Gardening by the Moon: What the Studies Actually Say
We garden by the moon. We follow the ascending and descending cycle to choose when we sow, transplant, prune, graft and harvest, working from a printed almanac. And this article has to open with the thing that should always open it: the available studies do not show that the moon acts on crops. What we publish here is an exact astronomical calendar, the real state of the evidence without softening it, and the one thing our own practice allows us to defend.
The confusion almost every calendar keeps alive
One ambiguity has to be cleared first, because it makes most published advice unreadable: « waxing » and « ascending » are not the same thing, and the two cycles are not synchronised. The moon can perfectly well be waxing and descending at the same time.
A waxing or waning moon belongs to the cycle of phases, the one everybody sees: from new moon to full moon and back. That is the synodic cycle, lasting 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes. It is the cycle of mainstream calendars, and the one that drives the tides.
An ascending or descending moon has nothing to do with how much of it is lit. It describes its height in the sky. The test is purely observational: if the moon stands higher than it did the night before at the same hour, it is ascending; if lower, descending. A fixed marker such as a tree or a roof edge is enough to check it yourself. The two states alternate every 13 to 14 days.
This is not a quibble about vocabulary. It is the cycle we actually follow, and it is the one commercial calendars most often blur into the first. Advice built on the phases but applied as though it concerned height simply does not say what it claims to say.
The 2026-2027 lunar calendar
The calendar below is not copied from any almanac. It was computed from standard astronomical algorithms, then checked against independently published ephemerides. The method and the checks are set out at the end of this article. Times are given in French local time, so British readers should subtract one hour.
- Pleines lunes13 en 2026 · 12 en 2027
- Nouvelles lunes12 en 2026 · 13 en 2027
- Bascules montante / descendante54 sur les deux années
- Passages périgée / apogée53 sur les deux années
- Alternance montante / descendantetous les 13 à 14 jours
- Cycle des phases (synodique)29 j 12 h 44 min
Ascending and descending periods
This is the table to consult first if you follow this cycle. One necessary caveat about the third column: it reports what almanac tradition associates with each period. That is not an established effect, and the section of this article devoted to the studies explains precisely why we are careful to word it that way.
| Period 2026 | Cycle | What almanac tradition associates with it |
|---|---|---|
| January 2 → January 16 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| January 16 → January 29 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| January 29 → February 12 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| February 12 → February 26 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| February 26 → March 11 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| March 11 → March 25 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| March 25 → April 8 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| April 8 → April 21 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| April 21 → May 5 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| May 5 → May 18 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| May 18 → June 1 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| June 1 → June 15 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| June 15 → June 28 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| June 28 → July 12 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| July 12 → July 26 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| July 26 → August 9 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| August 9 → August 22 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| August 22 → September 5 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| September 5 → September 18 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| September 18 → October 2 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| October 2 → October 16 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| October 16 → October 29 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| October 29 → November 12 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| November 12 → November 26 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| November 26 → December 9 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| December 9 → December 23 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| December 23 → January 5 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| Period 2027 | Cycle | What almanac tradition associates with it |
|---|---|---|
| January 5 → January 20 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| January 20 → February 2 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| February 2 → February 16 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| February 16 → March 1 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| March 1 → March 15 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| March 15 → March 28 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| March 28 → April 11 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| April 11 → April 25 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| April 25 → May 9 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| May 9 → May 22 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| May 22 → June 5 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| June 5 → June 18 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| June 18 → July 2 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| July 2 → July 15 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| July 15 → July 30 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| July 30 → August 12 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| August 12 → August 26 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| August 26 → September 8 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| September 8 → September 22 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| September 22 → October 5 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| October 5 → October 20 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| October 20 → November 2 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| November 2 → November 16 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| November 16 → November 29 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
| November 29 → December 13 | Ascending | Sowing, grafting, picking fruit for immediate use |
| December 13 → December 26 | Descending | Planting, transplanting, pruning, taking cuttings, soil work, lifting roots |
Day types, month by month
Almanacs sort the days into four categories according to where the moon stands: root days, leaf days, flower days and fruit days, each held to favour the matching part of the plant. The grid below gives them for both years.
Two reservations, which we would rather state than let you assume a precision they do not have. First, this is a traditional allocation and not an established effect. Second, almanacs do not all use the same convention for the divisions; ours is set out in the method at the end, and a transition can shift by a day from one calendar to another.
- Ro root day
- Le leaf day
- Fl flower day
- Fr fruit day
| 2026 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl |
| Feb | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | |||
| Mar | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr |
| Apr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | |
| May | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le |
| Jun | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | |
| Jul | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl |
| Aug | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Fl | Le | Le |
| Sep | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | |
| Oct | Ro | Fl | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl |
| Nov | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | |
| Dec | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro |
| 2027 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Fl | Le |
| Feb | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | |||
| Mar | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro |
| Apr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | |
| May | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le |
| Jun | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | |
| Jul | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl |
| Aug | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr |
| Sep | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | |
| Oct | Fl | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le |
| Nov | Le | Fr | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | |
| Dec | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Fl | Fl | Fl | Le | Le | Fr | Fr | Ro | Ro | Ro |
New moons and full moons
| Month 2026 | New moon | Full moon |
|---|---|---|
| January | 18 — 20:52 | 3 — 11:03 |
| February | 17 — 13:01 | 1 — 23:09 |
| March | 19 — 02:23 | 3 — 12:38 |
| April | 17 — 13:52 | 2 — 04:12 |
| May | 16 — 22:01 | 1 — 19:23 31 — 10:45 |
| June | 15 — 04:54 | 30 — 01:57 |
| July | 14 — 11:44 | 29 — 16:36 |
| August | 12 — 19:37 | 28 — 06:18 |
| September | 11 — 05:27 | 26 — 18:49 |
| October | 10 — 17:50 | 26 — 05:12 |
| November | 9 — 08:02 | 24 — 15:53 |
| December | 9 — 01:52 | 24 — 02:28 |
| Month 2027 | New moon | Full moon |
|---|---|---|
| January | 7 — 21:24 | 22 — 13:17 |
| February | 6 — 16:56 | 21 — 00:24 |
| March | 8 — 10:30 | 22 — 11:44 |
| April | 7 — 01:51 | 21 — 00:27 |
| May | 6 — 12:59 | 20 — 12:59 |
| June | 4 — 21:40 | 19 — 02:44 |
| July | 4 — 05:02 | 18 — 17:45 |
| August | 2 — 12:05 31 — 19:41 |
17 — 09:29 |
| September | 30 — 04:36 | 16 — 01:04 |
| October | 29 — 15:36 | 15 — 15:47 |
| November | 28 — 04:24 | 14 — 04:26 |
| December | 27 — 21:12 | 13 — 17:09 |
What the studies actually say
The most thorough answer available came out in 2020, in the journal Agronomy, from a team led by Professor Olga Mayoral at the Universeity of Valencia. It is not an opinion piece. The authors went through more than 120 references, covering both the research literature and the textbooks and monographs used to teach agronomy, botany, horticulture and plant physiology, looking for any direct or indirect account of a lunar influence on plant physiology.
They found none. Their conclusion is that there is no reliable, science-based evidence of a relationship between lunar phases and plant physiology in any plant-science textbook or peer-reviewed article that would justify conditioning an agricultural practice on the moon.
The Royal Horticultural Society is more measured in tone, describing the evidence as inconclusive while acknowledging the many gardeners who report good results. The two positions are less far apart than they look: an absence of demonstrated effect is not the same as proof that gardeners are imagining things, and it is precisely that gap this article tries to occupy honestly.
The detail of the older work is worth reporting, because it is more instructive than the conclusion itself. The founding experiments of Lily Kolisko in the 1930s, from which most present-day almanacs descend, were never subjected to statistical analysis nor published in a scientific journal. As early as 1946, in Nature, Beeson reviewed the literature and found that only Kolisko’s work reported an effect; he concluded that if such an effect existed it was too unclear to be of any use in horticulture.
From the 1970s onward several teams took up the question with a proper statistical design. Spiess ran three years of radish trials on a biodynamic holding: the correlations were highly significant for the ordinary agronomic factors, planting date, accumulated temperature and rainfall, while the lunar effects he identified were not significant. Zürcher claimed in 1992 that sowing before a full moon helped; recalculating his own figures gives 11.9 ± 2.1 cm against 9.7 ± 4 cm, two means that cannot be told apart statistically. Deleuran and Andersen, working under controlled conditions, saw trends but no significant effect, and concluded that soil and weather deserve attention before any almanac does.
One case deserves separate mention. Cappelli reported in 1982 that a full moon favoured the germination of holm oak acorns. What he mainly established, though, is that simple stratification, a spell of cold moist storage to break dormancy, produced better and more even germination whatever the sowing date. An ordinary technique beat the calendar.
Why the tide analogy does not hold
This is the argument one hears most often, and it is the one we used ourselves before checking: the moon lifts the oceans, so it must act on the water in soil and in plants. The reasoning sounds solid. It is not, and its weakness is a matter of scale.
A tide does not exist because the moon « pulls water up », but because it pulls unequally on the two ends of a body of water thousands of kilometres across. That difference in pull is what deforms the ocean. Scaled down to a clod of earth or a plant tissue, the difference becomes negligible, while the water there is held by soil structure, capillarity and organic matter. A plant is also not a passive container: it is a regulated system, through transpiration, stomata, temperature and wind. The effect does not scale down; it disappears.
The orders of magnitude settle it. The moon’s gravitational effect on the earth is roughly 300,000 times weaker than the earth’s own gravity, which makes it imperceptible against the capillary forces that actually hold water in place.
That leaves the other hypothesis, moonlight. It is more serious in principle, since plants genuinely do respond to light and day length. But it runs into the same arithmetic: the illuminance of a full moon is about 128,000 times weaker than sunlight. That is far too little to drive photosynthesis or to set a developmental cycle. The rhythms research does identify in plants are daily or seasonal, governed by the day-night alternation and by photoperiod, and none of them follows a lunar period.
On our estate
Our practice is long-standing and carries no mysticism. This is how we learned to grow, and we have gone on doing it that way ever since. There is no cosmic conviction behind it. We favour the ascending and descending cycle for sowing, transplanting, pruning and grafting, and harvesting. The verb matters: we favour it, we do not bind ourselves to it. Our sowings are staggered according to the crop, not as a blanket rule.
The most honest thing we can offer is an arbitration. When the lunar window says one thing and the weather, the available time or the workload say another, the work comes first.
Then there is what we believe we have seen. Sowing outside the window, it seemed to us that plants were less vigorous and that fewer of them came through. We want that sentence read for exactly what it is worth: it is an impression, not a count. We ran no comparative trial, nothing was tallied or recorded, and the batches were never compared under equal conditions. We do measure our own temperature and humidity, so we know what separates a measurement from an impression. This is not one, and it proves nothing. It would not be enough to contradict the trials cited above, which were designed precisely to remove what the eye adds to what it sees.
What remains true
Something does remain, and it needs no astronomy to explain it.
A calendar imposes regularity. It forces you to sow in small batches on set dates rather than all at once when you happen to think of it, to come back to the same bed at intervals, to look between visits, to write things down. That discipline produces real results, but it produces them through attention and staggering, not through the position of the moon. A rigorously kept sowing notebook would earn the same benefit.
That is why we carry on, and it is what we say when someone objects that it is superstition: it imposes a rhythm on us, and that rhythm is useful. We claim nothing more, and certainly not an influence the data do not support.
Frequently asked
Should I garden by the moon?
Nothing obliges you to and no solid data recommend it. The practice is harmless and may help through the regularity it brings, but soil quality, water, temperature and aspect weigh incomparably more.
What is the difference between a waxing moon and an ascending moon?
A waxing moon concerns the visible phases, from new moon to full moon, over a cycle of about 29 and a half days. An ascending moon concerns its height in the sky from one day to the next, alternating every 13 to 14 days. The two cycles are independent and overlap freely.
How can I tell whether the moon is ascending without a calendar?
Note its position at the same hour on two successive evenings against a fixed marker, a tree or a roof edge. Higher than the night before means ascending; lower means descending.
Does sowing on an unfavourable day ruin the crop?
No. No data establish it, and it is better to sow in good weather on a supposedly poor day than the other way round.
Method and sources
The dates and times published here were computed, not copied. The instants of the phases come from Jean Meeus’s algorithms (Astronomical Algorithms), including the periodic and planetary corrections. The switches between ascending and descending moon were obtained by computing the moon’s apparent position, then its declination, and locating the extrema numerically. Perigee and apogee passages follow the same reference. Times are converted to French local time, summer time included.
The day type is derived from the moon’s position on the sidereal circle, divided into twelve equal 30-degree sectors, using the Lahiri offset and a position taken at midday local time. This convention should be flagged: some almanacs use the real, unequal constellation boundaries and then place transitions a day away from those given here. If you already follow a printed calendar, compare a few dates before mixing the two.
Three independent checks were run before publication. The instants of the first full moon and first new moon of 2026 agree to within one minute with published ephemerides. The annual counts agree as well: thirteen full moons in 2026, thirteen new moons in 2027. Finally the two lunar eclipses of 2026, on 3 March and 28 August, both fall on computed full moons, which would not be the case had a phase error crept in.
These data are astronomical: they belong to nobody and may be reused freely. We simply note that they were computed and verified by Les Jardins d’un Châtelain, and we update them each year.
Sources: Olga Mayoral and colleagues, What Has Been Thought and Taught on the Lunar Influence on Plants in Agriculture? Perspective from Physics and Biology, Agronomy, 2020, Universeity of Valencia; Ryan Pankau, Illinois Extension, Universeity of Illinois, for the illuminance and gravity orders of magnitude; Royal Horticultural Society, on the state of the evidence; Beeson 1946 in Nature; Spiess 1990; Cappelli 1982; Zürcher 2001; Deleuran and Andersen 2008; Jean Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms, for all computation.