Planting by the Moon in March 2027: Dates, Moon Signs and Traditional Planting Days

Gardeners who plant by the Moon have traditional windows for all three crop types in March 2027. The month opens in the fourth quarter, the new Moon arrives March 8 at 4:29 a.m. ET, and the Worm Moon is full on March 22 at 6:43 a.m. ET. Every rule below is almanac tradition, not proven science, and every time is Eastern. For the method behind it, start with planting by the moon.

March 2027 at a glance

March 2027 begins in the fourth quarter, with the Moon 36% lit and waning at noon ET on March 1, and it turns waxing at the new Moon on March 8. The Worm Moon is full on March 22 at 6:43 a.m. ET, and the traditional planting windows fall like this:

• Leafy crops (first quarter): March 8 (Moon in Pisces), March 11-13 (Moon in Taurus)
• Fruiting crops (second quarter): March 16-17 (Moon in Cancer)
• Root crops, bulbs, perennials (third quarter): March 22-26 (Moon in Libra/Scorpio), March 29 (Moon in Capricorn)

This is almanac tradition, and the local frost calendar comes first. Frost dates and soil temperature decide whether a crop can go in the ground at all. The Moon, if you follow it, only chooses among days that your own calendar already allows.

The shape of the month follows from two layers of the tradition. The first is the quarter, which is the stretch between one main phase and the next. The second is the zodiac sign the Moon occupies on a given day. The Moon changes sign 14 times in March 2027, starting the month in Sagittarius and ending it in Aquarius, so the sign layer shifts every two to three days.

Only some of those days line up with a planting quarter and a sign the almanac convention labels fruitful or semi-fruitful. That overlap is why the windows above are short and scattered rather than continuous. Between them sit the fourth-quarter days, which the tradition sets aside for rest: weeding, pruning, turning the soil and composting. In March 2027 those are March 1 through 7, plus March 30 and 31.

The sections below take the same month apart in a different order. First the crops each tradition group covers, then the four phases, then the windows in a table, then every sign change and finally a full day-by-day reference for all 31 days.

What to plant in March

Whether any crop can go outdoors in March depends on the state, and often on the part of the state. A gardener in the Gulf Coast states and one in the northern Plains are working from very different calendars. For the dates that apply to your location, check the state planting guides first, then use the Moon windows as a way to pick among the days that remain.

The almanac convention sorts crops by the part of the plant that people eat, and gives each group its own quarter. These are the groups as the tradition lists them:

• Leafy crops that bear above ground (first quarter): lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, celery
• Above-ground crops that bear seed inside the fruit (second quarter): tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash, corn
• Root crops, bulbs and perennials (third quarter): potatoes, carrots, garlic, onions, beets

Three of these crops have their own pages in this series. For the fruiting group, see when to plant tomatoes by the moon and when to plant peppers by the moon. For the root group, there is when to plant potatoes by the moon. Each one walks through the rule for that single crop across the year, so you can compare it with what March 2027 offers.

The fourth group, rest days, covers no crop at all. According to almanac tradition, the fourth quarter is for work around the plants rather than in the seed row. That means weeding, pruning, turning the soil and composting.

Not every crop in a tradition group will suit your garden in March. A crop’s presence in the list above says only which quarter the almanac assigns to it. It says nothing about whether your soil or your last frost is ready for it.

Moon phases in March 2027

The full Moon of the month is the Worm Moon, a name from Old Farmer’s Almanac usage. It is full on March 22 at 6:43 a.m. ET, with the Moon in Libra. The Moon had entered Libra at 4:01 a.m. ET that morning, and it moves on into Scorpio on March 24 at 8:18 a.m. ET. That full Moon marks the start of the third quarter, the one the tradition gives to root crops, bulbs and perennials.

The last quarter on March 29 starts the fourth quarter, which carries past the end of the month into April. Dates for the rest of the year are laid out in planting by the moon 2027.

Traditional planting days in March 2027

The rule in two steps

According to almanac tradition, the quarter of the Moon picks the crop type: leafy crops in the first quarter, fruiting crops in the second, root crops, bulbs and perennials in the third, and rest in the fourth. Gardeners who plant by the Moon then narrow each quarter to the days when the Moon is in a sign this convention labels fruitful (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) or semi-fruitful (Taurus, Libra, Capricorn).

Every crop type has at least one window in March 2027, so there is no “none this month” row to report.

Reading the windows

Days are read at noon ET, but the Moon changes sign during the day. A window’s first or last day may therefore be partial, with the sign arriving in the morning or leaving in the afternoon. The exact sign change times are in the next section, and they matter most on the edges. March 11 starts when the Moon enters Taurus in the late morning, and March 13 ends when it enters Gemini in the afternoon. March 26 is a Scorpio day only until the Moon enters Sagittarius that afternoon, and March 29 begins early in the morning with the Moon’s arrival in Capricorn.

Days the rule leaves out

Several first-, second- and third-quarter days fall outside the windows because the Moon is in a sign the convention labels barren. In the first quarter these are the Aries days of March 9-10 and the Gemini days of March 14-15. In the second quarter they are the Leo days of March 18-19 and the Virgo days of March 20-21. In the third quarter, the Sagittarius days of March 27-28 are left out. March 30 and 31 have the Moon in Capricorn, a semi-fruitful sign, but they belong to the fourth quarter, so the tradition treats them as rest days.

Gardeners who follow the almanac closely often note that sources disagree on Virgo, Sagittarius and Aquarius. The convention used here labels all three barren, which keeps the windows narrow. A source that labels one of them differently would draw a different set of days.

Moon sign changes in March 2027

Every sign change is listed with its Eastern time. The first label column is the common convention of moon-sign gardening almanacs, with fruitful, semi-fruitful and barren classes. The last column is the biodynamic calendar of Maria Thun, which names each sign as a root, flower, leaf or fruit day. The two systems are separate traditions, and the windows above follow the quarter and fruitful-sign rule.

Two signs come around twice in the month. The Moon enters Capricorn on March 1 and again on March 29, and it enters Aquarius on March 4 and again on March 31. The sources that treat Virgo, Sagittarius and Aquarius differently are the reason those three carry a caveat in almanac guides.

Day by day: phase and Moon sign

How to read the table

Each row gives the Moon at noon ET. The quarter column runs from 1 to 4, the percent lit is the share of the disk illuminated, and the last column says whether the Moon is waxing or waning. Because noon is a single moment, a phase can change earlier or later the same day. The new Moon on March 8 at 4:29 a.m. ET falls between the March 7 and March 8 readings, which is why both show 0% lit but with different quarters and directions. The first quarter at 12:25 p.m. ET on March 15 comes just after that day’s noon reading, so March 15 still shows quarter 1 at 50%. The full Moon on March 22 at 6:43 a.m. ET has already passed by noon, so that day shows 100% lit and waning.

All 31 days

Questions about March 2027

When is the full Moon in March 2027?

The full Moon, called the Worm Moon in Old Farmer’s Almanac usage, falls on March 22, 2027 at 6:43 a.m. ET, with the Moon in Libra.

When is the new Moon in March 2027?

The new Moon falls on March 8, 2027 at 4:29 a.m. ET, with the Moon in Pisces.

Which days are the traditional days for root crops?

According to almanac tradition, the root crop, bulb and perennial windows are March 22-26 (Moon in Libra and Scorpio) and March 29 (Moon in Capricorn). The biodynamic calendar uses a different rule, naming Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn as its root days, which you can match against the sign change table above.

Related guides

• when to plant spinach by the moon
• planting on a full moon
• planting during the new moon
• when to plant carrots by the moon
• when to plant beets by the moon
• when to plant asparagus by the moon
• when to plant turnips by the moon
• when to plant collard greens by the moon
• when to plant kale by the moon
• when to plant lettuce by the moon
• when to plant peas by the moon
• when to plant broccoli by the moon
• when to plant cabbage by the moon
• when to plant radishes by the moon
• when to plant strawberries by the moon
• when to plant roses by the moon
• when to plant parsnips by the moon
• moon sign gardening
• April 2027