When to Plant Green Beans by the Moon: Traditional Days for 2026 and 2027

According to almanac tradition, green beans go in during the second quarter of the Moon, from first quarter to full moon, with the Moon in a fruitful or semi-fruitful sign. The traditional days in 2027 are May 16-19, June 12-16, and July 11-13 plus July 16-17. No effect of the Moon on beans has been proven, and your state’s calendar comes before any of this.

What the tradition says about planting green beans

The almanac rule for green beans is short. Almanacs sort crops into types, and beans fall into the fruit type: above-ground crops that bear seed inside the fruit. The tradition plants that type in the second quarter, and the same group holds tomatoes, peppers, squash and corn. Gardeners who plant by the Moon follow the rule as a custom handed down in almanacs, not as something measured in a field.

The fourth quarter, last quarter to new moon, is set aside in the same tradition for weeding, pruning, turning the soil and composting. Since the second quarter sits inside the lengthening half of the cycle, it overlaps with what other pages on this site cover under planting in a waxing moon.

Many almanacs add a second filter, the Moon’s sign. This convention labels Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces fruitful, Taurus, Libra and Capricorn semi-fruitful, and Aries, Gemini, Leo, Virgo, Sagittarius and Aquarius barren. Sources disagree about Virgo, Sagittarius and Aquarius. The dates on this page pair the second quarter with a fruitful or semi-fruitful sign.

The astronomy is simple and checkable. NASA’s Moon Fact Sheet gives the phase cycle as 29.53 days and one orbit against the stars as 27.32 days. The Moon’s tidal pull at Earth’s surface is about 1.1 millionths of a meter per second squared at its strongest, roughly one ten-millionth of gravity. That is far too small to move anything as small as a seed or a root. So the rule stays a tradition. It is a way of picking among days, and no result comes attached to it.

Traditional green beans planting days, 2026 and 2027

The rows below combine the two almanac rules: second quarter, plus a Moon sign this convention labels fruitful or semi-fruitful. All times are Eastern (ET).

The months shown are those when gardeners in much of the country plant green beans. Your state may start earlier or later, so only the rows that fall inside your state’s own planting window count. A row outside it is simply not available to you, whatever the Moon is doing.

How to read the rows

Where two signs appear, as in May and June, the Moon changes sign somewhere during the run. This convention labels Libra semi-fruitful and Scorpio fruitful, so both qualify. July has two separate runs. The first is in Scorpio, which this convention labels fruitful. The second is in Capricorn, which it labels semi-fruitful. A gardener who wants to stay with the strongest label can use the Scorpio days and skip Capricorn.

Why the first and last days are soft edges

Each day is read at noon ET, and the Moon changes sign during the day. A day at either end of a run may therefore be only partly inside the window. Treat the first and last day of every run as soft edges. If you have a choice, the days in the middle of a run sit most clearly inside the tradition. Readers outside the Eastern time zone should also keep in mind that the dates above are Eastern, so the edge days are the ones most likely to shift on a local clock.

Check your state first: when to plant green beans where you live

The order of decisions matters more than the dates in any almanac. Start with your state’s planting calendar for green beans. Once you know the stretch of the season when beans can go in the ground where you live, the Moon is an optional second step, for those who want it.

The page on when to plant green beans where you live covers that first step. For other crops, and for a state-by-state view, the state guides hold the local calendars. Those pages own every planting date, soil condition and frost question. This page does not repeat them on purpose, because a date copied into two places tends to drift out of step.

The Moon never overrides the calendar of the place. Frost dates and soil temperature decide whether a crop can go in the ground. If you follow the tradition, the Moon only chooses among days that are already open to you.

In practice the sequence looks like this:

1. Find your state’s planting window for green beans in the guide linked above.
2. Look at the table on this page and keep only the rows that fall inside that window.
3. If a row survives, pick a day from its middle rather than its edges.
4. If no row survives, plant on your state’s calendar and leave the Moon out of it.

The fourth step deserves emphasis. A season with no traditional day inside your window is not a lost season. It is just a season in which the almanac had nothing to offer your garden, and the state calendar still stands on its own.

The wider background, including how the phases and signs fit together, sits on the parent page about planting by the moon.

A fair way to try it

Nobody can tell from a single row of beans whether the tradition means anything. The only way a home gardener can judge it for their own plot is a side-by-side comparison, and the setup is simple.

1. Split the planting in two. Plant half on a traditional day from the table, inside your state’s window, and half on an ordinary day within the same week.
2. Label both halves clearly, with the date and which group each one belongs to. Stakes or tags that survive rain are worth the trouble.
3. Keep everything else the same: one seed packet, the same bed or beds that match, the same watering.
4. Write down when seedlings emerge in each half, and later when the first pickings come and how much each half gives.

Be honest with yourself about what the notes can show. One season will not settle anything. Weather changes from week to week, and a difference of a few days between two rows may come from a shaded corner or a patch of heavier soil. Only several seasons of notes, kept the same way, would begin to say something about your own garden, and even then they say nothing about anyone else’s.

That limit is the reason the comparison is worth doing. It turns an old custom into a question you can answer with your own records. If the two halves come out the same, you have lost nothing by trying and you are free to plant on whichever day suits your schedule.

Questions about planting green beans by the moon

Does the tradition say to plant green beans in a waxing or a waning moon?

According to almanac tradition, green beans belong to the second quarter, which runs from first quarter to full moon. That stretch lies in the waxing part of the cycle. The waning half is given to other work: root crops and bulbs in the third quarter, and rest tasks such as weeding and composting in the fourth.

What if a traditional day falls during a frost?

The tradition says nothing about frost, because it sorts days by the Moon alone. The state planting calendar and the conditions in your own soil decide whether beans can go in. A traditional day that falls outside your state’s window does not count for your garden, and the next row in the table is the one to look at.

Do I need to follow the Moon sign as well?

No. Some almanacs use the quarter alone, and others add the sign as a second filter. The days in this page’s table use both, pairing the second quarter with a sign this convention labels fruitful or semi-fruitful. Biodynamic calendars based on Maria Thun’s work group the signs differently, into root, flower, leaf and fruit days, and they call Aries, Leo and Sagittarius the fruit days. Those signs are labeled barren in the convention used here, so the two systems will point to different days. Pick one and stay with it for the whole comparison.