Horticulture (Plants)

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Gathering The Needed Materials

To grow your own plants you will need the following items:

  • Seeds - You can find these as loot on Boglings and Bog Things, on various creatures in Tokuno, by completing the Naturalist Quest and even on some player's vendors.
  • Plant Bowls - Provisioners sell these.
  • Dirt - This can be found all over the world, from dirt patches and dirt roads (the best dirt to use is fertile dirt, as loot from earth elementals).
  • Water Pitchers - Sold by Waiters, Innkeepers, etc. You can have a water trough (crafted with carpentry) in your house to recharge water pitchers after they get empty.
  • Kegs of Greater Potions - Alchemists make potions, so it's a good idea to have your Alchemy skill trained up for this very reason. Otherwise there are player's vendors that sell these.
  • Sprinklers - (Not required!) These are available on the Gold stone in Trinsic. We'll discuss these later.

Getting Started

Step 1: First you'll need to fill those plant bowls up with dirt. Go find a dirt patch or a dirt road somewhere, double click on the plant bowl and target the dirt. Voila, you now have a Bowl of Hard Dirt!

Step 2: Wait, it's not time to plant those seeds yet, We need to soften the dirt up first! Pull out your water pitcher, double click it and target your plant bowl. Do this a second time, you will now have a Bowl of Soft Dirt. Never add more than two pours of water!

Step 3: Oh joy, it's now time to plant your seed! Double click your seed and then target your Bowl of Soft dirt. Ta-da, you have just planted your first seed!

Step 4: After you've done all that, you'll want to find a good place to keep your growing plants. The best place is to lock it down somewhere in your house. If you put it into a secure container it will not perform its daily growth checks. Your newly planted seeds will start to need tending around 24 hours or so later. From then on you will need to tend your plants every day.


Caring For Your Plants

Garden Gump.png

Growth Stages

Shown in the upper left hand corner of plant gump

Plants have several stages of growth from a seed to a full grown plant. These stages will be labeled 1-9 in the plant gump (accessed by double clicking your plant bowl, look above). As long as you take care of your plants daily they will grow one stage about every 24 hours.

  • Day 7: If you didn't know what kind of seed you planted, this is the day you find out as your plant pops out of the bowl!
  • Day 9: If you haven't pollinated your plant, today it will pollinate itself.


Growth Indicator
Shown in the upper right hand corner of plant gump

A symbol will be displayed here, which tells you what happened at your plant's last growth check.

Growth Indicator
Symbol Meaning
! The plant did not grow because it was not in a valid location (locked down in your house).
- No growth because the plant's health was below Healthy.
- No growth because it has not been 24 hours since it last grew.
+ Your plant grew!
+ Your plant not only grew but it got a bonus from being planted in fertile dirt.


Plant's Health
Your plant's health can go from good to bad if you are not administering the proper potions to care for it.

There are four health conditions:

  • Vibrant (best)
  • Healthy
  • Wilting
  • Dying (worst)


Plant Maladies

As a plant grows it can become infested by insects or infected by fungi. Applying the appropriate potions in the right amounts will keep your plant healthy. Overdosing a plant with a particular potion can poison or cause disease in your plant.


Treatment
Knowing which potions to give your plant to cure certain problems is actually quite easy, you just use the potion that is directly across (on the plant gump) from the problem. For example, look above, if your plant has an Infestation problem you would click the potion across from it, which is Greater poison, to cure it.

Malady Potion to Apply Cause
Garden Infestation.png Infestation Potion poison.png Greater Poison Natural Causes
Garden Fungus.png Fungus Potion cure.png Greater Cure Natural Causes
Garden Poison.png Poison Potion healing.png Greater Heal Overuse of poison potions
Garden Disease.png Disease Potion healing.png Greater Heal Overuse of cure potions


Severity and Dosage
When a plant is afflicted with a malady, it can either be slight or severe, see below for the correct dosage.

Symbol Severity Dose
+ Slight Apply 1 dose of potion
+ Severe Apply 2 doses of potion


Water Level
Over-watering plants and under-water plants at the beginning of a plant's life can cause you to lose the plant altogether, as it is less resistant to infestation and infection. Keeping the water levels just right will go a long way in keeping your plant healthy.

Garden Water.png Water Level
Symbol Meaning Dose
- Slightly under-watered Add one pour of water
- Severely under-watered Add two pours of water
+ Slightly Over-watered No water for one growth check
+ Slightly Over-watered No water for two growth checks


Strength Potions
Potion strength.png Greater Strength potions can be applied to help the plant resist infestations and fungus and to help improve a plant's health if it has dropped.

Reproduction Gump

Garden Repro Gump.gif

Click on the little flower icon in your plant gump to get to the Reproduction gump. Here is where the real goodies are!

Cross-Pollinating

When your plant reaches growth stage 7 (usually the 7th day of growth), it will produce pollen to cross-pollinate with other plants.

If you do not pollinate the plant on the 7th and 8th day (Growth Stage must read 7 or 8), on the 9th day it will pollinate itself.

  • Plants that self pollinate, do not have a chance of producing mutant black or white plants.
  • You have to pollinate a plant with another plant's pollen in order for a chance for mutation.
  • You cannot pollinate plants that are in poor health.
Garden Pollen.png Pollen Indicator
Symbol Meaning
- Plant has not reached full grown level, therefore has not produced any pollen yet.
1 The plant is producing pollen which you can use to cross-pollinate.
+ The plant has been pollinated (pollen can still be gathered from this plant)

In order to cross-pollinate two plants:

  • Click the pollen button of one plant when it's pollen indicator has the red ! next to it, and target the plant you want to pollinate.
    • When cross-pollinating two plants, you will have to repeat the process both ways if you want both plants to produce their mutual offspring. This is not necessary.

Note: If a plant's pollen indicator has a green +, it's already been pollinated, but you can still use it's pollen to pollinate another plant.


Resources

On day 10 of your plant's growth, it may start producing resources. Your plant will produce 1 resource a day for 8 days, as long as your plant is healthy enough. To collect resources, click the resource icon Garden Resource.png

There are three possible resources:

  • Red Leaves (Used to seal ink in books, so that they cannot be edited again.)
    • Only Bright Red Plants of the following can produce these:
      • Elephant Ear Plants
      • Ponytail Palms
      • Century Plants
  • Orange Petals (Eating these makes you resistant to poison for 5 minutes, also used in Poison resist ointments)
    • Only Bright Orange Plants of the following can produce these:
      • Poppies
      • Pampas Grass
      • Bulrushes
  • Green Thorns (Used in the Naturalist Quest, also used in Armor Rating ointments
    • Only Bright Green Plants of the following can produce these:
      • Snake Plants
      • Barrel Cacti

Seeds

On the 10th day your plants will start producing seeds. If you cross-pollinated your plant with another, then these seeds will be the combination of the parent plants together, with a chance for a mutant black or white plant. Just as with resources, there will be one seed produced a day for 8 days. To collect seeds, click the Seed Icon Garden Seed.png

Storing seeds can become a hassle, as you'll end up with hundreds of seeds. A Seed Box can be very useful for any gardener


Decorative Mode

Once your plant has finished producing resource and/or seeds (or you are done tending to it), you can set it to decorative mode. Click the decorative icon Garden Deco.gif, and then click the check to confirm.

  • When in Decorative Mode, your plant will no longer require care, but you cannot use it to pollinate other plants.
  • Remember to remove any resources or seeds, if you want them, before setting your plant to decorative mode. You will no longer be able to access the plant gump.

Vacation Mode

Sometimes it's hard to know if you have 9-10 days to consecutively log in and check your plants. So, the scenario is: you've planted your plants, and you suddenly have to leave town. How do you keep all your lovely new plants from dying?

  • Unlock your plant
  • Pick it up
  • Put it inside a secured container

Your plant will be in stasis until you return. Plants only have health checks if they're locked down in your house or if you're online and the plants are in the main bag of your backpack. You can also store plants in a nestled bag in your backpack or in your bank if you have the room for it.

When you're ready to tend your plants again, just take them out and lock them down. :)

(This note was by --Viola 23:12, 24 March 2012 (CDT))

Efficiency Items

Sprinklers

There are sprinklers available for water and all the potion types needed for plants. They can be bought on the Gold Stone in Trinsic.

Using Sprinklers

  • Lock down the sprinkler anywhere in your house, even a different floor from your plants.
    • If you have two or more houses joined together, the sprinkler will only work on the plants that are within the original house platform that the sprinkler is located in.
  • A sprinkler can hold 100 charges
    • To fill a sprinkler, just drag and drop pitchers, potions, or kegs on top of them.
    • Sprinklers will also allow you to fill up to 100 uses, even if the number of charges is less than 100.
  • Clicking on a sprinkler will give one dose of the liquid it holds to the plants that need it.
    • If your plant requires two doses, you have to click the sprinkler again.

Fertile Dirt

Fertile dirt can be used as dirt for your plant bowl. When a plant has its growth check it has a small change of getting an extra day of growth if grown in fertile dirt.

  • It takes 40 pieces of fertile dirt to fill up one plant bowl.
  • Fertile dirt can be found as loot from:
    • Ant Lions
    • Earth Elementals
    • Whipping Vines

Seed Boxes

These hold seeds, and can be bought off the Token Stone (which is blue) in Trinsic. Seed boxes can hold seeds of each plant type and color, including mutant plants, and naturalist quest seeds.

  • Bonsai Seeds cannot be stored in a seed box.
    • Bonsai Seed Types: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Exceptional and Exotic.
  • None of the 2015 seed colors can be added to a seed box.
    • 2015 seed colors: Mint, Lime, Sherbet, Taupe, Peach, Violet