Farming is a members' 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 and 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.
The current minimum requirement to be ranked (at approximately rank 655,757) on the hiscores for Farming is level 15. As of 17 November 2012, there are 27,086 current members that have achieved level 99 in Farming.
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 it, which means that players will not need to compete to gather their own tree's wood.
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 BEFORE planting their seeds, 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, but is not cheap; it is usually 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, obtained as drops from an enormous variety of monsters, and are rewards from the Vinesweeper activity. Any lower or intermediate level seed is usually dirt 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 pre-set 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. Unfortunately, Gardeners will not watch herbs or flowers. Players can, however, unlock a single herb patch which is perpetually protected from disease, for free, by completing My Arm's Big Adventure.
Getting Started
Notice: It is a common mistake for players who are new to members and/or farming to wait next to their patch for the crop they have planted to mature to the point where it can be harvested. 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 do anything; instead, find another skill to train nearby such as woodcutting or fishing, and check back in on your patch at regular intervals, usually about every 5–8 minutes, to water your patch and make sure it isn't diseased.
A good way to jumpstart your farming is to do the questFairy Tale I - Growing Pains. The experience reward will raise level 1 Farming to level 17. By doing the following quests in the series (which require a substantially higher farming level), players will also receive a Magic watering can, which never needs refilling, 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.
The patches
Farming patches come in a wide variety, and each type of patch can only be used to grow its designated type of crops (for example, players cannot grow sweetcorn in a fruit tree patch).
Allotment patches
The primary training patches are the allotment patches. There are four of these in the game, South of Falador (North of the cabbage-port patch), north of Catherby, north-east of Ardougne and between Canifis and Port Phasmatys. The gardeners found at these patches will protect the player's vegetable patches, but not the herb or flower patches. Each full allotment patch contains:
2 vegetable patches
1 flower patch
1 herb patch
1 compost bin
Note: Through various quests, players can gain access to a single additional vegetable patch (The Great Brain Robbery), and an herb patch (My Arm's Big Adventure), which is the only herb patch in the game with a gardener. Also, there is an extra flower patch found in the wilderness after completing the quest Spirit of Summer. However, these bonus patches are nowhere near each other, and do not constitute an extra allotment.
Hops patches
Hops patches grow barley, jute, and all of the varieties of hops, which are used in brewing. They are scattered around RuneScape and are often somewhat remote. There are a total of 4 hops patches in the game, one north of Lumbridge, another north of McGrubor's wood, one in central Yanille, and the final one found on the isle of Entrana. These patches all have attending gardeners.
Wood-bearing tree patches
Tree patches are where players can grow their own trees for Woodcutting. Like other trees, it's needed to first plant a seed on a plant pot, wait for it to grow into a sapling and then plant on a tree patch. Trees take several hours to grow, but give a large amount of experience when mature. There are a total of 5 of these patches in the game; one behind Lumbridge castle, one in Varrock castle's courtyard, one in Falador park, one south of Taverley, and the final one in the Tree Gnome Stronghold. High level players often train on these patches by growing maple, yew, and magic trees for the large amount of experience they give when mature. All of these patches have gardeners.
There are also a number of oddball patches found around RuneScape, most of which are one of a kind. Most of these crops take several hours to grow, and have very specialized uses, some are related to quests. At least two are used only once, during their related quests.
These patches include:
The three Spirit Tree patches. One is found in Port Sarim, one in Brimhaven, and the last one on Etceteria. These patches all have gardeners. Spirit trees take nearly 3 full days to grow, and players may only have 1 of them grown at any one time. (2 if they complete The Prisoner of Glouphrie quest.)
The Belladonna and Evil turnip patches, both located at Draynor Manor. These patches do not have gardeners. Belladona takes several hours to grow, while Evil turnips are unique in that they take about 10 minutes to mature.
The cactus patch, found on the northeast outskirts of Al Kharid. This crop takes several hours to grow. Ayesha can be paid 6 cadava berries to watch over this patch.
The calquat tree patch, found in Tai Bwo Wannai. This tree takes more than 12 hours to grow, and gives a large amount of experience. This patch has a gardener.
These patches are only used once, during the quests which they are related to:
The Beanstalk patch, found in Taverley. It is related to the Grim Tales quest, after which the patch will have a beanstump left in it, which cannot be removed.
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 and causes tree seedlings to grow into saplings twice as fast.
Equipment held by Tool Leprechaun.Spade - harvest or clear patches, also to remove dead plants and tree stumps
After Fairytale I - Growing Pains, you receive Magic secateurs which, when wielded, increase harvest yields by 10% from allotments, herb and hop patches.
Since the update on the 6 December2011 the player need only carry a watering can, buckets and compost to farm effectively, as the rest of the tools can be carried on the Toolbelt. However the magic secateurs are still recommended due to the increased yield.
Tool leprechauns
Tool leprechauns have two important functions:
You can note any crop by using it on a Leprechaun. This is an essential service as the produce from a single allotment can sometimes exceed 40 items. Leprechauns will not note logs from any source. Interestingly, the leprechaun in the farming patch south of Falador will not note cabbages, probably because people were abusing this function to gather vast quantities of cabbages. Also odd is that Leprechauns will note Ashes, probably because when you pick white lillies they turn into ash.
Tool Leprechauns function as a storage shed. They will hold on to and safely store (only one of) all of the basic tools that players use for Farming, as well as holding onto a stash of a maximum of 255 empty buckets, 255 buckets of compost, 255 buckets of supercompost, 255 plant cures and 5 scarecrow. However, they will not store seeds or crops. Tool leprechauns are found at every farming patch patch in the game, giving access to the player's tools anytime they want to farm. 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.
Additional tools
Plant pots - for planting tree seeds. When watered, the seedling grows into a sapling after about 5 minutes, which can then be planted in a wood or fruit tree patch.
Hatchet - for removing any trees from a patch before digging up the stump and planting a new one.
Empty sacks - needed to make payments. Once filled with 10 of the same vegetable, gardeners will accept them as payment to watch over nearby crops. Empty sacks can be purchased from any farm shop or made with the Crafting skill.
Baskets - needed to make payments. Once filled with 5 of the same fruit gardeners will accept them as payment to watch over a nearby crop. Empty baskets can be purchased from any farm shop or made with the Crafting skill.
Plant cure - for curing any crop (except trees, which require the use of secateurs) of disease.
Add compost or supercompost to lower disease rate and increase harvest yields.
Plant your seeds (or seedling) using a seed dibber (or trowel for seedlings).
Water the patch with the watering can (if applicable).
Pay the gardener to watch your crop (if able).
Weeds can then be added to a Compost Bin to create compost.
Come back later, and harvest your crops.
Preparing compost
There are 2 types of compost; regular compost and supercompost. Regular compost provides a slight benefit when used, slightly decreasing the chance of disease, and modestly boosting yields. Supercompost's effect is much more pronounced, reducing chances of disease by 3-4 times the factor of regular compost, and significantly boosting crop yields.
Preparing regular compost
Add a total of 15 items to the compost bin. Items such as weeds, cabbage, redberries, potatoes, and many other low level farming crops will work.
Close the lid on the bin.
Allow the compost to rot for 45 minutes.
Return, open the lid, and scoop out the compost with 15 empty buckets.
Note: If you place 15 tomatoes into the compost bin and let it rot you will obtain rotten tomatoes instead of compost. Adding 1 of any other item such as a weed, or a cabbage instead of the 15th tomato will result in regular compost.
Preparing supercompost.
Note: If you have Lunar Magic, you can cast Fertile Soil and that will apply super compost. The spell requires 83 magic, 3 astral runes, 2 nature runes and 15 earth runes. It is recommended that you take a staff of earth (or equvilant).
Supercompost is simple to prepare but there is one rule that must be followed: NO LOW LEVEL ITEMS CAN BE ADDED TO THE BIN. If a single low level item is placed in the bin with other items which would usually generate supercompost, the entire batch will turn out as regular compost.
The most common way to make supercompost is to add 15 pineapples to the bin. Pineapples are easy to obtain from several NPC's, such as Dell Monti, and are fairly abundant in other ways and thus are fairly cheap.
Add 15 high level farming produce items to the bin. DO NOT ADD ANY LOW LEVEL ITEMS.
Close the lid on the bin.
Allow the compost to rot for 45 minutes.
Return, open the lid, and scoop out the compost with 15 empty buckets.
Allotments give fast experience for low level farming. Allotment seeds are planted in an allotment patch by using three seeds on any patch. Allotments should be watered frequently with a watering can until fully grown.
Harvests vary between 3 and 56 crops and is done by clicking on the fully grown patch. After a patch has been harvested, it is cleared for re-planting. Allotments are susceptible to disease which will always kill crops unless cured. Players can visit here to find out the methods to prevent this.
Refer to the following table for comprehensive information on the crops that can be planted in these patches;
Level
Seed
Protection
Growth time <ref>N×10 mins means the crop will grow a little and can be watered again for each 10 minutes. This happens N times until it is fully grown.</ref>
Experience
Cost
Profit <ref name="assumption">Assume 10 crops are harvested.</ref>
Uses
Flower <ref>All allotments can also be protected by White lily.</ref>
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. For more information on protecting your allotments with flowers, read the section on keeping the crops alive below.
Refer to the following table for comprehensive information on the crops that can be planted in these patches;
Level
Seed
Protection
Growth time <ref>N×5 mins means the crop will grow a little and can be watered again for each 5 minutes. This happens N times until it is fully grown.</ref>
Experience
Cost
Profit
Uses
Plant
Check
Harvest
Total <ref>Most flowers yield 1 flower when picked, but woad leaves and limpwurt roots will yield 3 leaves/roots.</ref>
4×20 mins <ref>N×20 mins means the crop will grow a little and can be watered again for each 20 minutes. This happens N times until it is fully grown.</ref>
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.
Refer to the following table for comprehensive information on the crops that can be planted in these patches;
Level
Seed
Protection
Growth time <ref>N×10 mins means the crop will grow a little and can be watered again for each 10 minutes. This happens N times until it is fully grown.</ref>
Experience
Cost
Profit <ref name="assumption">Assume 10 hops are harvested.</ref>
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 27 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 or toolbelt. 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.
Refer to the following table for comprehensive information on the crops that can be planted in these patches:
Level
Seed
Protection
Growth time <ref>N×20 mins means the crop will grow a little and can be watered again for each 20 minutes. This happens N times until it is fully grown.</ref>
Experience
Cost
Profit <ref name="assumption">Assume 7 herbs are picked.</ref>
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 or tool belt. 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.
Growth time <ref>N×20 mins means the crop will grow a little and can be watered again for each 20 minutes. This happens N times until it is fully grown.</ref>
Experience
Cost
Profit <ref name="assumption">Assume 4 berries are picked.</ref>
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. Also, if you have the below-mentioned tools in your toolbelt, you don't need them in your inventory.
First, an empty plant pot may be used on any farming patch, even if something is growing in it, to fill the pot with soil. Use a single seed on a filled plant pot 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. 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.
Note: Wood trees and fruit trees do not need watering, and if sick, require 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.
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.
Refer to the following table for comprehensive information on the crops that can be planted in these patches;
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.
Refer to the following table for comprehensive information on the crops that can be planted in these patches;
Cooking apples can be used to cook Apple pies as well as put into a basket to pay gardeners to look after Banana trees, Willow trees, and Strawberries.
Oranges are edible and restore 20 life points when consumed, used in gnome cooking. A basket of oranges can be paid to gardeners to protect Maple Trees.
Note: Although all fruit trees take at least 16 hours 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:
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.
Disease and death
As a crop grows, it progresses through a number of dirscrete growth steps called growth cycles. Each crop takes a different amount of time to complete a growth cycle. Once a crop reaches the end of a growth cycle it will either advance a step closer to maturity or become diseased. If a crop completes a growth cycle while diseased, it will die; there is no way to treat a dead crop. Dead crops will yield nothing, and must be cleared from the plot with a spade before another crop can be planted.
The players farming level has no effect on the chance of your crops becoming diseased, however higher levelled crops appear to have a lower risk of dying. In general if no measures are taken to prevent it, approximately 10% of growth cycles will result in disease.
Disease prevention
A farming plot can suffer from disease and die.
There are many techniques to reduce or prevent crop disease. Depending on the plot and the crop planted, it may be worthwhile to use the techniques below.
Gardeners
Pay a gardener to watch over the crop. This will prevent the patch from dying. However, a patch can still become diseased. The gardener will treat the diseased patch, but the growth time will increase due to the time lost while diseased. The payment varies and is shown in the seed charts above. This is recommended for expensive or long growing seeds such as trees and fruit trees. Gardeners will not watch over herbs or flowers.
Note: Gardeners can be paid with noted items.
Flowers
Certain fully grown flower crops will provide complete protection from disease to a related vegetable crop. Flowers must be fully grown before they can provide protection to the surrounding allotments. Which flowers protect which crops is noted in the seed tables above. Mature flowers may be left unharvested in their plot so that they perpetually provide protection.
Composting
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 whenever possible.
Watering
Watering a patch with a watering can reduces the chance of a healthy crop sickening at the end of the current growth cycle, and may increase yield slightly. Only allotment, flower, and hops patches can be watered.
Disease cures
If a crop contracts disease, the disease can be cured. Disease should be cured immediately after being detected, and can be done in several ways:
Plant cure
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 any gardener at each patch or at a farming shop for about 25 coins each.
Pruning
Diseased trees and bushes can only be cured by pruning away the affected area with secateurs or magic secateurs.
Another lunar spell, Remote Farm can be cast to view the status of all the players patches and cure any disease from anywhere in Gielinor. This spell is unlocked at Livid Farm.
While there are several other minor ways to gain farming experience, the vast bulk of all experience gained in the farming skill will be obtained while harvesting crops.
For the majority of plants the major factor that influences how much produce is harvested is affected by the player's Farming level. Using magic secateurs or an Amulet of nature, and the quality of the compost applied are other factors that will boost harvest size, but less significantly.
Once fully grown almost all crops are harvested with a spade, but a select few can be hand picked requiring no tool at all. Fruit from fruit trees, berries from bushes, and flowers for example, are picked by hand. If your inventory becomes full while harvesting, Tool Leprechauns can change produce into note form. Simply "use" a produce item on one of the leprechauns and he will swap it and all identical items in your inventory for a stack of notes.
Willow branches are the only products that can be harvested from the wood-bearing tree. Otherwise, a wood tree is cut down for logs and dug up for roots. Tool Leprechauns will not note any form of logs.
Checking health
For some of the plants that take longer to grow, such as bushes and fruit trees, the primary experience is actually rewarded simply for the plant reaching maturity, not for harvesting its produce. This experience reward is gained from the "check health" option, which appears once the crop has reached maturity. Once checked, the player gains experience and the option is no longer available for that individual plant. Afterwards, the player may begin harvesting produce from the plant. "Check health" can only be performed once for every seed/seedling that reaches maturity.
Minor experience
In addition to experience gained from harvesting and checking health, minor experience can be gained by doing the following farming tasks:
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.
Planting seeds or seedlings (varies per item planted)
Methods to maximize minor experience
Compost mound spamming
If players wish to stay at just one allotment and grow their plants there, they can increase their exp income by using the Compost mound familiar's Generate compost scroll to repeatedly fill the bin with compost, or, if they are lucky, supercompost. In this way players can then essentially generate a continuous stream of farming exp by repeatedly filling up buckets of supercompost/compost, emptying them, and repeating. 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.
Quest XP
The following quests give the displayed amounts of experience in farming:
A player wearing a Farming cape and performing the Skillcape emote.
A cider will boost farming by 1, this is brewed using the Cooking skill. Also lowers attack and strength by 2.
A Mature cider will boost farming by 2, this is brewed using the Cooking skill. If used for a boost during a quest involving combat, bring a restore potion since it reduces some melee stats.
A Garden pie will boost farming by 3, this is made using the Cooking skill.
A brown spicy stew has a chance of boosting or lowering farming by anywhere from 1 to 6 (available as a result of the Evil Dave sub quest of Recipe for Disaster).
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. Above farming level 75 this equates to a boost of at least 4, which means it is better than a Garden Pie.
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.
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 tradeable.
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 finishing 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.
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.
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.
The Giant Ent increases yield when harvesting fruit from fruit trees, bushes, cacti, and nightshade by a varying amount up to 50%. When harvesting there is a chance of receiving two of an item instead of the usual one, however you will not gain experience for the duplicate item.
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.
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.
The RuneScape login screen during the release of Farming.
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.
Compost×2
3
1,047
207
9
501
.png){kind=small}
1
68
4
.png){kind=small}
21,621
2
.png){kind=small}
.png){kind=small}
