Farming training

This is a guide for training Farming.

Introduction
Gaining experience in the farming skill begins with harvesting of allotments, hops, and herbs and later turns into crop running to checking on the health of trees and fruit trees. The fastest and most effective training in farming requires the use of all the teleporting methods available to a player to farming patches across Runescape. Additionally, the amulet of nature can be helpful while crop running as it will allow an aspiring farmer to keep tabs on farming patches. Lunar Magic is helpful for its Fishing guild and Catherby teleports as well as its cure plant and fertile soil spells, all of which are available at 87 Magic after completion of the Lunar Diplomacy quest.

It is recommended that the player become very familiar with the Farming skill and crop running pages.

Recommended quests
NOTE: It is possible to bypass the relatively slow early levels of farming entirely by doing quests. Doing Fairytale I - Growing Pains then Forgettable Tale of a Drunken Dwarf followed by Garden of Tranquillity and lastly My Arm's Big Adventure will net the player 21.5k Farming experience (level 34) with no Farming training required before or between the quests.
 * Tree Gnome Village - Access to spirit trees for transportation.
 * The Grand Tree - Access to Spirit Tree in the Tree Gnome Stronghold (if you have completed the Tree Gnome Village quest) and access to the Gnome glider transportation system.
 * Fairytale I - Growing Pains - Rewarded with Magic secateurs.
 * Fairytale II - Cure a Queen - Access to Fairy ring network. (Only need to start the quest, you do not need any of the stats required)
 * My Arm's Big Adventure - Access to disease-free herb patch near Trollheim.
 * Ghosts Ahoy - For Ectophial

Recommended magical items

 * Amulet of glory with charges
 * Ring of Charos
 * Amulet of nature
 * Magic secateurs - Increases yield of allotments, hops, and herbs by 10%.
 * Ectophial - Allows quick and free access to farming patches northwest of Port Phasmatys.

Levels 1-14

 * Seed Table
 * Farming/Patch locations
 * Crop running

Beginners part 1
This section is intended for players that do not have the ability to transport across Runescape - usually low level players. Start off with using the allotment patch south of Falador and the hops patch north of Lumbridge.


 * Always use compost on the cleared farming patch to increase the harvest yield.
 * Plant marigolds in the flower patch but do not harvest them - your allotments are not protected until the seed is fully grown. Progressively plant the allotment seeds appropriate to your level. When growing cabbages, pay the gardener to watch over your crops because they are not protected by the marigolds. The only crops to keep are the onion and tomato harvests - these are used as payments to gardeners. The rest can be used as ingredients to make compost.
 * Herbs can be planted, starting at level 9, but are not recommended unless the harvests are needed as ingredients to train Herblore. They are difficult to keep from becoming diseased. Using supercompost is costly and frequent inspections for disease is time consuming.
 * Plant barley seeds in the hops patch and pay the gardener to watch over them. Bypass planting hammerstone seeds and advance through to Jute seeds.

Crop running
This section is intended for higher level players but are just starting to train in Farming. A vegetable run with the allotment patches south of Falador, north of Catherby, and north of Ardougne are sufficient at this stage.


 * Plant marigolds in the flower patch but do not harvest them - the allotments are not protected until the flower is fully grown. Progressively plant the allotment seeds appropriate to your level and use compost to increase the harvest yield. When growing cabbages, pay the gardener to watch over your crops because they are not protected by the marigolds. The only crops to keep are the onion and tomato harvests - these are used as payments to gardeners. The rest can be used as ingredients to make compost.
 * Herbs- always use supercompost.
 * Hops can be ignored unless the harvests are needed as ingredients to train Cooking. Hops patches are not nearly as convenient to standard teleportation sites, have only one patch versus allotment sites which have 2 allotment, 1 flower, 1 herb patch, and a compost bin.
 * There is no need to use supercompost at this stage. Gardeners are only needed for cabbages.

Note

 * Those who do not want to start farming with level 1 can do Goblin Generals sub quest in Recipe for Disaster quest. This increases their farming level to 9, allowing them to plant cabbages immediately.
 * Another good way to bypass the early levels is to play Sorceress' Garden. Aside from decent Thieving experience, a Farming level of 15-20 can be reached over a few hours, making it a good option if the player is interested in advancing Thieving as well.

Levels 15-30
This is the point where a crop running is used to gain efficient experience in farming.
 * Seed Table
 * Farming/Patch locations
 * Crop running

Beginners part II
Continue to use the same patches as before. However, the player should improve his ability to teleport to additional allotment and hops sites.


 * Tree runs can be performed by running to them instead of teleporting, exclude visiting the Gnome Stronghold tree patch unless you are able to use tree spirits from Tree Gnome Village.
 * Include the allotment and hops patches on your way to each tree run patch.
 * Bank all armour and equipment before starting a run to increase running distance and decrease the travel time between tree patches.
 * Plant sweetcorn seeds at level 20 and use supercompost to increase the yield. Pay the gardener to watch over the crops until a scarecrow can be used to protect it from disease at level 23.
 * At level 26, do not plant sweetcorn seeds anymore. Remove the scarecrow and plant a Limpwurt seed in the flower patch instead. Go back to planting tomato seeds and using compost in the allotment patch. This time, pay the gardener to watch over the tomatoes.

Crop running
The main focus here should be on tree runs and incorporate fruit tree runs (see crop running) at level 27.


 * Wait to plant sweetcorn seeds until level 23 when a scarecrow can be used to protect the sweetcorn from disease since hops were relatively ignored. At this point use supercompost to increase the yield.
 * At level 26, do not plant sweetcorn seeds anymore. Remove the scarecrow and plant a Limpwurt seed in the flower patch instead. Go back to planting tomato seeds and using compost in the allotment patch. This time, pay the gardener to watch over the tomatoes. Don't forget to bring some baskets when harvesting the Tomatoes!
 * Perform vegetable runs between tree runs.
 * Start a fruit tree run at level 27 with apple seeds and use supercompost to increase the harvest.
 * At level 30, start planting willow seeds.

Levels 31-48
At this point, running to each patch is no longer practical.


 * Seed table
 * Farming/Patch locations
 * Crop running


 * Continue to progress through allotments, using supercompost to treat the soil.
 * Include allotment patch in Port Phasmatys to the vegetable run.
 * Requires Ectophial.
 * At level 31, when planting strawberries, plant Limpwurt seeds in the flower patch.
 * At level 36, include bush runs with Dwellberry seeds. Three vegetable runs can be performed between each bush runs.
 * Perform bush runs between tree runs.
 * Watermelons can either be used as an ingredient for supercompost or as a payment for Jangerberry bush (6).
 * Perform your tree run immediately after logging in. Plant the tree seed which will grow during the time you plan on playing. Perform a tree run right before you log off and plant the highest tree seed you are able.

Levels 49-99
At this point, time is the limiting factor in quickly gaining experience because normal trees and fruit trees take several hours to grow (see Seed Table). These levels are dominated by the availability of seeds which are rare and expensive. It is recommended to constantly check for the next two higher level tree/fruit tree seeds.


 * Seed table
 * Farming/Patch locations
 * Crop running


 * Add the bush run and hops run to your training (see crop running).
 * A typical sequence would be - fruit tree run, several vegetable runs and hops runs between each bush run, several bush runs between each tree run.
 * Supercompost should be used with every type of seed planted at this point - including normal trees.
 * Special seeds should be ignored unless they are to used to train Herblore skill with the exception of Calquat tree seeds.
 * Include Calquat trees in your fruit tree run at level 72.