Horticulture (Plants)
Contents
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.
- 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
Growth Stage
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.
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.
| 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 |
 Infestation |
 Greater Poison |
Natural Causes |
 Fungus |
 Greater Cure |
Natural Causes |
 Poison |
 Greater Heal |
Overuse of poison potions |
 Disease |
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.
| 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
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.
Pollinating, Resources, Seeds and Decorative Mode
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: On days 7 and 8 of the plant's growth cycle it will produce pollen. This is what you use to cross-pollinate with another plant. If you do not pollinate a plant by the 9th day it will pollinate itself.
- A yellow - : Plant has not reached full grown level, therefor has not produced any pollen yet.
- A red ! : The plant is producing pollen which you can use to cross-pollinate with now.
- A green + : The plant has been pollinated (pollen can still be gathered from this plant)
To cross-pollinate a plant simply click the pollen button when it has the red ! next to it, and then target the plant you want to cross it with. The same will have to be done to the plant you just used to cross with the other.
Resources: On day 10 your plant may start producing resources. There are three possible resources: Red Leaves, Orange Petals and Green Thorns. Click the Resources button to collect, you will get a total of 8 resources per plant (one a day). This is not true for all plants however, only certain types of plants in certain colors will produce these.
Seeds: Once you have cross-pollinated two plants, on the 10th day your plants will start producing seeds. These seeds will be the combination of the parent plants together. Just as with resources, there will be one seed produced a day for 8 days. Simply click the Seed button at the bottom of the gump to collect your seeds.
Decorative Mode: Once your plant has finished producing resources and/or seeds you can set it to decorative mode. To do this just click the little icon that looks like a leaf with a red slash through it and then click the check to confirm. When your plant is in decorative mode you will no longer need to care for it every day. Just remember to remove all your resources and seeds from the plant before doing this!
Timeline
- 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!
- Days 7 & 8: Your plant is producing pollen, it's time to cross-pollinate!
- Day 9: If you haven't pollinated your plant, today it will pollinate itself.
- Day 9+: You can officially set your plant to Decorative Mode. This is ideal for Bonsai Trees since they don't produce any resources or seeds.
- Days 10-17: One seed and/or one resource will produce on each of these days.
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.
- 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.
- Strength Sprinklers will only work when your plant is Dying
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.
- If you drop an looted seed from a monster into the box, it will be identified.
- Bonsai Seeds will turn into plain campion seeds when stored in a Seed Box, so be sure to store them separately.
- Bonsai Seed Types: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Exceptional and Exotic.
