diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/petsc/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/petsc/package.py
index 5a99eed8b5..eaa55d63ea 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/petsc/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/petsc/package.py
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ def check_fortran_compiler(self):
 
     # Virtual dependencies
     # Git repository needs sowing to build Fortran interface
-    depends_on("sowing", when="@main")
+    depends_on("sowing@master", when="@main")
 
     # PETSc, hypre, superlu_dist when built with int64 use 32 bit integers
     # with BLAS/LAPACK
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/sowing/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/sowing/package.py
index d4f4b32eda..bafdfb1488 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/sowing/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/sowing/package.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ class Sowing(AutotoolsPackage):
     git = "https://bitbucket.org/petsc/pkg-sowing"
     maintainers("balay")
 
+    version("master", branch="master")
     version("1.1.26-p8", sha256="2ef4d6db2075230247306e3d0194ffb3e4591aeb05bd244647c72dc1a4e52994")
     version("1.1.26-p1", sha256="fa0bd07295e5d768f2c33c8ab32205cc6411d42cb40bde0700fb57f9ee31c3d9")
     version("1.1.25-p1", sha256="c3a5bb170fffeeb1405ec4c3a048744a528d2bef24de29b6ac5e970cfeaddab5")