Farming



Farming is a member's skill, in which players grow crops and harvest them. The vegetables, herbs, hops, and fruits harvested can be sold for profit, or can be used to train Herblore and Cooking. Woodbearing trees can be planted at higher levels, and can only be chopped down by the player. Chopping down the tree gives Woodcutting experience; the resulting logs can also be sold for profit, or can be used to train Fletching or Firemaking. Farming begins at potatoes, and eventually the famed Spirit tree can be grown.

The player starts out by raking the weeds from one of several farming patches across RuneScape, applying compost to the patch, then planting seeds. Compost is obtained by placing weeds or vegetables in a compost bin; supercompost, which gives a higher yield and lowers chances of disease, is obtained by using higher-value items such as watermelon, calquat, and coconuts. Both types of compost are also tradeable. Seeds can be bought, obtained as drops from a variety of monsters, or pickpocketed from master farmers.

There are a number of different types of patches, and you must use the appropriate type for the crops you wish to grow. Allotments contain 2 vegetable patches, 1 flower patch, and 1 herb patch, and also feature compost bins. Hops patches can grow jute and a variety of hops; tree patches grow wood-bearing trees of the same types found across RuneScape; fruit tree patches grow apple, orange, coconut palm, and papaya trees; and bush patches grow a variety of berry bushes. There are also 3 special patches for spirit trees, and 1 patch each for the Jade Vine, belladonna, bittercap mushrooms, cactus, evil turnips, and calquat; most of these crops are available only after completing quests.

After growing for a period of time, crops can be harvested, assuming that the crop has not become diseased and died along the way. Crops grow even though players are not online, this means a player can plant a seed and come back at any time. Once the crops are fully grown, they stay there until harvested. This means that farming is a skill which requires little attention, as players can plant, walk away, and then harvest the crop later on.

However, at lower levels unattended crops are likely to die, and even at relatively high levels there is still a chance crops will become diseased and die if left unwatched. Therefore, at all levels it's recommended to pay the nearby farmers to watch your crops, as this ensures the crops will survive. The price to watch a crop is a certain amount of a lower-level crop; for example, the price to watch potatoes is 2 buckets of compost, and the price to watch onions is 1 sack of potatoes. Unfortunately, the farmers won't watch herbs.

Farming was released on 11 July 2005.

Getting Started
A good way to jump start your farming is to do the quest Fairy Tale I - Growing Pains as the farming experience reward will raise level 1 Farming, to level 17. You will also receive a pair of Magic secateurs which, when wielded, will increase the yield of more crops by 10% from harvesting. See Farming training for more information on levelling up.

Tools
The tools required for farming may be purchased at Farming shops or from the Grand Exchange.

Planting and Harvesting Tools
The following equipment and tools can be held by Tool leprechauns.


 * Rake - for removing weeds.
 * Seed dibber - to plant any seed except trees.
 * Watering can - to water vegetables, flowers, hops as well as tree seedlings.
 * After Fairytale III - Battle at Orks Rift, you are rewarded with a Magic watering can, which carries infinite water.
 * Spade - for harvesting or clearing patches. Used to remove dead plants and tree stumps.
 * Gardening trowel - for filling a plant pot with soil and putting a tree seed into a plant pot. (Note: This item is different from the trowel you gain during the Digsite Quest.)
 * Secateurs - for pruning diseased trees or removing Willow branches.
 * After Fairytale I - Growing Pains quest you get Magic secateurs which, when wielded, increases yields by 10% from allotments, herb and hop patches.
 * Empty buckets
 * Normal Compost
 * Supercompost
 * Scarecrows

Tool leprechauns
Tool Leprechauns will store many of the tools that players use for Farming, including 31 empty buckets, 255 buckets of compost, 255 buckets of supercompost, 4 scarecrows and one of each other tool. However, they will not store seeds, crops, or plant cures. Tool leprechauns are found near each patch, giving access to the player's tools. The leprechaun on Troll Stronghold also sells an assortment of farming-related items.

They will convert any farmed item into notes by using the item with the Leprechaun, which is especially useful when your inventory is full from a particularly large yield.

Additional tools

 * Plant pots - for planting tree seeds. When watered, the seedling grows into a sapling which can then be planted in a wood or fruit tree patch.
 * Hatchet - for chopping a wood or fruit tree down before it can be dug up to plant another tree on same patch.
 * Empty sacks - fill with 10 vegetables to pay nearby gardeners to watch a crop, purchasable from a farm shop.
 * Baskets - fill with 5 fruit to pay nearby gardeners to watch a crop, purchasable from a farm shop.
 * Plant cure - for curing any crop (except trees) of disease.
 * Gardening boots - no function, purely decorative.

Farming patches
Farming patches are scattered all around RuneScape. Specific categories of seeds can only be planted into a corresponding patch.

Preparing the patch
Clear the patch of weeds by using a rake and then add compost or supercompost as it lowers the chance of the crops being diseased as well as yielding more harvest when the crops are fully grown. Each of these actions grants minor experience. The weeds can be added to a Compost Bin to yield compost. Supercompost is superior to compost, both in lessening chance of disease and in giving a better yield. Supercompost can be made easily and cheaply by using pineapples, 40 of which can be bought every day from Arhein in Catherby for only 2 gp each, and if you have completed the easy Karamja Tasks, you may get 40 pineapples from Dell Monti near the POH portal in Brimhaven. There is no level requirement for making supercompost.

Allotments


Allotments give fast experience for low level farming. Allotment seeds are planted in an allotment patch by using three seeds on any patch with a seed dibber in the player's inventory. Allotments need to be watered frequently from a watering can until ready to be harvested.

Harvesting yields between 3 and 56 crops and is done with a spade in the player's inventory. After a patch has been harvested, it will become cleared, and can then be re-planted. Allotments are susceptible to disease, and need to be protected using the methods in the subsequent section, keeping the crops alive.

Flowers
Fully grown flowers have the ability to protect some allotments from disease and eliminates the need to water the allotment during its growing cycle. Flower seeds are planted in a flower patch by using 1 flower seed on the patch with a seed dibber in the player's inventory. Flowers need to be watered during its growing cycle. You do not need to care for the flowers after they are fully grown, so you may want to leave them in their patches to further protect growing allotments. Generally, flowers are not harvested but would yield only 1 flower if done so (exception: see below). For more information on protecting your allotments with flowers, read the section on keeping the crops alive below.

Note: You will receive 3 Limpwurt roots and 3 Woad leaves when their respective plants are harvested.

Hops
Hops can be used to make different types of beers and ales with the Cooking skill. Hop seeds are planted in a hops patch by using 4 hop seeds (only 3 Jute seeds) on the patch with a seed dibber in the player's inventory and needs to be watered during its growing cycle. Harvesting yields between 3 and 41 hops and is done with a spade in the player's inventory. After a hops patch has been harvested, it will become cleared which will require the patch to be re-planted. For more information on protecting your hops, read the section on keeping the crops alive below.

Note: Hops are not protected by flowers.

Herbs


Herbs are grown in conjunction with training the Herblore skill as primary ingredients for potions. Herb seeds are planted in a herb patch by using 1 Herb seed on the patch with a seed dibber in the player's inventory. Herbs do not need to be watered. Harvesting yields between 5 and 18 grimy herbs (between 5 and 25 with supercompost and magic secateurs) and is done with a spade in the player's inventory. As with allotments, herbs are susceptible to disease and need to be protected using the methods in the subsequent section on keeping the crops alive. There is a herb patch in Trollheim that will never get diseased which can be accessed after completion of My Arm's Big Adventure.

Note: Herbs do not need watering and are not protected by flowers.

Bushes
Bush seeds are planted in a Bush patch by using 1 Bush seed on the patch with a seed dibber in the player's inventory. When it is done growing, check the health of the bush before harvesting. Harvesting of berries is done by hand and yields 4 berries. Unlike other types of plants, bushes will continue to produce even after their first harvest. To remove a bush, simply use a spade to dig it up after it has been harvested.

Only minor Farming experience is granted in planting the Bush seed, with major Farming experience gained with checking the bush's health (see Seed Table).

Note: Bushes do not need watering.

Wood trees and fruit trees


Growing trees and fruit trees are completely different to other plants, in that there is an intermediate growing stage where the seeds must be grown into a sapling before being planted into a cleared patch.

First, an empty plant pot may be used on any farming patch, even if something is growing in it, with a gardening trowel in the player's inventory to fill the plant pot with soil. Use a single seed on a filled plant pot with the gardening trowel still in the player's inventory and water it with a watering can.

At this point, the seed has grown into seedling. After a few minutes, the seedling will grow into a sapling, which can then be planted in a cleared patch. In order to do this, the player must have a spade in their inventory. Add compost or supercompost to the cleared patch before transplanting the sapling. Seedlings and saplings are unable to become diseased while growing in a plant pot. However, once a sapling is planted in a patch, it can become diseased and needs to be protected using the methods in the section on keeping the crops alive. Seedlings and saplings are not tradeable.

Like bushes, major experience is gained in the Farming skill by checking on the tree's or fruit tree's health, not in planting it or harvesting its fruit (see Seed Table).

Note: Wood trees and fruit trees do not need watering.

Wood trees
Planting wood trees will result in your own personal wood tree to cut down. These trees work exactly like other tree across RuneScape in that the required Woodcutting level is needed to chop it down, only giving experience in Woodcutting.

There are some differences, though: the beaver familiar's multichop scroll cannot be used on these types of trees. Also, after the Evil Tree Distraction and Diversion, the part of the leprechaun's magic that decreases the chance of the tree falling while you chop it will not work on trees you have grown yourself. Further, if you cut down a farmed wood tree and log out before the tree regrows, then the stump will still be there when next you log in.

Once the tree is chopped down, a stump is left. At this point, the stump can be left to respawn into a wood tree or use a spade to remove it which will yield a tree root.

Player grown trees may also drop Bird's nests.

Players may instantly re-grow a tree using the Hydra's special ability.

Note: Players can pay gardeners to cut down their tree. Costs vary depending on the tree. Players do not receive any experience when gardeners do this.

Fruit trees
Like bushes, fruit trees do not require any tools for harvesting. Picking the fruit will yield six fruits that will regenerate after a short time.

Again, only minor Farming experience is granted in planting the fruit tree, with major Farming experience gained with checking the fruit tree's health (see Seed Table).

Note: Although all fruit trees take at least 14 hours and 40 minutes to grow, it sometimes can take 30 hours for a fruit tree to become 'ready to harvest'.

Special plants
The main difference between all other plants and special plants is that they each have their own unique patches located throughout Gielinor. Each special plant only needs one seed to begin growing in its patch. Special plants include evil turnips, jade vines (from Back to My Roots), bittercap mushrooms, cactus, belladonna, calquat trees, and spirit trees.

Keeping the crops alive
After the player first plants a crop, it will go through several growth cycles before it is fully grown. At the end of each of those growth cycles, there is a chance that the crop will become diseased. If no action is taken to counter-act the disease before the end of the next growth cycle, the crop will die. Your farming level has no effect on the chance of your crops becoming diseased however higher levelled plants appear to have a lower risk of dying.

Disease prevention


Many techniques can be used to avoid the death of some crops, and to greatly reduce the risk of death for other crops. Depending on the situation, it may be worthwhile to use the techniques below. Note: Gardeners can be paid with noted items. Note: Allotments being protected by fully grown flowers or a scarecrow do not need to be watered.
 * Pay a gardener to watch over the crop. The cost varies and is shown in the Seed Table. It is recommended to do this for expensive seeds such as trees and fruit trees, but gardeners will not watch over herbs or flowers.
 * Certain allotments can be protected by certain fully grown flowers (see the Seed Table). When the protecting flower is fully grown, it may be left to protect numerous plantings of the protected item.
 * Compost and supercompost both reduce the chance that a crop will become diseased, with supercompost reducing the chance by 30%. If the player isn't paying a gardener to watch their crops or using flowers on their allotments, supercompost is recommended.
 * Watering the patch with a watering can will stop a crop from becoming diseased at the end of the current growing cycle only. Only allotment and flower patches can be watered in this manner.

Disease cures

 * All crops except trees and bushes can be cured of disease by using a bottle of plant cure on the crop. Plant cure can be bought from the gardener at each patch or a farming shop.
 * Diseased trees and bushes can be cured by pruning with secateurs or magic secateurs.
 * An alternative to buying plant cure is to use the Lunar Magics spell Cure Plant.

Harvesting
Players can harvest grown crops by clicking on the patch when it is fully grown. Harvesting of allotments, herbs and hops requires a spade in the player's inventory. Fruit trees, bushes, and flowers do not require any type of tools; they are picked by hand. If your inventory becomes full while harvesting, the Tool leprechaun will note them. This is accomplished by using the harvest on the Tool leprechaun, this includes clean herbs as well. Wielding Magic secateurs will increase the amount you can harvest from your allotment, herb, and hops by 10%. Only willow branches are harvested in the wood tree family. Otherwise, a wood tree is cut down to obtain logs and dug up to obtain roots.

For the majority of plants, the amount of produce harvested is affected by the player's Farming level, whether or not they are using Magic secateurs or an Amulet of nature, and the quality of the compost applied.

Note: Harvesting of bushes, fruit trees, allotments, flowers, hops, and herbs only requires clicking once as of the update which occurred on 6 October 2009. In addition to the auto re-pick function, the animation for picking herbs from patches was also updated.

Check the health
Once a bush, tree, or fruit tree is fully grown, major experience is gained in the Farming skill from checking on its health. This is performed prior to harvesting. Checking on the health is done by either right clicking on the bush/tree/fruit tree and selecting "Check health" option or simply by left clicking on it. This can only be performed once until a new seed or sapling is planted.

Note: Respawning of a wood tree or fruit tree after chopping it down will not give the option to have its health checked on nor after a bush or fruit tree has been harvested.

Quest XP
Total: 71,000-84,000 Experience.
 * 500 - Perils of Ice Mountain
 * 1,000 - Recipe for Disaster
 * 2,000 - Spirit of Summer (additional 15,000 xp available if level 50 or higher)
 * 3,000 - Enlightened Journey
 * 3,500 - A Fairy Tale Part I
 * 4,000 - Grim Tales
 * 5,000 - Forgettable Tale of a Drunken Dwarf
 * 5,000 - Garden of Tranquility
 * 5,000 - My Arm's Big Adventure
 * 7,000 - Rum Deal
 * 11,000 - A Fairy Tale Part III
 * 24,000 - Back to my Roots

Temporary boosts
No Farming boost is stackable with another as of present. Only the highest boost works, unless it is a negative boost from Spicy Stew.
 * A cider will boost farming by 1, this is brewed using the Cooking skill (does not stack with garden pie).
 * A Mature cider will boost farming by 2, this is brewed using the Cooking skill (does not stack with normal cider)(does not stack with garden pie) (does not stack with a familiar boost).
 * A Garden pie will boost farming by 3, this is made using the Cooking skill (does not work when using a brown spicy stew) (does not stack with familiar boost).
 * A brown spicy stew has a chance of boosting or lowering farming by 2, 4, or 6 (available as a result of the Evil Dave sub quest of Recipe for Disaster.) (Will not stack with familiar boost) (does not stack with mature cider).
 * A Dreadfowl will boost farming by 1 (this bonus does not apply when using a brown spicy stew).
 * A Compost mound will boost farming by 1 + 2% of the players farming level.
 * A Stranger plant will boost farming by 1 + 4% of the players farming level.
 * A Giant ent can possibly double the yield of cacti, fruit trees and berries. The average bonus is a 50% yield boost. However, you do not receive additional experience for the additional yielded items.
 * A Juju farming potion can possibly double the yield of herbs. The average bonus is a 33% yield boost. However, you do not receive additional experience for the additional yielded items.
 * Operating the farming cape will boost farming by 1 from 99 to 100.
 * A Wolpertinger will double the yield and experience from harvesting berries.*

Green cells are those which offer the highest bonuses obtainable for the item on that row.


 * Players may also consider that squashing a Grand seed pod will have a temporary lowering effect to farming by 5 levels. The reason given in the dialogue box is "Plants seem hostile to you for killing seeds from the Grand Tree"

It is worth noting that if players do not have the required farming level when they harvest a crop, they will not receive experience. Thus, if a player plans to harvest a crop they do not have the required farming level for, they should re-boost their stats. However, a player can check the health of a tree and receive experience even without the required level.

Minor experience
In addition to experience shown in the seed table, minor experience can be gained by doing the following farming tasks:

NOTE: If players wish to stay at just one allotment and grow their plants there, they can use a Compost mound familiar and its Generate compost scroll to fill the bin with Compost (or, if they are lucky, supercompost), fill 15 buckets with Supercompost/compost, empty them, and repeat. This is best done at the compost bin north of Catherby if the player is interested in keeping the supercompost, as a vendor selling buckets is closest to this patch than any other. This will grant you 67.5 experience per load with compost, and 130 experience with supercompost.
 * Filling a bucket with compost from the compost Bin - 4.5 experience
 * Filling a bucket with supercompost from the compost Bin - 8.5 experience
 * Putting compost on a patch - 18 experience
 * Putting supercompost on a patch - 26 experience
 * Taking rotten tomatoes from the Compost Bin - 4.5 experience
 * Weeding a patch with a rake - 4 experience per weed
 * After a Willow tree becomes fully grown it can be pruned with secateurs to get 6 experience and one of its branches.
 * Note: It cannot be pruned immediately after its health has been checked.
 * You can use Grand seed pods to teleport to the Grand Tree and gain 100 farming experience at the same time.

Farming cape
Once players reach 99 Farming, they can purchase a farming cape from Martin the Master Gardener, located in the Marketplace of Draynor Village.

Amulet of nature
The amulet of nature may be bound to a particular patch and will remain bound until it is attached to another patch. Players may either rub the amulet to find out how their crops are doing, or wear it and it will tell players of any changes to their crops. If the crops become diseased, it will allow the player to teleport to the patch, or speak to the gardener from anywhere, in order to get one of them to protect it. The amulet will also slightly increase the yield of crops, though not by as much as the Magic secateurs (the bonus does not stack with the secateurs).

To make one, players will need to spin a magic root on a spinning wheel, make a normal emerald amulet using the crafting skill and string it with the magic string. Alternatively, players can buy a Pre-nature amulet on the Grand Exchange. After enchanting the Pre-nature amulet with the Enchant Level 2 Jewellery spell, players will be able to use it with a patch to watch the progress of that patch. Players may only obtain one amulet of nature, and they are non-tradeable, though all the ingredients are tradeable, as is the un-enchanted pre-nature amulet.

Amulet of farming
The Amulet of farming can be bought from any farming shop for 200 coins. They are a very limited version of the amulet of nature, as they only have 8 charges, and can only be used to watch over allotments or flower patches.

Magic secateurs
Magic secateurs are a reward for completing the Fairytale I - Growing Pains quest. (You do not need to complete the quest fully to use them, however). When wielded, the magic secateurs increase yields by 10% when harvesting vegetables, herbs and hops. This effect does not stack with the Amulet of nature. They can be used to prune trees to cure them of disease as with normal secateurs and can also be stored with the Tool Leprechaun.

Falador Shield 2+
When wielding the Falador shield 2 or better, obtained by doing the Falador Tasks, players will receive a 10% increase to experience (experience only, not yield) gained when farming the patches north of Port Sarim.

Ardougne cloak
You can use the Ardougne cloak 2 or 3, obtained by doing the Ardougne Tasks, players will be able to teleport to the Ardougne farming patch once a day. Upon completion of the Elite Ardougne Tasks, the cape will be upgraded to allow unlimited teleports.

Magic watering can
The Magic watering can is a quest item obtained as a reward from the quest Fairytale III- Battle at Orks Rift. It provides an unlimited supply of water and is a somewhat useful tool for farming.



Explorer's ring 3/4
Although not directly linked to Farming, Explorer's ring 3 and 4 have the ability to teleport the player to the cabbage patch directly south of the allotment located to the south-east of Falador and to the north of Port Sarim. The ring is obtained by completing the Medium stage (also, Beginner and Easy must be completed) of the Lumbridge and Draynor Tasks.

Random events



 * Farming patch spirit - The Farming patch spirit is an event in which the only thing that happens is that a dialogue window appears. It only occurs when a player with less than level 15 Farming stands idly next to a farming patch for a period of time, after receiving the ring for completing the medium Lumbridge Tasks.

Familiars related to Farming
Some familiars that appear in the Summoning skill are also useful in the Farming skill.

Glitches

 * Occasionally, a player will perform the emote for raking weeds, however they will actually be raking the ground.
 * There is a glitch that occurs when you try to put items into a sack too fast. The item appears as 'Null'.

Trivia

 * Farming is one of only four skills not used in Stealing Creation, the others being Slayer, Firemaking and Dungeoneering.
 * For a few weeks before the Farming skill was released in July 2005, all herb seeds were simply named 'herb seeds' and different types of seeds would form different stacks in players' inventories and banks.
 * HS Pow012000 was the first player to achieve 200,000,000 XP.
 * Within the first several days upon release of the Farming Skill, players would plant seeds followed by quickly digging them up and replanting to gain quick Farming experience at a low level. Jagex realised this and later removed it from the game. The update only allowed players to dig up an allotment once it was fully grown, diseased, or dead.
 * The leprechaun at the allotment south of Falador will refuse to note your cabbages. This is probably to prevent players from gathering and noting large amounts of cabbage from the nearby patch. However, other leprechauns will note your cabbages. The nearest is due south, on the north end of Port Sarim docks. Even quicker, players who have Explorer Ring 3 and an Ardougne Cloak can pick cabbages and teleport to the bush patch right outside the door of the Monastery to have them noted, then teleport back into the cabbage field to repeat.
 * The maximum amount of experience that can be gained in a theoretical hour is 83,466 (disregarding experience gained through quests, genie lamps, vinesweeper etc.). This would require a player to have 85 farming and get a nearly impossible maximum yield from every patch planted with the highest level plant in each.
 * The leprechaun can store up to 255 buckets of composts and supercomposts which is the largest number on 1 byte.
 * If a player unsubscribes from membership, he/she cannot harvest or clear dead plants from farming patches. They also cannot cut farming-grown trees.
 * When planting plants in your house garden (or Formal Garden) you will get the same amount of Farming xp as well as Construction xp. When using Farming it does not allow you to plant more Garden Plants or Formal Garden Plants.
 * When you have planted something in a Member's server and did not harvest your yields and then you return to Non-Member's, your plants will still be there even though you can not harvest them.
 * If the player chooses to pay a farmer to look after their crops, and have both noted and unnoted forms in inventory, the farmer would always take the unnoted ones.
 * The login screen was changed temporarily. Vines hung from the top of the screen covering most of the wall, and some ivy was growing along the floor. The pillars were replaced with curved trees.