Gardening
- See also: Seeds and Gardening Guide
Gardening, released in Patch 2.2, allows the player to set up a garden on his or her property and use it to cultivate various plants. The size of an estate will determine the number of garden patches it can contain. Cottages, houses, and mansions can hold one, two, and three garden patches respectively.
Setting Up a Garden
Players can purchase a garden patch from one of the Housing Merchants in The Mist (x11,y11), Lavender Beds (x11,y8), The Goblet (x11,y8) and Shirogane (x10,y12) which can then be placed on the estate grounds.
There are three types of garden patches, each allowing for a different number of garden beds.
- Round Garden Patch: four garden beds
- Oblong Garden Patch: six garden beds.
- Deluxe Garden Patch: eight garden beds.
If the garden is on Free Company grounds, the membership settings determine which member can perform which actions on the garden. For example, everyone might be able to tend and fertilize crops but only higher ranking members may be allowed to harvest or remove crops.
Seeds
To begin gardening, players will first need to obtain seeds. Seeds can be gathered by botanists, and will occasionally appear at certain locations where their plants yield crops.
- For example, La Noscean orange seeds can be obtained from the same trees as la noscean oranges.
Soil
Players will also need to prepare soil for their gardens, which can be obtained by miners from certain locations, starting at level 30 nodes. The type of soil will depend on the region where it was gathered. Soil type and grade affects yield quality and quantity, and the likelihood of intercrossing.
Planting Seeds
With a garden bed selected, choose a bag of seeds and your desired soil to begin planting. Different soils have different effects. Thanalan Soil provides better intercrossing, La Noscea Soil gives better crop quality and Shroud Soil enables greater crop yields.
Raising Crops
Plant growth can be promoted through constant tending and the use of fertilizer. The rate of growth and amount of produce yielded varies between plants.
Fertilize Crop will enrich soil and accelerate growth. Fishmeal fertilizer can be purchased from the Material Supplier in the housing zones or crafted by a Culinarian.
- Can only be applied to a plant once per hour (Earth time).
Tend Crop will tend and water plants. Neglected plants will eventually wither.
- You cannot overwater crops. If it rains, your character will tend to the plant instead of watering as well.
- Remove Crop removes a plant from its bed before it yields crops.
Harvesting Crops
When plants have fully grown, players can harvest their crops to obtain produce. Plants may yield high quality produce depending on how they were cultivated.
- Certain items can only be obtained through gardening.
Intercrossing
In the event that different plant species were growing side by side, they may also render up new kinds of seeds. This process can be repeated with intercrossed plants, and may give rise to heretofore unseen specimens.