_________________________________________________________________________
| / /
| / Intro to Farming /
| / /
|/_________________________________________________________________________/
|
| Farming is where it all begins, in more ways than one. It's the cornerstone
| of the game's early development (although cows later take the crown as most
| profitable), and it's likely to take the largest portion of your in-game
| time.
|
| The concept behind farming is simple: till the soil with your hoe, plant
| crop seeds, water them daily with your watering can, and wait for them to
| grow. When they mature, pick the fruit or vegetable from them and sell it
| (or give it, or use it in a recipe - whatever you'd like to do, though the
| majority of your crops will likely end up getting sold).
|
| In planting crops, there are a couple aspects to pay attention to. First of
| all, pay attention to seasons. Different crops grow in different seasons -
| although unlike past Harvest Moon games, crops can grow in seasons other
| than their "main" season. For example, strawberries - a Spring crop, can
| grow in Summer as well. However, it's always more profitable to plant crops
| in their "main" season, so focus on doing that.
|
| Secondly, there are two types of crops: there are one-time sprouting crops
| and there are re-growing crops. One-time crops are crops whose soil is
| returned to normal after picking them - a new crop can be planted in its
| spot once it's picked. Re-growing crops are more like vines - when you pick
| the fruit or vegetable, the vine stays behind and grows another fruit after
| a few more days. Typically, re-growing crops are more profitable, as the
| time to grow a second fruit from a single vine or stalk is usually much
| shorter than the time to grow a whole-new crop.
|
| If this is still confusing, consider this example: potatoes vs. corn. For
| potatoes, you plant a single seed in the ground, wait a few days and pull
| the potato: one seed, one potato. For the corn, though, you plant a single
| seed in the ground and a corn stalk grows. The corn grows from this stalk,
| but when you pick the corn, the stalk remains - allowing another ear of
| corn to grow a few days later.
|
| Farming is especially prevalent in Spring and Summer, and has become more
| relevant in Fall in recent Harvest Moon games. Winter, though, is the down
| season for farming - with snow on the ground, not much will grow, so make
| sure you either have enough money saved up or enough animals in your barn
| to keep you through winter. Unlike past Harvest Moon games, there are
| Winter crops, but they aren't very profitable at all.
|
| Crops that grow have different qualities: Decent, Good, Perfect and
| Shining. The crop quality will depend on what soil quality the crop is
| planted in. There are five different qualities of soil, rating from
| low-quality, light, sandy soil to high-quality, dark, muddy soil. The
| better the soil quality, the higher-quality the resultant crops grown in it
| will be.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
// //
// Farming //
// "Farming looks mighty easy when your //
// plow is a pencil and you're a thousand //
// miles from the corn field." -President //
// Dwight D. Eisenhower //
// //
//___________________________________________________________________//
|/
| _________________________________________________________________________
| / /
| / Farming Preparation /
| / /
|/_________________________________________________________________________/
|
| Before you plow in and start planting, you'll want to know the basics
| behind tilling the land, planting crops and watering the seeds. That's what
| this section is for.
|
| You start the game with nine turnip seeds, a hoe and a watering can. That's
| all you need to start planting. Note, though, that you'll want to get more
| seeds really, really soon. Maybe even right away.
|
|\______________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
| Farming Basics \
| \
| Raising crops is a fairly simple system. using the hoe, you till a few
| spots of soil, then plant some seeds. Water the seeds each day (unless it's
| raining) and they'll begin to sprout. Keep watering them until they bare
| fruit, then stand next to it and press A to pick the crop from the ground.
| If you're not sure if it's ready yet, press A anyway -- you'll pick it if
| it's ready.
|
| There are some extremely basic things you need to know about crops before
| getting started:
| - Crops are seasonal. If you try to plant a crop out of season, it might
| sprout (I haven't confirmed if crops grow out-of-season in Animal
| Parade), but it'll take longer to grow. So, check the season of your
| crop. When you're buying from Marimba Farm, they'll only sell in-season
| seeds, so you won't have to worry there unless you buy some seeds and
| hold on to them for a while.
|
| - All crops are not created equal. They have many different
| characteristics: different growth times, different sale prices,
| different usages. The growth times are especially important, though:
| make sure there's enough time left in this season to grow the crop.
| Don't plant a crop that takes 8 days to grow on the 26th of the month.
|
| - Some crops are multi-harvest. That means that when you pick the crop
| from the ground, something will be left behind. This is the vine: keep
| watering it and another crop will sprout. These are usually more
| profitable because it takes much less time for the second (and third,
| and fourth...
|
| - Crops have quality ratings. Four, to be specific: Decent, Good, Perfect
| and Shining. Better-quality crops will sell for more and are more liked
| by the villagers. You can find more about crop qualities in the
| Mechanics section.
|
| - Soil has quality ratings, too. Five, to be specific: Bad, Poor, Decent,
| Good, Best. The better the soil quality, the better the crop quality.
| Most crops will also grow faster in better soil. More info on that is
| in the Mechanics section too.
|
| - Hurricanes and blizzards may destroy crops. They won't wipe your field
| clean, but you'll notice random crops throughout your field have
| disappeared. The effect of a hurricane or blizzard is set when you go
| to bed on the night when the hurricane has already been happening, so
| you won't see the crops destroyed until the next day -- but that means
| if too many crops are destroyed, you can reset to the previous night
| (if you saved that night) and try again.
|
|\________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
| Getting Started \
| \
| When you start off, you're given a decent-sized field. You don't get to
| choose it this time around, there's a single starter field. You'll already
| have a few crops growing as a gift from the folks at Marimba Farm, but
| you'll need to grow more (a LOT more) to succeed in the game. So let's go
| over the basics.
|
| You might notice that there are rocks, saplings, trees or weeds in the way
| of where you want to plant some crops. Isn't that annoying? To clear out
| rocks, you'll need the Hammer; to clear out saplings and trees, you'll need
| the Axe.
|
| Weeds can be taken care of with the sickle (you can check that section for
| info on that as well), but can also be pulled by hand. Beware though,
| pulling weeds will use a lot more stamina than slashing them with the
| sickle. Weeds also have a deeper impact than just looking ugly and getting
| in the way, but that will be detailed in the Mechanics section.
|
| Once you've cleared a bit of land to plant your crops, you need two things:
| a hoe and some seeds. Equip the hoe to till the soil -- you'll notice it
| changes to a hole-looking square of land. Then, equip the seeds. Each seed
| you buy is enough for one single tilled square (no more six seed-packs like
| in Tree of Tranquility). You can plant them one by one, or in a 3x3 square
| by holding down A while the seeds are equipped, if you have more than 9 of
| them.
|
| If you make a mistake, don't worry. You can dig seeds back up with the hoe
| (though you don't actually get to plant them again) the same way you tilled
| the soil. If the crops sprout, you can chop them down with the sickle like
| weeds if you need to clear that land.
|
|\____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
| Buying Seeds \
| \
| The above section mentioned needing a hoe and seeds. You get the hoe
| automatically, but the seeds you'll have to purchase. There are several
| places in the game to purchase seeds. Most of your time will be spent at
| Marimba Farm, over in the Flute Fields. They sell almost all the seeds in
| the game, at the cheapest price. However, they won't stock all the seeds
| initially -- you'll need to sell some crops first.
| As with all shops, you can also call Marimba Farm to order seeds, but
| beware: if you order the seeds by phone, you'll pay a lot more (double, I
| think). Fortunately, though, you can use the phone service 24 hours a day,
| 7 days a week -- so if you're in a bind and the shop is closed, give them a
| call.
|
| Once you've moved through the plot a bit, a kid named Taylor will show up.
| Taylor runs a phone-order-only seed shop. He doesn't sell any seeds you
| can't get at Marimba Farm, and you'll pay the higher price. However,
| there's still a benefit: Marimba Farm will add items to their inventory
| slowly as you progress through the game, while Taylor will stock all the
| seeds right when he moves in. So, if Marimba Farm isn't selling something
| you need yet, give Taylor a ring.
|
| There are a few other places to buy seeds as well. Some Festivals will sell
| some seeds, and there are also some seeds you can only buy at Pineapple Inn
| on Toucan Island.
|
|\____________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
| Seasonal Seed Mixes \
| \
| Marimba Farm and Taylor also sell Seasonal Seed Mixes. Seasonal seed mixes
| are a bit of a gamble. They each can contain any type of seed for that
| season -- including ones that aren't yet sold at Marimba Farm, which can be
| useful if Taylor hasn't moved in. However, there's no way of determining
| what the seeds will be, and mixed seed bags typically cost slightly more
| than the average of the crops for the season. Plus you have to mess with
| different growth times and thus wait longer to re-plant, sometimes they'll
| grow multi-harvest crops that don't disappear when you pick them...
| overall, they're a bit of a hassle.
|
| In general, you won't want to buy seasonal seed mixes for profit. But if
| there's a particular crop you're hoping for that isn't yet available
| elsewhere, you may as well take the gamble.
|
| _________________________________________________________________________
| / /
| / Farming Mechanics /
| / /
|/_________________________________________________________________________/
|
| So now you've bought some seeds, tilled the soil and planted your crops. Or
| you've just got the crops that your farm started with. Whichever. Either
| way, it's time to look at the best way to raise those crops.
|
|\________________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
| Basic Farming Mechanics \
| \
| Each crop has a pre-set growth time for the particular type of soil it's
| in. It will mature in that many days unless something slows it down. Note
| that when I say "X days", it means that it will take that many days of
| water before it will produce fruit. For example, if a crop takes 5 days to
| grow and you plant it on the 1st, you'll get fruit on the 6th: the 5 days
| of watering are the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th, so on the 6th it will be
| mature.
|
| What could slow down that growth though? Various things can slow down how
| long it takes your crops to mature:
| - Soil quality. Poorer soil quality will result in longer growth times
| for most (but not all) crops.
| - Missed watering days. Every time you miss a day of watering, the crop
| will take one day longer to grow. If you miss too many, though, the
| crop will die altogether.
| - Nearby weeds. If a crop has a weed anywhere in the 3x3 square
| surrounding it, its growth will be slowed, and the crop quality might
| be lowered too.
|
| Take care of those things and your crops will sprout in no time. But what
| about soil quality and crop quality? There's a bit more to say about
| that...
|
|\____________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
| Soil & Crop Quality \
| \
| When a crop matures and gets picked, it will have a quality associated with
| it: Decent, Good, Perfect or Shining. The quality is based on the type of
| soil the crop grew in.
|
| There are five levels of soil: Bad, Poor, Decent, Good and Best. You can
| identify different qualities by the color: darker spoils are better, though
| it might be hard to differentiate between adjacent levels (Bad & Poor, Good
| & Best, etc.) without looking at them side by side.
|
| Better soil quality results in faster growth times and better-quality
| crops. You'll notice that there's only a subtle increase in crop quality
| from soil to soil, but it does make a different in the long run. The chart
| below shows the odds of getting each crop quality in each soil quality.
| Note that I'm basing these numbers on only around 30 tests in each soil, so
| they may change with more information.
|
| Soil Quality
| Bad Poor Decent Good Perfect
| Decent 50% 40% 30% 25% 20%
| Good 30% 35% 35% 35% 30%
| Perfect 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%
| Shining 0% 0% 5% 5% 10%
|
| When you start planting crops, you'll notice that the soil qualities start
| to get worse. Every couple weeks you have crops growing in a particular
| soil space, the quality of that soil will drop. It might slow the growth
| time of the crop by a day or two when it does this (depending on how far
| along the crop was anyway), and the crop quality will be determined by the
| soil quality when the crop finally matures.
|
| Soil quality will never go back up on its own. So what do you do when the
| quality drops? Well, that's where the next section comes in.
|
|\__________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
| Fertilizer \
| \
| Fertilizer lets you raise your crop quality and can be purchased from
| Marimba Farm. Each bag of fertilizer functions like a bag of seeds: one
| spot per fertilizer, and if you have nine or more you can hold down A and
| fertilize a 3x3 area.
|
| There are four different types of fertilizer: Decent Fertilizer, Good
| Fertilizer, Perfect Fertilizer and Shining Fertilizer. Better fertilizers
| raise the soil more levels at a time, from 1 levels for Decent Fertilizer
| to 4 levels (Best soil no matter what it was previously) for Shining
| Fertilizer. You won't be able to buy better fertilizers until you level
| Marimba Farm up a bit but Taylor will stock all four types as soon as he moves in.
|
| Fertilizer is pretty expensive, but only if you let yourself get behind.
| When you get enough money, raise the soil quality for every soil you're
| using to the maximum level, and then just use Decent Fertilizer every
| couple weeks to bring it back up.
|
|\____________________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
| Crops vs. Herbs and Flowers \
| \
| There are three types of seeds that you can buy: crops, herbs and flowers.
| The vast majority of your seed purchases will be crops: these are the most
| profitable of the growable items, and are affected by soil quality.
|
| That last note is the key difference between crops and herbs/flowers; while
| crops are affected by soil quality, herbs and flowers do not have quality
| levels. Every herb grown will be of the same quality, as well as every
| flower - the only drawback to planting flowers and herbs in poor quality
| soil is in the growth time.
|
| Between herbs and flowers, the main difference is in consumption: mainly,
| herbs can be consumed, whereas flowers cannot. Both can be used for dyeing
| yarn, and both can be sold, though neither are nearly as profitable as
| crops.
|
| Note that if you want to keep flowers alive after they're fully grown (for
| honey, for example), you still need to water them each day. If you notice
| that your flowers are brown one day, pick them immediately - they'll
| disappear before the next day. The only way to get Honey is to keep flowers
| growing until you see bees buzzing around them.
|
| _________________________________________________________________________
| / /
| / Trees /
| / /
|/_________________________________________________________________________/
|
| Not only do you have some crops when you get started, but you'll find out
| you also have a few trees. They might get in your way later in the game,
| but for starters they're a nice little profit supplement.
|
|
| Trees are a close cousin to crops. Like crops, you'll plant trees by
| tilling a square of land and using the tree seed (well, sapling) on the
| tilled spot, and like crops, fruits are rated on a quality scale from
| Decent to Shining. The similarities end there though.
|
|\______________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
| Tree Mechanics \
| \
| First of all, let's take care of the basic mechanics behind trees,
| especially compared to crops:
|
| - Crops are temporary, but trees are permanent. Once you plant a tree, it
| will stay alive year-round until you cut it down with your axe.
| - Trees will take a couple months to grow to full maturity, but will grow
| faster in better soil. They'll start producing fruit about halfway
| through their total growth process, and will produce more and more as
| they get to be fully-grown.
| - You don't need to water trees. Ever. At all. Not when you plant them,
| not when they're grown up, not ever. They'll grow up on their own.
| - Trees can't, however, be planted side-by-side. With anything. Every
| space bordering the tree trunk must be empty and tillable (meaning a
| tree can't be planted in the corner of a plot, either). If there's
| anything within the 3x3 square that surrounds the tree trunk, the tree
| will stop growing until that's cleared. That includes weeds, crops,
| rocks and other trees. So, keep an eye on the tree as it grows and make
| sure to get rid of any weeds that spring up next to the trunk. If you
| plant anything in the 3x3 area surrounding a full-grown tree, it won't
| sprout.
| - Trees have seasons too. While crops will only grow in certain seasons,
| trees will only produce fruit in certain seasons.
| - When a tree is in season, you can shake the tree to get fruits to fall
| out. The fruits won't "stack" from day to day, so a missed day of
| shaking means you might miss some fruit altogether. Shake a tree by
| leaning against it -- you'll see it bend, and any fruit available for
| the day will fall.
| - Young trees will give one fruit per day, while full-grown trees will
| give two.
| - In the long run, trees are more profitable than crops in terms of the
| amount of work you put into them. However, it's harder to maximize that
| profit with a lot of trees: in the space it takes to keep two trees
| that produce fruit for one season each, you can plant three bags of
| crops every season. Still, though, later in the game, planting an
| orchard of trees on the spare plots is a low-work high-reward way to
| make more money.
| - Note that Hali trees are sold by Marimba Farm, but don't produce any
| fruit. They're used just for lumber.
|
| That just about covers it for tree mechanics -- now, you're probably
| interested in which tree is the best. Put simply, Apple Trees. They're the
| most expensive sapling but they pay for themselves quickly, and sell for
| the most at every quality level except Shining (Shining Chestnuts and
| Coffee Beans sell for more than Shining Apples), but you won't be getting
| that many Shining fruits anyway. For detailed pricing information, though,
| check the next section.
|