Farming



Farming is a skill in which players grow crops using seeds and harvest useful items from them, or more commonly, harvest the plant itself. The crops grown range from the standard staples of vegetables, fruit trees, herbs, hops, to more exotic and unusual crops such as wood-bearing trees, cacti, and mushrooms. The harvested items have wide range of uses, but are mostly used to train Herblore or Cooking, or simply eaten as food. Many players sell their harvest for a significant profit.

Once players have reached the intermediate level range and beyond, they can begin to plant wood-bearing trees. Player grown trees function just like their standard equivalents, which can be chopped down and regenerate after a short period of time to yield Woodcutting experience and logs. Player grown woodcutting trees have the added benefit of being only accessible to the player who grew them, which means that players will not need to compete to gather their own tree's wood.

General overview
The first thing any player will do when they begin training this skill is to rake away the weeds from one of the many farming patches found scattered around RuneScape. Once cleared, players have the option of applying compost to the patch, which will decrease the chance of the crop becoming diseased, and will also possibly increase the yield of the crop once it reaches maturity. Players can also cast the Fertile Soil spell from the Lunar spellbook at any point during the plant's growth cycle to apply supercompost.

Compost can be bought in farming shops, or obtained by placing a total of 15 weeds or various other unwanted vegetables into one of the compost bins. Supercompost, which results in an even higher yield and further lowers chances of disease, is obtained by filling the compost bin with higher level farming produce such as pineapples, watermelons, calquats, coconuts, and high end herbs. Seeds are usually easy to obtain. They can be bought from players and stalls, stolen via Thieving or obtained as drops from an enormous variety of monsters. Any lower or intermediate level seeds are usually very cheap, ranging from 1-20 coins each, while the higher level seeds, such as tree, fruit tree, and especially upper end herb seeds, are usually thousands of coins each, if not more.

After growing for a preset period of time crops will mature and can then be harvested, provided that the crops have not become diseased and died while growing. Once planted, crops grow even if the player is not online, so one can plant a seed and come back at any time. Once the crops are fully grown they will remain in the patch indefinitely until harvested; that is, they will not die once fully matured.

Although this would seem to imply that players can simply plant their seeds and go back to their lives, there is a problem with this tactic. At lower levels, unattended crops are extremely unlikely to live long enough to reach maturity unattended. Even at relatively high levels there will always be a significant chance that crops will sicken and die. Therefore, all levels are recommended to pay nearby gardeners to watch crops. Doing so prevents the selected crops from dying, thus guaranteeing their reaching maturity for harvest.

Gardeners all charge for their services, but not in coins. The price that they ask depends on the crop that the player asks them to watch. For example, the price for protecting a patch of potatoes is 2 buckets of compost while the price for protecting a patch of onions is 1 sack of potatoes. They will also accept your payment-items in noted form. Unfortunately, '''gardeners will not watch herbs or flowers. '''When the player has 50% favour with Hosidius House, in Zeah, the allotment, flower, and herb patches there will be protected by the local farmer at all times. Players can also unlock a single herb patch which is perpetually protected from disease, for free, by completing My Arm's Big Adventure.

Getting Started
Note: A common mistake for players who are new to farming is that they tend to wait next to their patch for their crops to fully grown to become harvestable. Reasons why players wait is because crops do have the tendency to become diseased. However, many crops take more than an hour to grow fully, and most introductory crops take over half an hour. Do not waste your time standing near the farming patches wondering when your crops will grow; instead, do something else. If you fear your crops will become diseased there are a few ways to prevent this from happening while you are away (to most crops) and that will be further explained later. In addition, your plants will grow even if you are online playing or offline.

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. By completing this quest, players will also receive a pair of magic secateurs which, when worn, will increase the yield of crops by 10% while harvesting.

An uncommon, but helpful item is the Amulet of Nature. It is tradeable in its unenchanted form, but once enchanted cannot be traded. It can be bound to a patch by "using" the amulet on the patch. Once bound, and if worn, the amulet will alert you if your plant becomes diseased or has fully grown. You may also "rub" the amulet to check on your bound patch at any time. It can only be bound to one patch at a time, and you may only have one amulet. If worn when harvesting, the amulet will provide a 5% yield increase. This boost does not stack with the magic secateurs and takes precedence over them, so if magic secateurs are available to you it is recommended that you unequip the amulet before harvesting.

See Farming training for more information on levelling up.

Tools
For farming there are certain tools you will need to use, whether it's using a rake to clear a plot or digging up dead plants with a spade. Below is a table of the basic tools and their uses.

You can buy a lot of these tools along with compost in farming shops located below.


 * North of Catherby
 * North-west of Port Phasmatys
 * North of Ardougne
 * South-east of Falador
 * South-West of Zeah in Hosidius House

Tool storage
At any farming patch you will come across a Tool leprechaun whose job is to look after your farming tools.



You can store the following:

The Tool leprechaun will also swap herbs and finished produce into note form by using them on the NPC.
 * 1 Rake.
 * 1 Seed dibber.
 * 1 Spade.
 * 1 Trowel.
 * 1 secateurs (enchanted also)
 * 1 watering can (8)
 * 1-255 Bucket.
 * 1-255 Compost and Supercompost

Seeds
Seeds are essential in training the skill of farming, however, there are only a few ways in retrieving them. These include:
 * Pickpocketing Master Farmers
 * Stealing from Seed stalls
 * Monster drops
 * Bird's nests
 * Purchasing from other players

Compost
Patches treated with compost are less likely to become diseased. Using compost also increases the minimum and maximum yields on that patch, though it should be noted that this only works for one set of seeds. Once the crops are harvested, another bucket of compost must be applied to the patch in order to receive its effects.

To create compost you will need around 15 pieces of organic material, weeds and rotten fruit work. Put this in a Compost bin near a patch and close the lid and wait for around 60 minutes. Then, with an inventory of 15 empty buckets you can fill them all up with compost.

Supercompost is created in a similar way but the organic materials are different. For example you could use various herbs, berries and fruits. Supercompost also yields more crops than ordinary Compost.

Farming patches
For the locations of farming patches, see Farming/Patch locations.

Allotments
There are five allotments in RuneScape: south of Falador, north of Catherby, north-east of Ardougne, south-east corner of Great Kourend and West of Port Phasmatys. Each full allotment patch contains:


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

Completing the medium Falador Diary while farming the Farming patches at the allotment south of Falador gives 10% additional Farming experience.

Allotment
3 allotment seeds are needed to plant in each allotment patch. If paying a gardener to protect their crops, players must pay the gardener to protect each of the allotment patches within an allotment separately. The presence of a specific fully grown flower can protect particular allotment patches from getting diseased, as an alternative to paying a gardener to protect the patch.

Fully grown allotment patches can be harvested by clicking on the fully grown crops; harvests vary between 3 and 56 crops. After a patch has been harvested, it is cleared for re-planting. An additional single allotment patch can be found on Harmony Island, which be accessed after completing the Great Brain Robbery quest. A herb patch can also be found on Harmony Island, but requires the completion of the Morytania Diary.

Flower
A single flower seed is needed to plant in a flower patch. Most flowers yield 1 flower when harvested; this clears the patch.

Herb
A herb seed can planted in a herb patch. Harvests range between 3 and 18 grimy herbs. Using supercompost and magic secateurs a player will gain an average of 7.5 grimy herbs when harvesting a herb patch, with a range of between 5 and 27 grimy herbs.

After completing My Arm's Big Adventure, players can use My Arm's special herb patch, which never becomes diseased, at Trollheim.

Hops
There are four hops patches: north of Lumbridge, north of McGrubor's Wood, Yanille and Entrana. 4 hop seeds, or 3 jute seeds, are needed to plant in each hops patch. Harvests vary between 3 and 46 hops. After a hops patch has been harvested it will be cleared for re-planting.

Bush
There are 4 bush patches: west of the Champion's Guild, Rimmington, south of Ardougne, and south-west of Etceteria. One bush seed is needed to plant a bush. All bushes except poison ivy are susceptible to disease.

A player can check the health of and then harvest berries from fully grown bushes. This is done by hand and yields 4 berries. Unless a bush is dug up it will continue to regrow berries over time.

Trees
There are 5 tree patches: at Lumbridge, Varrock Castle, Falador Park, Taverley, and the Gnome Stronghold. As with other tree seeds, it must be used on a plant pot filled with soil to create a seedling. The seedling then needs to be watered. After a few minutes the seedling will turn into a sapling, which can then be planted in a tree patch.

A fully grown tree acts similarly to the trees that are used in the Woodcutting skill. After checking a tree's health players can cut it down using an axe to receive logs. As with non-player grown trees, there is a chance of a farmed tree dropping bird's nests. Once a tree is cut down it will leave a tree stump, which can be left to respawn or dug up to gain tree roots and to clear the patch. Players who do not wish to cut down and dig up a tree can use the right-click “clear” option on the tree to instantly remove it. Gardeners can also instantly remove a tree if they are paid.

Fruit tree
There are 5 fruit tree patches: at Gnome Stronghold, east of Catherby, west of Tree Gnome Village, Brimhaven, and Lletya. As with other tree seeds, before a fruit tree seed can be planted it must be used on a plant pot filled with soil to create a seedling. The seedling then needs to be watered. After a few minutes the seedling will turn into a sapling, which can be planted in a tree patch.

Once a fruit tree is fully grown the player may check its health and harvest it to receive 6 fruit. A fruit tree will continue to grow fruit over time, unless it is cut down and its stump dug up, with a new fruit regenerating every 45 minutes.

Special patches
The following plants may only be grown in their specific patches:

Temporary boosts

 * A Garden pie will boost a player's farming by +3.
 * Brown Spicy stew may boost a player's farming by up to +5. Requires partial completion of Recipe for Disaster.

Quest experience
It is possible to gain a total of 33,500 Farming experience by completing quests. Below is a list of quests that give farming experience:

Herbs, Allotments and Hops harvesting mechanism
Herbs, like allotments and hops and assuming they have not died from disease, work as follows:
 * 1) You start with 3 lives.
 * 2) Each time you harvest a crop, you roll the dice.
 * 3) If you roll successfully, you maintain your lives count.
 * 4) If you rolled unsuccessfully, you lose a life.
 * 5) You will repeat from Step 2 until you have lost all 3 lives and then the patch becomes empty.

At the minimum, the amount of items you will harvest will be equal to the amount of lives you started. If you use compost, you start with 4 lives instead. If you use supercompost, you start with 5 lives instead. Secateurs make you more likely to roll successfully by 10%, so you are statistically more likely to get more items, but not guaranteed.

Your Farming level will affect the likeliness of succeeding each time the dice rolls.

According to Mod Kieren, if you farm higher level herbs, you are less likely to lose a life, compared to farming lower level herbs. That being said, this difference will become much more minor as your farming level increases. At level 99, all herbs will have the same likeliness of succeeding.

In theory, if you rolled successfully every time, you'd get an infinite number of items.

Important Things to Remember
Try to complete Fairytale I - Growing Pains as soon as possible in order to get the magic secateurs, which increase your harvesting output by 10%.

Players can use the allotment patches, as well as the flower and herb patches without the need of Hosidius favour. The allotment patch becomes disease free after 50% Hosidius favour.

Those who have at least 35% Hosidius favour will have access to the spirit tree patch.

In addition, players with 65% favor will have access to the Vinery, where they can farm grapes after using saltpetre and grape seeds on a vine patch.

If a farmer is looking after Trees or Bushes, it is preferred not to use compost unless you want some exp for adding compost. Trees and bushes have a fixed yield unlike allotments and herbs.