Moon planting calendar, January 2026: best days to sow and plant

What is a moon planting calendar?

A moon planting calendar is a folk calendar that ties sowing and planting to the phase of the Moon. Its rule is old and simple: crops that bear above the ground (lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, beans, flowers) are sown while the Moon waxes, from the new moon to the full moon; crops that grow below the ground (carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic) and everything that is planted or transplanted go in while the Moon wanes. The last days before the new moon are for weeding, pruning and clearing, and the days of the new moon, the full moon and the difficult lunar days 9, 15, 23 and 29 are left free. The Old Farmer's Almanac has printed the same rule for two centuries. This calendar uses only the phase, the quarter and the lunar day; it does not use the zodiac signs of the biodynamic calendars.

What to sow and plant in January 2026

January is for plans and seed orders. Check stored seed for germination: ten seeds on a wet cloth in a warm place, and count the sprouts after a week. On the windowsill only onions from seed and leeks at the very end of the month, for the patient. Outside nothing is sown; the soil is frozen.

Crops whose sowing window is open in January 2026, with the favourable days by the moon inside that window this year. The windows are for Lithuania (last spring frost 10 to 25 May); shift them by your own last frost.

Best days to sow, plant and tend: January 2026, day by day

Every day of the month with its moon phase, lunar day and six ratings. Hover or tap a rating to read the rule behind it.

Waxing or waning moon: the four quarters of the month

The lunar month has four quarters of about seven days. Tradition gives each its own work: in the first, from the new moon to the first quarter, leafy crops and herbs; in the second, to the full moon, the crops that bear above the ground, tomatoes, cucumbers, peas and beans, and flowers; in the third, from the full moon to the last quarter, root crops, bulbs and everything that is planted or transplanted, because growth is said to go into the roots; in the fourth, to the new moon, no sowing at all: weeding, pruning, pest control and clearing. The cards show the quarters of this month.

The Moon in the zodiac signs in January 2026

The Moon passes through all twelve signs in a month, two to three days in each (tropical signs, the Moon's position at 12:00 Europe/Vilnius). Gardeners' calendars give each sign an element and a kind of day: water signs are leaf days, earth signs root days, air signs flower days, fire signs fruit days. They also sort the signs by fertility: in a fertile sign everything sown is said to take, in a barren sign only weeding and pest control are done.

Planting by the signs: what each sign means in the garden

This is the second layer of the folk calendar, the one that the biodynamic calendars of Maria Thun made famous. It is tradition, not science, and this page combines it with the phase: the phase gives the direction (above ground on the waxing Moon, below on the waning), the sign refines the day. Where they disagree, the sign's day type is still marked favourable, and a barren sign holds back sowing even on a good phase.

Sowing on a new moon and on a full moon

The day of the new moon is a rest day in every folk calendar: nothing is sown or planted. In January 2026 the new moon falls on 18 January. The day of the full moon is kept free of sowing too, but it is the traditional day for harvest: fruit and herbs picked at the full moon are said to keep their flavour, and roots lifted after it to store better. The full moon in January 2026 is on 3 January.

Lunar days 9, 15, 23 and 29: the days tradition skips

Folk lunar calendars count the days of the lunar month from the new moon and call the 9th, 15th, 23rd and 29th difficult: no sowing, no planting, only light work. In January 2026 these are 3, 11, 17 and 27 January. Together with the new moon and the full moon they make the rest days of the month: 3, 11, 17–18 and 27 January.

When to sow and plant: the crop table for 2026

Every crop with its real sowing window for Lithuania, the kind of work it counts as by the moon, and the favourable days inside the window this year. The dates are set by soil temperature and frost, the days by the folk calendar; if a favourable day and the weather disagree, follow the weather.

Frost dates: when it is safe to plant out

In Lithuania the last spring frost usually falls between 10 and 25 May, and tender crops, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, beans and peppers, go outside only after it, in practice from 25 May to 5 June. The first autumn frost comes in late September or early October. Elsewhere shift every date by your own last frost: Central Europe about two weeks earlier, the north of Russia and Kazakhstan the same as Lithuania or later, the south earlier. Fleece over a bed gains a week at each end of the season.

Soil temperature decides more than the date

Seed germinates by temperature, not by the calendar. Peas and broad beans start from 2 to 4 °C, carrots and parsley from 4 to 5 °C but slowly, beetroot from 8 to 10 °C, potatoes are planted at 8 to 10 °C at 10 cm depth, beans need 12 °C, cucumbers, courgettes and pumpkins 15 °C. A soil thermometer at 10 cm, read in the morning for three days, tells you more than any date. Days to germination at a good temperature: radish 3 to 5, cucumber 3 to 6, lettuce 4 to 8, tomato 6 to 10, beetroot 7 to 14, pepper 8 to 14, carrot 10 to 20, parsley 14 to 25. Seedlings need this long before planting out: peppers and aubergines 70 to 80 days, tomatoes 55 to 65, cabbage 40 to 50, cucumbers and courgettes 20 to 30.

Does the moon affect plants? What science says

There is no reliable evidence that the phase of the Moon changes germination or yield. A review published in the journal Agronomy in 2020 went through the physical and biological claims behind lunar planting: the Moon's light, gravity and tides are far too weak at the scale of a seed to act on it, and the agricultural studies that report an effect do not stand up to scrutiny. What decides germination and yield is soil temperature, moisture, day length, frost, seed age and variety, and the dates in this calendar come from these. The tradition itself is old: Pliny the Elder gave moon rules for sowing and pruning in the first century, and gardeners' calendars print them every year. Use it as a way to plan the month, not as a law of nature.

Moon planting calendar 2026, month by month