Farming



Farming is a member's skill, in which players grow crops using seeds and harvest them. The vegetables, herbs, hops, fruits and mushrooms harvested can be sold for profit or used to train Herblore and Cooking. Wood-bearing trees can be planted at higher levels, then chopped down, yielding Woodcutting experience. Resulting logs can be sold for profit or to train Fletching or Firemaking. Alternatively, for 200 coins per tree the farmer will remove the tree, thus speeding up your tree run.

The player starts out by raking the weeds from one of several farming patches across RuneScape, optionally 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 items such as pineapple, watermelon, calquat, and coconuts. Only normal types of (super)compost are tradeable. Seeds can be bought, obtained as drops from a variety of monsters, through Vinesweeper or pickpocketed from farmers/master farmers.

There are many types of patches, and only the appropriate crops may be grown in each. The four allotments in Falador, Catherby, Ardougne and Canifis contain:


 * 2 vegetable patches
 * 1 flower patch
 * 1 herb patch
 * 1 compost bin

Hops patches grow jute and a variety of hops. Tree patches grow wood-bearing trees. Fruit tree patches grow apple, banana, orange, coconut/palm, and papaya trees. 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 and Morchella mushrooms, cactus, evil turnips, and calquat.

After growing for a period of time, crops can be harvested, assuming that the crop has not become diseased and died. Crops grow even when players are not online, so one can plant a seed and come back at any time. Once the crops are fully grown, they remain in the patch indefinitely until harvested. This means that farming 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 good chance crops will sicken. Therefore, all levels are recommended to pay nearby gardeners to watch crops, guaranteeing survival. The price to watch a crop varies; for example, the price for potatoes is 2 buckets of compost while the price for onions is 1 sack of potatoes. Unfortunately, gardeners won't watch herbs or flowers with the exception of the disease-free patch in Trollheim. My Arm will look after herbs after My Arm's Big Adventure at no cost.

Getting Started
A good way to jumpstart your farming is to do the quest Fairy Tale I - Growing Pains. The experience reward will raise level 1 Farming to level 17. During the quest series, you will also receive a bottomless watering can and a pair of Magic secateurs which, when wielded, will increase the yield of crops by 10% while 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 - remove weeds
 * After Fairytale III - Battle at Orks Rift, gardeners may be asked to keep patches "weed free."
 * Seed dibber - plant seeds, except for trees
 * Watering can - water vegetables, flowers, hops, and tree seedlings
 * After Fairytale III - Battle at Orks Rift, you are rewarded with a Magic watering can that carries infinite water.
 * Spade - harvest or clear patches, also to remove dead plants and tree stumps
 * Gardening trowel - fill a plant pot with soil and place tree seeds pots (Note: This item is different from the trowel you gain during the Digsite Quest.)
 * Secateurs - prune diseased trees or remove Willow branches.
 * After Fairytale I - Growing Pains, you receive Magic secateurs which, when wielded, increases harvest yields by 10% from allotments, herb and hop patches.
 * Empty buckets
 * Normal Compost
 * Supercompost
 * Scarecrows - stick in flower patches to protect Sweetcorn.

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. The leprechaun in Herblore Habitat allows storage of three-dose juju potions.

Most importantly, YOU CAN NOTE ANY CROP BY USING IT ON A LEPRECHAUN, which is essential once your inventory is full. Interestingly, the leprechaun in the farming patch south of Falador will not note cabbages.

Additional tools

 * Plant pots - for planting tree seeds. When watered, the seedling grows into a sapling to 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 in same patch.
 * Empty sacks - fill with 10 vegetables to pay nearby gardeners to watch a crop, purchasable from any farm shop.
 * Baskets - fill with 5 fruit to pay nearby gardeners to watch a crop, purchasable from any 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. Seeds can only be planted into their corresponding patch (i.e. no strawberries in tree patch).

Preparing the patch

 * Clear the patch of weeds by using a rake.
 * Add compost or supercompost to lower disease rate and increase harvest yields.
 * Weeds can be added to a Compost Bin to yield compost. Supercompost is superior to compost, both in likelihood of preventing disease and 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 2 gp each. After the easy Karamja Tasks, 40 pineapples are available daily 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 should be watered frequently from a watering can until fully grown.

Harvests vary between 3 and 56 crops and is done with a spade in the player's inventory. After a patch has been harvested, it is cleared for re-planting. Allotments are susceptible to disease which will always kill crops unless cured. Use the methods in the subsequent section, keeping the crops alive.

Flowers
Some fully grown flowers have the ability to protect specific allotments from disease thereby eliminating the need for any watering. 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 should be watered during its growing cycle. You do not need to care for them after full growth. They can be left indefinitely to protect growing allotments. If harvested, flowers generally yield 1 flower (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 in Cooking. Hop seeds are planted in a hops patch by using 4 hop seeds (or 3 Jute seeds) on the patch with a seed dibber in the player's inventory. They should be watered during their growing cycle. Harvests vary 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 be cleared for re-planting. 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 Herblore 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; nothing can prevent disease. Without treatment, each herb patch will average a 10% death rate (excluding Trollheim). Harvests vary between 3 and 18 grimy herbs (between 5 and 25 with supercompost and magic secateurs, averaging 7.5 - or 10 if using juju farming potions) 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, accessible after completion of My Arm's Big Adventure. In terms of experience during later levels (70+), many farmers prefer growing trees instead which are comparatively richer in experience. However, farming herbs is very profitable since the runs require 5 minutes or less every 75 minutes if none are diseased. One can easily gain 100k or more per hour, especially with the scroll of life and juju farming potions. Since farming is relatively low-maintenance, it's best done in conjunction with other skills (i.e. herb runs between slayer tasks). To determine the best herb to plant, please refer to the Herb Calculator.

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. With the exception of poison ivy berries, bushes are also susceptible to disease. When fully grown, check its health before harvesting. Picking berries is done by hand and yields 4 berries. Unlike other plants, bushes will continue to produce even after their first harvest. To remove a bush, use a spade on it to dig it up after harvesting.

Minor Farming experience is granted by planting the Bush seed. Much greater experience is gained from checking its 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 in a plant pot 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 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 cannot become diseased while growing in a plant pot, however, once planted, it loses that immunity to disease 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 by checking on the tree or fruit tree's health, not the planting or harvesting itself (see Seed Table).

Note: Wood trees and fruit trees do not need watering, and if sick, requires pruning with a secateur.

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

There are some differences:
 * Players may instantly re-grow a tree using the Hydra's special ability.
 * The beaver familiar's multichop scroll cannot be used on these types of trees.
 * After the Evil Tree Distraction and Diversion, the leprechaun's magic of decreasing the probability of a tree falling down does not work on player-grown trees.
 * If you cut down a farmed wood tree and log out before the tree regrows, the stump will remain until the next login.

Once the tree is chopped down, the stump can be left to respawn or removed with a spade yielding a tree root. Player-grown trees may also drop Bird's nests.

Note: Players can pay gardeners to cut down their tree. Costs vary depending on the tree and players receive no woodcutting experience.

Fruit trees
Like bushes, fruit trees do not require any tools for harvesting. Picking the fruit will yield six fruits that will regenerate at a rate of about 1 fruit per hour of real time.

Again, only minor Farming experience is granted in planting the seedling, with much greater experience gained from 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' if at some point it becomes diseased.

Special plants
Special plants can only grow in their unique patches located throughout Gielinor. Each special plant only needs one seed to begin growing in its patch. Special plants include:
 * evil turnips
 * Jade Vine (from Back to My Roots)
 * bittercap mushrooms
 * Morchella mushrooms
 * cactus
 * belladonna
 * calquat trees
 * spirit trees

Herblore Habitat
In Karamja, there is a separate farming location known as Herblore Habitat where the seeds and plants are unique to that area. High Farming, Herblore and Hunter levels are recommended. The produce is usually untradeable, excepting the fruit tree patch, and used primarily to create special juju potions. The most relevant to farming is the Farming Juju Potion which improves herb yield by 33% for five minutes.

Keeping the crops alive
After a seed is planted, it will go through several growth cycles before it is fully grown. At the end of each growth cycle, there is a chance that the crop will become diseased. If nothing is done to counteract 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. If untreated approximately 10% of your crops will die.

Disease prevention


There are many techniques to reduce or prevent crop disease. 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. This is recommended for expensive seeds such as trees and fruit trees. Gardeners will not watch over herbs or flowers.
 * Note: Gardeners can be paid with noted items.
 * Certain allotments can be protected by some fully grown flowers (see the Seed Table). Such flowers may be left to protect future plantings of crops.
 * Note: Allotments protected by fully grown flowers or a scarecrow do not need water.
 * Compost and supercompost both reduce the chance that a crop will become diseased, with supercompost reducing the chance by 30%. Players not paying a gardener to watch their crops or using protective flowers should use supercompost when possible.
 * Watering a patch with a watering can prevents a healthy crop from sickening at the end of the current growth cycle. To prevent disease fully, however, players must water the crop every growth cycle until it is ready for harvest. Only allotment, flower, and hops patches can be watered.

Disease cures

 * All crops except trees and bushes can be cured of disease by using a vial 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.
 * The spell Remote Farm can be cast to view the status of and cure any patch in Gielinor.

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, including clean herbs. Wielding Magic secateurs will increase harvest yields 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 for logs and dug up for 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, experience is gained from checking its health. This is performed prior to harvesting. Checking 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 again nor after a bush or fruit tree has been harvested.

Quest XP
Total: 91,000-106,000 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
 * 20,000 - The Branches of Darkmeyer
 * 24,000 - Back to my Roots

Temporary boosts

 * 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, a garden pie, or 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 or with a 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 or 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, nightshade, and berries you have grown. 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.

No Farming boost is stackable with another as of present. Only the highest boost works, unless it is a negative boost from Spicy Stew.

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"

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), receive 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 closer 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 components are tradable.

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. Checking the status uses up one charge every time.

Magic secateurs
Magic secateurs are a reward for completing the Fairytale I - Growing Pains quest. (You do not need to complete the quest to use them, however). When wielded, the magic secateurs increase yields by 10% while 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, 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 rewarded by the quest Fairytale III- Battle at Orks Rift. It provides an unlimited supply of water.



Explorer's ring 3+
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 up to and including the Medium stage of the Lumbridge and Draynor Tasks.

Random events



 * Farming patch spirit - The Farming patch spirit is an event in which 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.

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', which means in terms of coding, the action name is not being set at that instance of time, so the String reference type responsible for the action name must've gone 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 cannot 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.
 * When Farming was released, 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.