Last time we talked about the very important Gardening Moghancement as well as the elemental affinities of the plants and pots involved. If you haven't read it, I would strongly suggest going back and reading it now as everything from here on out will be based on it. This time, we will look at basic strategies for growing your plants. These are the fundamental guidelines you will need to get the most out of gardening.

"Methodology" not "Method"

The first thing you need to understand when you start seriously gardening is that it really isn't like the other tradeskills in the game. In other tradeskills you have "recipes" that if you follow, you will get a certain item: "I used Fire crystals with Rock Salt and Pipiras to get Roast Pipras".



With gardening, it's more about understanding the process behind what is going on in the garden. If a "recipe" were like a "method", then what I am talking about is a "methodology". You dont start out saying:

"I will harvest Thundermelons and so I will plant Dark Crystals on Darksday and Earth Crystals on Watersday and then Harvest on Firesday"

you start out saying:

"I want to harvest a fruit item, so I start by planting fruit seeds on a day that syncs with the pot/seeds I am using, and then I will adjust my feed and harvest as the plant matures".

Because it is not about "recipes" you should take every recipe guide you find for gardening online with a grain of salt. The ultimate way to garden is to not shoot for specific items, but rather shoot for classes of items and then narrow your selection as the plant matures.

The Methodology of Gardening

In growing any type of plant, there are three basic steps: Planting, Feeding, and Harvesting. You plant the crop by placing a seed or embryonic plant in a pot. You feed the crop by feeding a crystal to the plant (or not). You harvest by pulling the plant and obtaining a yield. However, when you do each of these things will drastically affect what you are going to get. If you plant/seed/harvest on days when you shouldn't, you will get one of the various "junk" crops (Little Worms, Rock Salt, etc.) Since we want crops that are not junk, let's look at the basics.



* Planting

If you are going after a crop that is not junk and not a crystal item (cluster, stack, etc), then you want to plant nearest the new moon on either of the following days:

• When the element of the seed and the day are the same.
• When the element of the seed is strong versus the element of the day.

However, if you are going after a crystal item (such as a cluster), then you should plant on one of the following days:

• Lightsday
• Darksday
• The day that the crystal you want is weak to (in other words, if I wanted Wind Crystals I see that Wind is weak to Ice, so I plant on Iceday)

* Feeding

If you are going after a crop that is not junk, then you want to feed crystals that are either:

• The same element as the day of the crystal feeding.
• Strong against the element of the day.

As an example, if I wanted Wind Crystals, and I planted on Iceday, I would then feed the Ice crystal on either Iceday or Windsday. Likewise, if I planted Fruit Seeds on Firesday (to get a fruit item) and it is now Watersday then I should feed a Water Crystal or a Lightning Crystal.

* Harvesting

The proper harvesting time is perhaps the most difficult to coordinate of them all. In a nutshell, the closest it is to a Full Moon (do /clock and see the percentage) the larger/better the crop will be. Basically, think of the moon phase percentage as being the percentage of the best crop you can get. A moon phase percentage of 10% will yield far less worthwhile items than a moon phase percentage of 90%.



Do not be too afraid to let the plant grow a bit more before harvesting. Think of it as "ripening" as you wait for the moon phase percentage to creep up even higher. Of course, you do need to harvest the crop before too long or else the crop will rot and you will lose it.



The big caveat with harvesting is that you also should not harvest the crop on the day where the element of the plant, the element of the pot, and the element of the feed crystal is strong versus the element of the day. If you do harvest at this time, you will get Rock Salt (which makes sense, think of it as "over-cooking" the crop). In other words, if I had Grain Seeds (Fire) planted in a Brass Pot (Fire) that was fed a Fire Crystal, then Harvesting on Iceday will give me a whole bunch of Rock Salt.

Next time

Now you have the basic ideas behind gardening down. Using the information in these articles thus far you can already start growing and harvesting your plants in an informed fashion. However, don't think this is the end. Next time we will look at some advanced gardening techniques involving growing high priced items for sale or synth. Stay tuned...