Gardening for dummies

[Haoji ShidoKeymaster]

The number one stat you need to boost is patience. As with RL, all your plants will not fully grow over night. If you are gathering your seeds/soils, you will need 2x the patience since soils/seed will not pop up on every gathering attempt including grade 1 and 2 soils.

Now, let’s get started
Gardening can seem intimidating with all the seeds/tending/fertilizing/soils, but it’s not actually that complex at all. If you have botany/mining leveled up, then you will already have a head-start on the game, since the seeds/soils on the market board can be over-priced or scarce. Seeds may be harvested, bought, and/or may be a product of cross-breeding(we’ll cover this later). Soils come in 3 grades:

QUARRYING_______________________________________________________________________
La Noscean Topsoil – Increases the chances for HQ yield
Grade 1 La Noscean Topsoil: Lower La Noscea (Cedarwood area) Lv 30 RARE ITEM
Grade 2 La Noscean Topsoil: Lower La Noscea (Gods’ Grip area) Lv 50 RARE ITEM
Grade 3 La Noscean Topsoil: Middle La Noscea(Zephyr Gate area) Lv50* UNSPOILED NODE (8 AM)
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Thanalan Topsoil – Increases the chances of inter-crossing
Grade 1 Thanalan Topsoil: Eastern Thanalan (Wellwick Wood area) Lv 30 RARE ITEM
Grade 2 Thanalan Topsoil: Western Thanalan (Nophica’s Wells area) lv 50 RARE ITEM
Grade 3 Thanalan Topsoil: Western Thanalan (Beaconhill Lighthouse area) Lv 50* UNSPOILED NODE (5 AM)
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Shroud Topsoil – Increases the amount of yield
Grade 1 Shroud Topsoil: East Shroud (Nine Ivies area) Lv 30 RARE ITEM
Grade 2 Shroud Topsoil: East Shroud (Bramble Patch area) Lv 50 RARE ITEM
Grade 3 Shroud Topsoil: South Shroud (Camp Tranquil area) Lv 50* UNSPOILED NODE (6 AM)
*If at lvl 50 then you may need to use abilities/meld to get the item reliably. If beyond lvl 50, then just have at it!
**side note: all soils are rare items, meaning you can gather only one per node no matter what abilities you use
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There are no real solid numbers on the percentages/yield increase of each grade of soil, but there are some estimates/personal experience that I have come across:
– Grade 3 Shroud Topsoil + Krakka root seeds = 18 Krakka roots per yield
– Grade 2 Shroud Topsoil + Krakka root seeds = 12-14 Krakka roots per yield
– Grade 3 Thanalan Topsoil is estimated to increase inter-crossing chances by 90%
– Grade 2 Thanalan Topsoil is estimated to increase inter-crossing chances by 50%

My guess for La Noscean Topsoil is that the chances of HQing are scaled similarly to Thanalan topsoil. Grade 1 Topsoils don’t have much info out there, so I will make assumptions based on the gathered figures above. I would suspect that crops will yield only 2-3 more for Shroud and maybe a 20ish% chance increase for Thanalan/La Noscean Topsoil.

Have that down? Good! Time to plant!
Your gardening bed will have 8 slots to put your soils and seeds. Depending on your plans, you’ll have to select what type of soil goes best with your seeds. For example, say I want to grow Xelphatol Apples for the Free Company and would like to get the max yields. I would use Grade 3 Shroud Topsoil to go along with my Xelphatol Apple seeds.

Here’s a visual:

[ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
[ 8 ] [ x ] [ 4 ]
[ 7 ] [ 6 ] [ 5 ]

Numbers – represents the plot order
X – represents the space in the middle of the bed that can’t be used for anything

I can put the Xelphatol Apple seeds in any order on the bed and it will not have any effect on the crops. I could even mix it up and put other plants and fruits in there to grow them simultaneously. Just know that different seeds take different amounts of time to grow. The Xelphatol Apples would take 2 RL days to grow, as opposed to Hazelnut which would take 7 days to grow.

WATER YOUR PLANTS(Tend)!!!
Even digital plants and fruits need some TLC. I have seen FC members, time and time again, just plant their seeds and come back days later to some withered/dead crops. Plan to tend your crops at least once every 16-24 RL hours! If you can’t log on to tend your garden, then ask someone on your Friends List or in your Free Company to come tend your plants. In addition to “Tend,” there is a “Fertilize” option. Fertilizing your crops can reduce the grow time of your crop by 1 RL hour, yet it can be done only once every RL hour. Fishmeal is the item you need for fertilizing and can be bought cheaply at a material supplies vendor(location varies upon what Grand Company area you are currently in).

Inter-crossing Plants
What’s that? You need to grow seeds to make seeds? STEP RIGHT THIS WAY FRIEND!
Have you ever seen items that cost a good chunk of gil on the Market Board and later find out they come from gardening? Only to think, “That much gil for something that takes a couple days to grow?” Well, here’s why they cost so much: the items can take 1-3 RL weeks to get the right results and grow! Not to mention some crossbreeding can have 2 different results which may end up leaving you with seeds that you don’t need(s)! >.>

For this type of gardening, soil grade and plot order are super important! For best results use Grade 3 Thanalan Topsoil, but if you don’t have the time/class/gil for it, then Grade 2 is your next best bet. Use Grade 1 at your own peril.
Let’s say you want to grow Mimett Gourds for your chocobo needs. Mimmet Gourd seeds only come from inter-crossing seeds. Now there are a multiple number of seeds we can cross to get the Mimett Gourd seeds, but for best results(higher chances of crossing) we’ll go with crossing Mandrake seeds and Xelphatol Apple seeds. Mandrake seeds take 5 days to fully grow and Xelphatol Apple seeds take only 2 days to grow. For Inter-crossing we will plant them (in plot order) as such:

[ m ] [ x ] [ m ]
[ x ] [ v ] [ x ]
[ m ] [ x ] [ m ]

*M – Mandrake seeds
*X – Xelphatol Apple seeds
*V – Unusable spot

You’ll have your first results in just 2 days! Harvest your Xelphatol Apples and with luck, you’ll get Mimett Gourd seeds along with them. If you have “bad” luck, then you’ll get the other result from inter-crossing these two, Onion Prince seeds. Now i said “bad” because they’re not what you want. Yet the will sell for an okay chunk of gil(currently) on the Market Board. Now if you have worse luck, then you’ll only get your Xelphatol Apples, no seeds of any kind.

You will have 2 options at this point, wait 3 more days for your Mandrake seeds to grow and see if you get any Mimett Gourd seeds with them OR plant more Xelphatol Apple seeds in the plots that you just harvested! They will still inter-cross and get you a 2 more chances of getting more Mimmet Gourd seeds. Another way of looking at it:

Choosing the first route
Wait 2 days: Harvest Xelphatol Apples – get seeds(if any)
Wait 3 more days: Harvest Mandrakes – get seeds(if any)

Choosing the second route
Wait 2 days: Harvest Xelphatol Apples – get seeds(if any)
Plant more Xelphatol Apple seeds
Wait 2 days: Harvest Xelphatol Apples – get seeds(if any)
Plant more Xelphatol Apple seeds
Wait 1 day: Harvest Mandrakes – get seeds(if any)
Wait 1 day: Harvest Xelphatol Apples – get seeds(if any)

Personally, I chose the first route if I’m low on resources (aka topsoils) or don’t really need that many. If you have topsoils/time galore, then route 2 is just PROFIT.
Remember that you still need time to actually grow your end result seeds. For that particular seed, we would still of needed 5 RL days to grow the Mimett Gourds on top of all that previous work done.

Congrats! You’ve graduated gardening school!
I have now planted my seed of knowledge(deep in you). It is time for you to branch out. Growth will depend on your experiences. My job of giving you a general direction is done. GTFO

Still need more guidance?!
http://www.ffxivgardening.com/
http://ffxivclock.com/#/

source/credits: Vile Messiah

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