According to almanac tradition, October 2027 holds planting windows for each of the three crop types, with the Hunter’s Moon on October 15 dividing the fruiting windows from the root windows. This page lists every window, every Moon sign change and the Moon’s sign and illumination for each day, all in Eastern time. None of it is proven to affect crops. It is a calendar for gardeners who like to follow an old custom.
October 2027 at a glance
The month opens in the first quarter, with a waxing Moon 3% lit in Libra on October 1. The full moon, the Hunter’s Moon, arrives on October 15 at 9:47 a.m. ET with the Moon in Aries. According to almanac tradition, these are the planting windows of the month:
- Leafy crops: October 1-3 (Moon in Libra/Scorpio), October 6 (Moon in Capricorn), October 29-30 (Moon in Scorpio)
- Fruiting crops: October 7-8 (Moon in Capricorn), October 11-13 (Moon in Pisces)
- Root crops, bulbs, perennials: October 16-17 (Moon in Taurus), October 20-22 (Moon in Cancer)
All of this is almanac tradition, and the Moon never overrides the calendar of the place. Frost dates and soil temperature decide whether a crop can go in the ground. The Moon, for gardeners who follow it, only chooses among the days that the local calendar already allows.
One stretch of the month carries no planting window at all. Between the last quarter on October 22 at 1:29 p.m. ET and the new moon on October 29 at 9:36 a.m. ET, the tradition assigns rest work: weeding, pruning, turning the soil and composting.
The Moon signs below follow the tropical zodiac, and every clock time is Eastern. Readers in other time zones need to shift the times, and a sign change late in the evening in the East can fall on a different calendar date elsewhere. The sections that follow give the same windows in a table with their partial days, then the sign changes, then a row for each day of the month.
What to plant in October
Almanac tradition sorts crops into three groups by the part of the plant people eat, plus a rest period. Whether any group can go in the ground in your state this month is a separate question, and the Moon does not answer it. The same October date sits at very different points of the growing season from one state to another, so the state planting guides are the place to check your own calendar before looking at any Moon window.
The grouping below is the almanac’s own list of examples. It is not a list of what to plant in October.
- Leafy crops (first quarter): lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, celery
- Fruiting crops (second quarter): tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash, corn
- Root crops, bulbs, perennials (third quarter): potatoes, carrots, beets, garlic, onions
Three crop pages in this series take the third-quarter rule one crop at a time: when to plant garlic by the moon, when to plant onions by the moon and when to plant turnips by the moon. Each one applies the same tradition to a single crop, and none of them replaces your state’s planting dates.
For the definitions behind the quarters and the fruitful and barren sign labels, the series starts from planting by the moon. This page only applies those rules to one month.
Moon phases in October 2027
| Phase | Date and time (ET) |
|---|---|
| First Quarter | October 7, 7:47 a.m. |
| Full Moon | October 15, 9:47 a.m. |
| Last Quarter | October 22, 1:29 p.m. |
| New Moon | October 29, 9:36 a.m. |
In Old Farmer’s Almanac usage, the full moon of October is the Hunter’s Moon. In 2027 it peaks on October 15 at 9:47 a.m. ET, with the Moon in Aries. This convention labels Aries barren, so the full-moon day carries no planting window. The third quarter, the one the tradition gives to root crops, bulbs and perennials, begins at that full moon. Its first traditional day comes on October 16, when the Moon enters Taurus at 12:36 a.m. ET.
The new moon on October 29 starts a new cycle, which is why leafy crops return to the list at the very end of the month. To see how October fits among the other months, see planting by the moon 2027.
Traditional planting days in October 2027
The almanac rule has two parts. Gardeners who plant by the Moon match the crop type to the quarter of the lunar cycle, then keep to days when the Moon is in a sign the convention labels fruitful (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) or semi-fruitful (Taurus, Libra, Capricorn).
| Crop type | Quarter | Days | Moon sign |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leafy crops | First quarter | October 1-3 October 6 October 29-30 |
Libra/Scorpio Capricorn Scorpio |
| Fruiting crops | Second quarter | October 7-8 October 11-13 |
Capricorn Pisces |
| Root crops, bulbs, perennials | Third quarter | October 16-17 October 20-22 |
Taurus Cancer |
Days are read at noon ET, and the Moon changes sign during the day. The first or last day of a window can therefore be only partly inside it. The exact sign change times are in the next section.
Why some days in a quarter are left out
A quarter is longer than its windows. October 4 and 5 are still in the first quarter, but the Moon is in Sagittarius, a sign this convention labels barren. The second quarter also holds October 9 and 10 (Aquarius) and October 14 (Aries), both labeled barren, so none of those days is in the fruiting windows. The sign label is what shortens each quarter into the dates in the table.
Reading the partial days
Take the fruiting window of October 11-13. It runs from the morning of October 11, when the Moon enters Pisces at 5:01 a.m. ET, to the afternoon of October 13, when it enters Aries at 4:09 p.m. ET. The root window of October 20-22 starts late on its first day, when the Moon enters Cancer at 11:24 a.m. ET on October 20. It ends on the afternoon of October 22, with the last quarter at 1:29 p.m. ET and the Moon entering Leo at 3:02 p.m. ET.
The leafy windows have the same kind of edges. The Moon is in Libra on the morning of October 1 and enters Scorpio at 1:45 p.m. ET. The window ends on the evening of October 3, when the Moon enters Sagittarius at 6:55 p.m. ET. On October 6 the Moon enters Capricorn at 3:59 a.m. ET, so the window opens in the early morning.
Moon sign changes in October 2027
The Moon changes sign 14 times between October 1 and October 31. The table gives each entry in Eastern time, with the almanac convention’s label and the biodynamic day type for the sign.
| Date and time (ET) | Moon enters | Almanac convention label | Biodynamic day |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 1, 1:45 p.m. | Scorpio | Fruitful | Leaf day |
| October 3, 6:55 p.m. | Sagittarius | Barren | Fruit day |
| October 6, 3:59 a.m. | Capricorn | Semi-fruitful | Root day |
| October 8, 4:09 p.m. | Aquarius | Barren | Flower day |
| October 11, 5:01 a.m. | Pisces | Fruitful | Leaf day |
| October 13, 4:09 p.m. | Aries | Barren | Fruit day |
| October 16, 12:36 a.m. | Taurus | Semi-fruitful | Root day |
| October 18, 6:46 a.m. | Gemini | Barren | Flower day |
| October 20, 11:24 a.m. | Cancer | Fruitful | Leaf day |
| October 22, 3:02 p.m. | Leo | Barren | Fruit day |
| October 24, 5:53 p.m. | Virgo | Barren | Root day |
| October 26, 8:21 p.m. | Libra | Semi-fruitful | Flower day |
| October 28, 11:22 p.m. | Scorpio | Fruitful | Leaf day |
| October 31, 4:24 a.m. | Sagittarius | Barren | Fruit day |
The middle column of labels is the convention behind the windows on this page. Many moon-sign gardening almanacs use it, though sources differ on Virgo, Sagittarius and Aquarius.
The last column belongs to a different system. The biodynamic calendar associated with Maria Thun sorts the signs into root days (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn), flower days (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius), leaf days (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) and fruit days (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius). The two systems do not agree sign for sign. Aries, for instance, is barren in one and a fruit day in the other. The windows in this article use only the fruitful and semi-fruitful labels together with the quarter rule.
Day by day: phase and Moon sign
Every reading below is taken at noon ET. The quarter column uses the almanac numbering: 1 runs from the new moon to the first quarter, 2 to the full moon, 3 to the last quarter and 4 back to the new moon.
| Date | Moon sign | Quarter | Percent lit | Waxing or waning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 1 | Libra | 1 | 3% | Waxing |
| October 2 | Scorpio | 1 | 9% | Waxing |
| October 3 | Scorpio | 1 | 15% | Waxing |
| October 4 | Sagittarius | 1 | 24% | Waxing |
| October 5 | Sagittarius | 1 | 33% | Waxing |
| October 6 | Capricorn | 1 | 42% | Waxing |
| October 7 | Capricorn | 2 | 52% | Waxing |
| October 8 | Capricorn | 2 | 61% | Waxing |
| October 9 | Aquarius | 2 | 70% | Waxing |
| October 10 | Aquarius | 2 | 78% | Waxing |
| October 11 | Pisces | 2 | 86% | Waxing |
| October 12 | Pisces | 2 | 92% | Waxing |
| October 13 | Pisces | 2 | 96% | Waxing |
| October 14 | Aries | 2 | 99% | Waxing |
| October 15 | Aries | 3 | 100% | Waning |
| October 16 | Taurus | 3 | 99% | Waning |
| October 17 | Taurus | 3 | 95% | Waning |
| October 18 | Gemini | 3 | 89% | Waning |
| October 19 | Gemini | 3 | 82% | Waning |
| October 20 | Cancer | 3 | 73% | Waning |
| October 21 | Cancer | 3 | 62% | Waning |
| October 22 | Cancer | 3 | 51% | Waning |
| October 23 | Leo | 4 | 39% | Waning |
| October 24 | Leo | 4 | 29% | Waning |
| October 25 | Virgo | 4 | 19% | Waning |
| October 26 | Virgo | 4 | 11% | Waning |
| October 27 | Libra | 4 | 5% | Waning |
| October 28 | Libra | 4 | 1% | Waning |
| October 29 | Scorpio | 1 | 0% | Waxing |
| October 30 | Scorpio | 1 | 2% | Waxing |
| October 31 | Sagittarius | 1 | 5% | Waxing |
The quarter number changes at the noon readings of October 7, 15, 23 and 29. The first quarter at 7:47 a.m. ET on October 7 and the full moon at 9:47 a.m. ET on October 15 both fall before noon, which is why those two days already read as the next quarter. The rest period of the fourth quarter shows in the readings for October 23 through 28, with the Moon in Leo, Virgo and Libra.
Questions about October 2027
When is the full moon in October 2027?
The full moon, the Hunter’s Moon in Old Farmer’s Almanac usage, falls on October 15, 2027, at 9:47 a.m. ET, with the Moon in Aries.
When is the new moon in October 2027?
The new moon falls on October 29, 2027, at 9:36 a.m. ET, with the Moon in Scorpio.
Which days are the traditional days for root crops?
According to almanac tradition, root crops, bulbs and perennials have two windows in the third quarter: October 16-17, with the Moon in Taurus, and October 20-22, with the Moon in Cancer. The second one ends on the afternoon of October 22, after the last quarter at 1:29 p.m. ET. Whether the ground is ready for them in your state is a question for your state’s planting guide.
Related guides
- when to plant spinach by the moon
- when to plant spring bulbs by the moon
- when to plant cover crops by the moon
- when to plant grass seed by the moon
- planting on a full moon
- planting during the new 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 hydrangeas by the moon
- moon sign gardening