Farming

Introduction


Farming is a member's skill in which players grow crops for profit or use in other skills. Crops can grow slowly or very rapidly, and can be harvested for produce. Farming begins at potatoes, and eventually the famed Spirit Tree can be grown.

The player starts out by obtaining seeds, which are then planted in one of several farming patches across Gielinor. After growing for a period of time, crops can be harvested, assuming that the crop has not 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 their crop later on. Farming was released on 11 July 2005.

How to get started: Farming for beginners


''If players are looking to get farming on highscores or to an intermediate level, it is possible to do quests for farming experience. Please see Quest Experience Rewards.''

The best place to start farming is at an allotment patch, such as the one north of Catherby, or the one south of Falador. Players may start out by buying some potato seeds from Olivia in Draynor Village if they have not yet collected any. If the player has a Thieving level of 27 or higher, then they can simply steal them from the stall. Next, a set of farming tools may be purchased from a farming shop near any allotment patch (see section on tools). Tools can be stored by the Tool Leprechaun found at each patch, and can be taken out whenever needed (all tool leprechauns have access to the player's tools) Note: Those who have a farming level of 15 or less and stand idle next to a farming patch for a period of time may be visited by a farming patch spirit.


 * Those who do not want to start farming with level 1 can do Goblin Generals subquest in Recipe for Disaster quest. This increases their farming level to 9, allowing them to plant cabbages straight away. Doing the Sorceress's Garden minigame can give a decent amount of farming experience to someone of a low level while training Thieving.

Obtaining seeds


There are several ways to get the seeds needed for farming :


 * Picking a vegetable from one of the non player owned fields dotted around RuneScape.
 * Pickpocketing farmers with level 10 thieving, which will occasionally give potato seeds.
 * Pickpocketing Master farmers (Including Martin the Master Gardener) with level 38 thieving for all seeds except tree, fruit tree and calquat tree seeds.
 * Buying from Olivia who runs the seed stall in Draynor Village.
 * Stealing from Olivia's stall with level 27 thieving. (This will make it so that you will not be able to purchase seeds from her for a short period of time)
 * Bird nests give tree and fruit tree seeds and can be obtained :
 * from either random events in woodcutting, or
 * trading mole claws and/or mole skins with Wyson the Gardener at Falador park. Mole claws and mole skins can be obtained by killing the giant mole or killing Molanisks with level 39 slayer for mole claws alone.
 * Playing Managing Miscellania Minigame for seeds and bird nests. Allocating resources to wood cutting gives bird nests, allocating resources to herbs or flax can yield herb seeds, and allocating resources to farming gives a wide variety of seeds.
 * Playing the Vinesweeper minigame. Tree seeds can be obtained this way, but it is not efficient for getting seeds in general. It is suggested to only use this minigame for seeds if specific seeds are sought.
 * Monster drops. Ogres, Moss giants, and Dagannoths have good seed drops.
 * Catching implings, especially Nature implings.
 * Foraged by a Compost mound.
 * Trading with players.
 * Buying at the Grand exchange market.

Weeds and compost
Before players can plant anything, they first need to clear their patch of weeds. Weeds may be cleared using a rake. Raking a patch will produce up to 3 sets of weeds (4 if the patches update while you are raking). Compost can be made by putting weeds into Compost Bins, along with any crops harvested. Once the Compost Bin is full of 15 compostable items, close the lid and it will start to form compost, taking about an hour to finish composting. When the compost is ready, the lid must be opened, where players may use 15 empty buckets on the Compost Bin to extract the Compost. Compost Bins can also be used to make super compost (see section below). Players may also obtain compost from a farming shop or compost mound.

Planting
Back to the cleared allotment patch. First, compost should be added. This is not necessary, but it is recommended to 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. Second, seeds are planted in the patch by using the seed on the patch with a seed dibber in the player's inventory. Finally, water the patch with a watering can if it needs it (see section below on keeping crops alive). Normally only one seed is needed to plant something, except for allotment patches ( which require 3 seeds) and hop patches ( which require 4 seeds). As farming can often take an hour or more, most players do not wait at one patch for their plants to grow. The approximate growing time can be found in the seeds table below, and the crops will even grow if the player is logged out.

Planting tree seeds
Trees, including fruit trees, are somewhat different to other seeds, in that there is an intermediate growing stage where the seed must be grown into a sapling before being planting into the patch. Firstly, an empty plant pot may be used on any cleared farming patch with a gardening trowel in the players inventory to fill the plant pot with soil. Then, if the player has a high enough farming level, they can plant the tree seed in the pot, which eventually will create a seedling. After the seed is planted in the plant pot, it must first be watered with a watering can before it will begin to grow into a sapling. After a few minutes, the seedling will grow into a sapling, which can then be planted in a tree patch or fruit tree patch. In order to do this,the player must have a spade in their inventory. The seeds are unable to become diseased whilst growing in a plant pot, but once planted in the patch, they can become diseased and need to be protected. Neither seedlings nor saplings are tradable.



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.

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.


 * 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. Gardeners can be paid with noted items.
 * Certain vegetables and fruits can be protected by certain fully grown flowers (see the seed table below). When the protecting flower is fully grown it may be left to protect numerous plantings of the protected item.Note: Allotments being protected by fully grown flowers, or a scarecrow, do not need to be watered.
 * Compost and supercompost both reduce the chance that a crop will become diseased, with supercompost being superior. They also increase the yield while harvesting the crops. If the player isn't paying a gardener to watch their crops or using flowers on their allotments, supercompost is recommended. Therefore, payments are not needed unless it absolutely has to grow.
 * Watering the patch with a watering can will stop a crop 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 crops will require a spade in the inventory, with the exceptions being fruit trees and bushes, where the fruit can just be picked. These two also do not need to be replanted to produce more fruit/berries, as the fruit will grow back of its own accord once picked. Sacks and Baskets (see tools section) can be used to carry more produce back to the bank. Using Magic secateurs will increase the amount you can harvest from your patch. Herbs have a harvest from 4 to 18 and fruit trees are 6 fruit per crop. Harvesting is where most farming experience is gained. This can be either from harvesting a crop (vegetables, flowers, herbs, hops), checking the health of the crop (trees) or both (fruit trees and bushes).

Paying farmer to cut trees


Players can pay farmers to cut down their trees. Costs vary depending on the tree.

Warning: this is tree removal, not harvesting.

Dialogue:
 * Player - Would you chop my tree down for me?
 * Farmer - Why? you look like you could chop it down yourself!
 * Player - I can't be bothered. I'd rather pay you to do it.
 * Farmer - Well, that's a lot of hard work - if you pay me 200 GP I'll chop it down for you.
 * Player - Here's 200 GP - chop my tree down please.

The tree and stump are GONE. Players will NOT receive logs, experience or tree roots.

Repeating farming in a patch
A patch will normally be cleared for new crops after it has been harvested, with the exception being trees and bushes. If players do not want to wait for the berries on a bush to regrow, the patch can be cleared by using a spade on the bush. Wood and fruit trees need to be cut down with an axe before using the spade on the tree stump. Clearing a non-fruit tree in this way will give the player a set of tree roots, which can be used for making supercompost.

What to grow?
Unless players have the farming level and money to constantly re-plant trees, growing mainly vegetables and herbs may be a good way to get decent experience. Hops tend to get largely ignored, unless you have 'the stuff' and the cooking levels for mature ales, though players occasionally may plant them if they happen to pass a patch. Bushes give better experience at higher levels, and are generally only grown in the higher levels of farming. If players want constant, and sometimes quick experience, it is recommended to go around all of the patches using teleports. For more information, see the Crop run guide.

If players are purely interested in the experience and not the harvest, they may choose to grow the highest level crop available for their level and drop the harvest to avoid banking time. Others may simply put part or all of their harvest into the compost Bin, then drop the remaining portion. Utilizing the enhancers, super compost and magic secateurs will make a difference in the yield of each crop but it can be very random.

Temporary boosts

 * A cider will boost farming by 1, this is brewed using the Cooking skill.
 * A Mature cider will boost farming by 2, this is brewed using the Cooking skill (does not stack with normal cider.)
 * A Garden pie will boost farming by 3, this is made using the Cooking skill (does not work when using a brown spicy stew).
 * 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 subquest of Recipe for Disaster.) (Will not stack with familiar boost)
 * 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 will increase the yield of certain crops.
 * A Wolpertinger will double the yield and experience from harvesting berries.*

It is worth noting that if you do not have the required farming level when you harvest a crop, you will get no exp, so if you plan to harvest a crop you do not have the required farming level for, you should reboost your stats.

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

NOTE: If you wish to stay at just one allotment and grow your plants there, you can use a Compost Mound familiar and it's Generate compost scroll to fill the bin with Compost (or, if you're lucky, Supercompost), fill 15 buckets with (Super)compost, empty them, and repeat. 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

Supercompost
The use of Supercompost in all of a player's patches has multiple benefits; improved yields and lower death rates. Even if the player pays the gardener to watch their bush and tree patches, the experience gained using supercompost on the patches will quickly add up.

The Lunar Magics spell Fertile Soil can also be used to treat a patch with supercompost. It is possible use this spell after a crop has been planted in a patch.

Any farmer by a patch can tell players whether an item will make supercompost or not by simply selecting 'use' then clicking on the farmer. Compost bins require 15 items in order to start the compost process, where the lid may then be closed and compost may be retrieved about one hour later. Note that a player must use 15 supercompost ingredients to obtain supercompost. By using 14 supercompost ingredients and 1 normal compost ingredient, the compost bin will yield normal compost. An example of this would be to use 14 watermelon and 1 weed; normal compost would be yielded because of the 1 weed - many players may notice that this relates to the saying "One bad apple spoils the bunch" because if one ingredient is bad in the compost bin, it will not yield supercompost. If players plan to empty and fill up all 4 compost bins, it's greatly beneficial to load the tool leprechaun up with empty buckets before they start their compost run.

The items that are supercompostable are:
 * Watermelon
 * Jangerberries (may be collected from the Ogre Island west of Yanille)
 * White berries
 * Poison ivy berries
 * Pineapple (may be bought from Arhein by talking to him, or collected from the plants south of Brimhaven)
 * Papaya
 * Coconut from palm tree
 * Calquat
 * Cactus spines
 * Mushroom
 * Any herb Avantoe and higher
 * Any tree root
 * Empty coconut shells
 * White tree fruit from Garden of Tranquility quest.

Players may use a Compost potion on a compost bin full of normal compost items before closing the lid. This will yield 15 buckets of supercompost instead of 15 buckets of compost.

Tips on Training Farming

 * At low levels (under level 15), the best way to train farming would be allotments (potatoes, onions, cabbages, etc) and guams at level 9.


 * At level 15, players can plant oak trees, which is cheap, grows relatively quickly, and still gives a good amount of experience for checking health. At level 30, you should switch to Willow trees which gives much better experience. At level 45, switching to Maple trees would give even better experience while still being affordable. Yew and Magic trees are too expensive for most people to afford but give better experience.


 * At level 27, players can start planting fruit trees. Fruit trees take a long time (14-24 hours) to grow but gives a large bonus for checking health. At higher levels this is somewhat expensive, but a fast way of gaining experience. You should always plant the highest fruit tree avaliable to you. A Palm tree seed may seem expensive to you at 90k each, the massive amount of experience for checking health is well worth it.


 * Players with level 32 farming should grow Ranarrs at a decent profit assuming supercompost is used. Magic secateurs also increase farming yield. At level 62 farming, players should switch to farming Snapdragons for a slightly better profit. From then on, players may continue farming snapdragons, or switch to lantadymes, dwarf weed, or torstol at higher levels for increased experience but decreased profit. Supercompost should always be used for herbs.


 * Farmer payments should be used whenever possible: this prevents crops from dying. However if the farmer payment is impractical, supercompost is recommended.


 * Bushes may be planted at all levels for some cheap experience.


 * At higher levels, all hops should be ignored: The experience gained is small. Allotments may be skipped as well, considering the amount of time required to harvest and drop the crops, and the small amount of experience awarded.


 * Players wishing to get 99 (or any high level) farming should have a crop run routine. After a few runs, the routine becomes habit and makes farming much easier.


 * Magic secateurs should always be used when appropriate to increase the yield, and therefore increasing experience gained.
 * Planting plants in a player-owned house's garden helps to gain farming experience, however it is far more expensive.
 * A cheaper way to gain farming experience is to play the Sorceress's Garden minigame, where players gain experience from picking the fruit or herbs there.
 * The Vinesweeper minigame also provides farming experience. Players may either buy seeds with the points they have received or exchange the points for farming experience. Players get more experience if they buy seeds, plant, then harvest them than they would with a direct exchange for experience, but it takes a longer amount of time. At higher levels this additional time can severely slow progression to obtaining the Farming cape.
 * At level 28 Summoning a player can buy pouches to summon a Compost mound, use them to generate scrolls, and fill compost bins with compost or sometimes supercompost. The player can bank the buckets of compost, and eventually use or sell them. This is a slow training method, but it makes a lot of money, which might come in handy when you need higher level seeds. Remember to use the supercompost potions (Compost Potion) from Vinesweeper rewards, if you have any, to make the regular compost into supercompost.
 * For quests that give farming experience, see Quest experience rewards - Farming.
 * A little known way to get extra farm xp is to use both types of compost each time you plant. Use regular compost, then super.  Although it gives a little more xp, it does not make your crops more protected or add to yields.
 * A Falador shield 2 or Falador shield 3 will give a 10% bonus to experience when farming at the patches south of Falador

Tools
The tools required for farming may be purchased at Farming shops.


 * Rake - for removing weeds.
 * Secateurs - for pruning diseased trees or removing Willow branches.
 * After A Fairy Tale Part I quest, they can be upgraded to Magic secateurs, when wielded increases by 10% yields from allotments, herb and hop patches.
 * Gardening trowel - for filling a plant pot with soil and putting a tree seed into a plant pot.
 * Seed dibber - to plant any seed except trees.
 * Watering can - to water vegetables, flowers, and hops as well as tree seedlings.
 * Compost and Super compost - for helping plants to grow quicker, increasing their average yield, and reducing the chance they will become diseased.
 * Spade - for harvesting or clearing patches. Used to remove dead plants.

All the above tools, 255 of both composts and 31 empty buckets may be stored with the Tool Leprechaun who can be found near every farming patch. (The Magic secateurs may also be stored with the tool leprechaun)


 * Plant pots - for planting tree seeds. When watered, the seedling grows into a sapling which can then be planted in a tree or fruit tree patch.
 * Gardening boots - no function, strictly decorative.
 * Woodcutting axe - for chopping a wood or fruit tree down before it can be dug up to plant another tree on same patch.
 * 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.

Patches

 * Note: sortable table, click on heading box to change sort order. Reload page for default sort by patch type.

Seeds, payments, and experience

 * 4x10 means: every 10 minutes the crop has grown a little and can be watered again. This happens 4 times until it is fully grown. When the crop becomes diseased, it does not count, and the first time can take anything between 0 and 10 minutes. Note that herbs have no need to be watered.

Amulet of nature
The amulet of nature may be bound to a particular 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 their crops become diseased, it will allow them to teleport to the patch, or speak to the gardener from anywhere, in order to get them to protect it. The amulet will also slightly increase the yield of crops, though not by as much as the Magic secateurs (the yield bonus does not stack with that item).

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. After enchanting the "pre nature amulet" with the emerald enchant spell, players will be able to use the it with a patch to watch progress on that patch. Players may only obtain one amulet of nature, and they are non-tradable, though all the ingredients to make it are tradable as is the un-enchanted "pre nature amulet".

Amulet of farming
The Amulet of farming can be bought from a 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 an allotments or flower patches.

Magic secateurs
The Magic secateurs are a reward for completing the A Fairy Tale Part I quest. 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 like normal secateurs and can also be stored with the tool leprechaun.

Supercompost potion (Compost potion)
Can be obtained after the Garden of Tranquility quest and the Vinesweeper minigame. It is wise to use it on the compost bin instead of a bucket of compost to yield 15 buckets of supercompost rather than using it on 1 bucket and receiving 1 bucket of supercompost.

Farming cape


Once you get to 99 Farming, you can purchase a farming cape from Martin the Master Gardener, located in the Marketplace of Dryanor Village. The easiest way to get here is to use an Amulet of Glory and choosing 'Dryanor Village' as the teleportation destination.

Random events specific to farming

 * Spade head - When using a spade for farming, the head will sometimes fly off.
 * Rake head - When using a rake for farming, the head will sometimes fly off.
 * Capt' Arnav - Captain Arnav will sometimes appear wanting help opening a treasure chest buried in the patch.
 * 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.

Trivia

 * Farming is one of only three skills not used in Stealing Creation, the others being Slayer and Firemaking.