two other things are worth knowing. The Libra/Scorpio window covers two signs, with the change at 9:24 p.m. ET on February 24. And the sign labels used here are only one convention. The biodynamic calendar of Maria Thun, which sorts days into root, flower, leaf and fruit days by sign, labels the same signs differently, as the next section shows. The two systems do not always agree, and gardeners who plant by the Moon pick one and stay with it.
Moon sign changes in February 2027
The Moon enters a new sign about every two and a half days. Here is every change this month, with the label each sign carries in the two traditions. The first column of labels is the common almanac convention (fruitful, semi-fruitful, barren), and the second is the biodynamic day type.
| Date and time (ET) | Moon enters | Almanac label | Biodynamic day |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 2, 10:32 a.m. | Capricorn | Semi-fruitful | Root day |
| February 4, 11:28 p.m. | Aquarius | Barren | Flower day |
| February 7, 11:31 a.m. | Pisces | Fruitful | Leaf day |
| February 9, 9:48 p.m. | Aries | Barren | Fruit day |
| February 12, 5:44 a.m. | Taurus | Semi-fruitful | Root day |
| February 14, 10:58 a.m. | Gemini | Barren | Flower day |
| February 16, 1:38 p.m. | Cancer | Fruitful | Leaf day |
| February 18, 2:31 p.m. | Leo | Barren | Fruit day |
| February 20, 2:59 p.m. | Virgo | Barren | Root day |
| February 22, 4:44 p.m. | Libra | Semi-fruitful | Flower day |
| February 24, 9:24 p.m. | Scorpio | Fruitful | Leaf day |
| February 27, 5:52 a.m. | Sagittarius | Barren | Fruit day |
Sources differ on the barren label for Virgo, Sagittarius and Aquarius. The biodynamic column is independent of the almanac column, which is why Virgo, labeled barren in one, is a root day in the other. The Moon was already in Sagittarius on February 1, having entered it before the month began.
Day by day: phase and Moon sign
One row per day, read at noon ET. The quarter column uses 1 to 4, and the percentage is the share of the Moon’s disk that is lit at that moment.
| Date | Moon sign | Quarter | Percent lit | Waxing or waning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 1 | Sagittarius | 4 | 21% | Waning |
| February 2 | Capricorn | 4 | 14% | Waning |
| February 3 | Capricorn | 4 | 8% | Waning |
| February 4 | Capricorn | 4 | 3% | Waning |
| February 5 | Aquarius | 4 | 1% | Waning |
| February 6 | Aquarius | 1 | 0% | Waxing |
| February 7 | Pisces | 1 | 1% | Waxing |
| February 8 | Pisces | 1 | 4% | Waxing |
| February 9 | Pisces | 1 | 9% | Waxing |
| February 10 | Aries | 1 | 15% | Waxing |
| February 11 | Aries | 1 | 23% | Waxing |
| February 12 | Taurus | 1 | 33% | Waxing |
| February 13 | Taurus | 1 | 43% | Waxing |
| February 14 | Gemini | 2 | 54% | Waxing |
| February 15 | Gemini | 2 | 65% | Waxing |
| February 16 | Gemini | 2 | 76% | Waxing |
| February 17 | Cancer | 2 | 85% | Waxing |
| February 18 | Cancer | 2 | 93% | Waxing |
| February 19 | Leo | 2 | 98% | Waxing |
| February 20 | Leo | 2 | 100% | Waxing |
| February 21 | Virgo | 3 | 99% | Waning |
| February 22 | Virgo | 3 | 96% | Waning |
| February 23 | Libra | 3 | 90% | Waning |
| February 24 | Libra | 3 | 83% | Waning |
| February 25 | Scorpio | 3 | 74% | Waning |
| February 26 | Scorpio | 3 | 65% | Waning |
| February 27 | Sagittarius | 3 | 55% | Waning |
| February 28 | Sagittarius | 4 | 45% | Waning |
Two details in the table are easy to miss. On February 20 the Moon reads 100% lit at noon, even though the full Moon itself is at 6:23 p.m. that evening, so the day is still labeled waxing. And on February 6 the lit share reads 0% and the quarter has already switched to 1, because the new Moon is at 10:56 a.m. ET, before the noon reading.
Questions about February 2027
When is the full Moon in February 2027?
The Snow Moon is full on February 20, 2027, at 6:23 p.m. ET, with the Moon in Virgo.
When is the new Moon in February 2027?
The new Moon falls on February 6, 2027, at 10:56 a.m. ET, with the Moon in Aquarius.
Which days are the traditional days for root crops in February 2027?
According to almanac tradition, the root crop, bulb and perennial window runs from February 23 to February 26, with the Moon in Libra and then Scorpio. Whether any of those crops can go in the ground yet depends on your state’s planting calendar.
For crop-by-crop reading of the same tradition, the pages on tomatoes, peppers and potatoes each give the window that fits the crop.