Gardening Guide Updated

[stallias]

Gardening guide needs to be updated. You can now take cutting/graft at level five gardening. Found out through playing.

[Carl]

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. It turns out the whole thing was slightly restructured. Research Gardening is now level 2, Fertilize level 3, and as you said Take Cuttings/Graft are at level 5. This is a good change in my opinion. I got the page edited just now

[Carl]

The new patch also lets us eat our harvestables from regular gardening. My Sim ate a perfect Pear and got a +3 Happy Moodlet! That's excellent

[jen2912]

Hi

Onion Location needs updated.  I also found the onion in Oasis Springs across bridge at Argave Abode home.

[Playalot]

@Carl
Just thought I'd mention that the Farmers seed packets actually start the plant at "Good" allowing you to skip the first three levels of plant growth.

"Seed Packet means you can get it from the starting seed packet, purchased on the computer or by clicking a planter pot. What they give you is random. Farmer Packets unlock later, but merely provide a larger quantity of the same produce."

[Carl]

@Playalot got that fixed, thanks for noticing their benefit for us. @jen2912 I also updated that Onion location mentioned a month ago, should've got that done sooner but was probably working on the redesign!

[Carl]

I was doing some bug testing this morning and am sad to report that I can't tell the challenge team that the gardening price inflation bug is fixed. I'm still getting erratic prices when selling produce, even after doing a "factory reset" of sorts while under the latest patch.

[Playalot]

@Carl, looks like the Farmers seed packets only start at good depending on, I am assuming the traits of your sim and maxing the gardening skill. I have tried these packets with a few different sims and keep getting different results. So confusing... Sometimes the packets are at 'good' level other times; despite maxing the skill, they are still just 'normal' and I've even had 'nice'.

I'm not sure what the factors are in getting 'good' as I have had different results from exactly the same sim who I have tried in different game files. Perhaps it is a chance element based on skill level. I really, really don't know! Sorry to have misinformed you with my earlier post.

[Tixxis]

@Carl, looks like the Farmers seed packets only start at good depending on, I am assuming the traits of your sim and maxing the gardening skill. I have tried these packets with a few different sims and keep getting different results.

Just wanted to report that an NPC gardener level 10 could only get 'normal' from the Farmer Seed Packets. Quit shocking, I thought. But then, the actual Sim I made (who had invited her in) could get 'good' once he reached level 7 of the gardening skill.

[Playalot]

@Tixxis , could your sim still get 'good' Farmers seeds once he/she had maxed the gardening skill?   One of my sims got 'good' at L7 but now he has maxed the skill he only gets  'normal'.
Perhaps it is like some of the opportunities that only happen at a certain skill level?

[Tixxis]

@Tixxis , could your sim still get 'good' Farmers seeds once he/she had maxed the gardening skill?   One of my sims got 'good' at L7 but now he has maxed the skill he only gets  'normal'.
Perhaps it is like some of the opportunities that only happen at a certain skill level?

No. He couldn't get 'good' only 'normal' once he had maxed the skill.
How exciting! I think you are so right in concluding that the 'good' variety of Farmer seeds only comes up when at level 7.

[Tixxis]

I'm very sorry to report that even at just level 7, my Sim did not get 'good' quality but only 'normal' quality seeds from Farmer Deluxe Packages. This annoyed me, because I was able to get this kind of quality seed at level 7 before the patch. Maybe it will come back some time. As it is now, I see no point in purchasing these packages.

[Carl]

I recently put a little edit in about this, though unfortunately it looks like there are mixed results. I might try to make that statement more neutral to lower people's expectations of those packets

[Playalot]

That's a good idea Carl. It's so annoying that some things in the sims 4 just can't be nailed down!

[Tigerskin]

Carl, with the list of plant grafting combinations recently added (via suggestions from another forum member):

The plant suggestions for dragon fruit, snapdragon, cow plant berry, strawberry and bonsai plant does not seem to work?

I cannot get them all on one plant. When taking cuttings the sims seem to only take the first plant named, therefore I can't see a way you can get bonsai buds and cow plant berry on one plant?

Unless I'm doing something wrong, I can't see how this works? As bonsai is offspring from daisy and strawberry and cow plant berry is from dragon fruit and snapdragon, those two are always in the middle and therefore cuttings from those plants will never be of the spliced result?

Plus you can't take cuttings from either the singular bonsai tree or cow plant.

I hope that makes sense 

[Carl]

@Tigerskin I will look into this and try to clarify things somehow.

[Tigerskin]

Thanks @Carl, I'm intrigued in case I am doing something wrong.

[Carl]

@Tigerskin I think you are missing a step. Since plants only give a cutting from the base plant, you would need to then grow some of the ones you created by grafting (plant a harvested fruit) and take cutting from the 'pure' plants.

So you would take that dragonfruit, plant it, and graft a snapdragon to it. This will allow it to produce cowplant berries. That is the desired end result, to have dragonfruit, snapdragon, and cowplant berries growing on that plant along with the bonsai buds. You're right that you won't be able to take cutting from a cow plant. You should be able to take cutting from bonsai buds (not the bush you trim) after you graft strawberry and daisy together, then plant the resulting bud. As far as I remember, anyway. Been a while since I gardened.

I guess I should edit this within the introductory paragraph to point that out, but would like to hear from you that this fixes it for you.

[Tigerskin]

@Carl, I'm confused. When you plant the bonsai buds they grow into the bonsai shrub -  you cannot take a cutting from that?

I've just tested it again.

I haven't converted it into the decorative bonsai tree.

Edited to be more clear.

[Carl]

You're absolutely right. I just loaded that save and you can't take cutting from it. I think the author spent time thinking it out but didn't notice that. It is still a good plan but I will have to message her with this and see if she wants to change the plan at all.

I am sorry for confusing you on that, just didn't realize you can't take cutting from that plant. In theory then, could you add a daisy to that Dragon/Snapdragon/cowplant/strawberry plant in order to have the bonsai buds come from the strawberry and daisy combo? It means there are two daisies in the garden so it's not 100% perfect as intended but does yield all plants. I'm a little rusty on this, even though gardening was my favorite thing.

I'm going to try testing that now.

[Carl]

Ok yeah, you can't do that either. Thanks for pointing this out to me. I will have to make a note so no one else is confused by it.

I suppose what I would do, is keep the strawberry/daisy/bonsai bud bush and then not graft strawberry nor daisy anywhere else. It results in one more plant.

Such a perfect plan! I guess maybe it still is, given the game has limited it.

[Tigerskin]

Yeah I've kept a couple of plants, one with the bonsai buds on and one with the cowberry plant on.

I always graft to limit the number of plants as gardening is so time consuming - so I was glad to see the list.

Thanks for testing it for me 

[Tixxis]

Last time I looked there were no prices for the alien fruits from Sixam. The prices below are for perfect quality:

Fang Flower : $50
Glow Orb Berry: $100
Quill Fruit: $100

Note: Like UFO fruit, the value of these fruits increased whenever the loading screen was used.

[Playalot]

The glow orb plant seems to work slightly differently than other plants. A perfect glow orb plant seems to cycle through values, not as a 'trick' but simply seems to be what it does. It daily increases up to $1,300 or $1,400 a fruit and then if you do not harvest the fruit at this point in then cycles down in price each day until it goes back to its most basic perfect price... where it then stays. Once you harvest it... it obviously grows more fruit which will then increase each day and so on and so on. I don't think it's loading screen dependent as it the game I was playing I played over quite a few sim days without traveling or saving and quitting.
Can't be 100% sure so if anyone wants to test this...?

[Tixxis]

Can't be 100% sure so if anyone wants to test this...?

I left the glow orbs on the stalk for over 72 hours. No price fluctuations. I avoided a loading screen of any kind.
Maybe the plant needs to be harvested at least once before price fluctuations start?
I will test this a little further and include observations of a spliced carrot/glow orb plant.

[Carl]

@Tixxis thank you. I will grow some and record those values right now, in order to finish the table. Not having to go all the way to excellent with them saves me some time.

On the plants' values fluctuating, I know that with the gardening bug the values will drop at some point once they've been rising. They hit some value and the game decides it's too much, and your $500 blackberries become regular blackberries.

Edit: Annnd got them in!

[Tixxis]

That's nice, Carl. Thank you.

Playalot,
I have finished the rest of the test, but it was no good. I left the orbs well over 72 hours both on the stalk plant and the sliced plant. I checked every hour once they were fully in bloom, but I did not detect any price fluctuations. The gardener I used has gardening level 10 and the Super Green thumb award.
There is probably more to this. Something I didn't take into account, but I have no ideas at the moment.

[Playalot]

@Tixxis, it can't be a glitch as I've got two games where this happens. I can't remember if I harvested them before they started doing the 'price thing' or not. Both plants are pure orbs and not grafted with anything else.

[Tixxis]

@Tixxis, it can't be a glitch as I've got two games where this happens. I can't remember if I harvested them before they started doing the 'price thing' or not. Both plants are pure orbs and not grafted with anything else.

You are such an experienced gardener that the thought of a 'glitch' never occurred to me.
I worked with pure orbs as well as spliced plants, but it just didn't happen for me. As I said, I probably overlooked something vital.
Did you use special fertilizers?

[Carl]

I wonder if there could be something these do to trigger the usual gardening glitch (it is there for 100% of players as far as I am aware), but only in a different way that is unique to that plant.

[Playalot]

@Tixxis , that's a good point. I used mostly fish (gone foul lol ) to fertilize or a fruit that is at least two stages better then the plant I'm fertilizing. I've tried a few more game files and it has happened in all of them. I haven't travelled at all in two of those test files just to see if traveling was causing it.

@Carl , That's probably just what it is. I do know that other fruit/vegetables can cycle down in price while in a sims inventory but I just haven't seen it happen while on a plant before.  I was hoping the orb plant was supposed to 'work' this way but I'm chalking it up to another one of those strange things that seem to happen in the game and moving on for the sake of sanity!    Shame. It is quite a cool animation and sort of made sense considering it is an 'alien' plant. Oh well.


Complete side issue, but I discovered that if you get a plant that just won't produce a harvest, if you type in 'testingcheats on' and then just type 'testingcheats off' that the plant will then be harvestable. Of course that's no use for challenges but might save a lot of frustration in an ordinary game.

[Playalot]

@Carl , we are getting quite a few questions regarding finding various wild plants. I wonder if it's worth highlighting the fact that your sim has to actively be on the lot in the neighborhood where the wild plant you want grows.
I think simmers get confused and look around with the camera and then leave expecting the wild plants to grow when they are somewhere else/ in another neighborhood.

[Carl]

Heck, I'd forgotten to even test if they grow while you're away, though I might have mentioned it. I guess it's just been a while. I typically get a cutting then never mess with a wild plant again. So I may need to reemphasize that they do not grow unless you're on the active lot eh? Thanks.

[Playalot]

Yep, well active in the neighborhood where the wild plant you want grows. Doesn't actually matter which lot your sim is on... in that particular neighborhood. 

[Carl]

I kinda get this, since one of the big memory/cpu hogs from the Sims 3 days was not just the open world but having everything computing all the time. Growing plants takes resources, as do many other things.

Hey I don't miss stereos being on in other lots and needing a Mod to turn them off lol. 

Edit: got this in, thanks again. I am working on some quick guides so had time to slip it in and change up the section on wild plants a bit.

[Franki]

Sorry removed previous post, the bonsai buds take a couple of sim days to actually show up, they aren't as instantaneous as the birds of paradise.

[ClayMask]

Sorry removed previous post, the bonsai buds take a couple of sim days to actually show up, they aren't as instantaneous as the birds of paradise.

You can see if any new plants were made if you hold your mouse over the plant you've just grafted another plant on.  If a new plant type is produced, it will show up in the middle of the list of plants your hybrid consists of.

[ClayMask]

I checked the time for an apple tree from planting to harvestable three times, and got between 80 and 81 hours each time.  This was without a planter or pot, which would speed up the time very slightly, and without super green thumb, which would cut it in half.  Maybe the growth times have been changed since the gardening guide was originally posted?  Or is it possible that the posted times are for a Sim with super green thumb?

[Carl]

@ClayMask just tested and yep, it's green thumb. It was the first guide for the game I did, and we didn't realize the power of that reward yet. I'm glad it didn't go a full year unnoticed, but will have to double all values when I can.

[Playalot]

The times for growth don't double without Green Thumb instead they seem to be grouped around various growth times.

Planters:

Apples: Cutting available 19 hrs after planting    Harvestable 81 hrs after planting
Grapes:Cutting available 28 hrs after planting    Harvestable ?? (game crashed)  *so longer than 85 hours
Carrots:Cutting available 7 hrs after planting     Harvestable 31 hrs after planting
Mushrooms:     Harvestable 59 hrs after planting
Parsley:Cutting available 12 hrs after planting    Harvestable 31 hrs after planting
Daisy:Cutting available 14 hrs after planting    Harvestable 58 hrs after planting
Chrysanthemum: Cutting available 14 hrs after planting    Harvestable 59 hrs after planting


Ground:

Apples: Cutting available 19 hrs after planting    Harvestable 85 hrs after planting
Grapes:Cutting available 28 hrs after planting    Harvestable ?? (Game crashed)
Carrots:Cutting available 7 hrs after planting    Harvestable 31 hrs after planting
Mushrooms:      Harvestable 59 hrs after planting
Parsley:Cutting available 7 hrs after planting    Harvestable 31 hrs after planting
Daisy:Cutting available 12 hrs after planting    Harvestable 58 hrs after planting
Chrysanthemum:Cutting available 14 hrs after planting    Harvestable 59 hrs after planting

While I haven't posted the exact minutes as well, the planters gave a few minutes bonus but no more than 30 mins faster. So for example the exact timing for Daisy in a planter was 57 hours and 54 mins, I rounded it up to 58 hours.

Where the difference was really seen was how long it took the plants to actually grow the produce. The times above are from the first produce on each plant. From there I timed it till each plant had all 10 produce available.

Parsley and carrots took 41 hours to have 10 harvestables growing on the plant in a planter.
Parsley and carrots took 47 hours to have 10 harvestables growing on the plant in the ground.

While it's not much of a difference , it is enough to make a difference in the long run if your sim harvests each plant at the optimal time.


I've run through this scenario a few times and couldn't exactly replicate these times... *shrug* least these times will give a rough guesstimate until you go through it yourself Carl. Each time I used normal plants and a new sim with no traits or emotions that would help with gardening in an obvious way. Unfortunately I didn't include grapes until my last try and I'm a bit over watching plants grow for now... it's kinda like watching paint dry. 

[Carl]

Appreciate the info, Playalot. Might be a while before I can dig in to get all values myself. What I'll do is edit in that the times are with green thumb, and highlight the effect of planters. I think that's a major flaw as it's not mentioned anywhere in the guide.

[oshizu]

I noticed today that the growth time for the Cow Berry is listed on the Gardening Guide as "24 hours."
I've never had a cow berry grow into a cowplant that quickly. Always takes several days.


Edited to add: Also, the value is listed as N/A but the Cow Berries also display a $20 value in my game file. (no doubt due to a patch)

[meubanks]

An additional note on the bonsai bush. The plant is bugged so that it cannot be converted to a decorative plant once it is evolved beyond excellent. This is a longstanding issue that has still not been fixed as of my most recent test. I don't personally care so much, because the gardening plant is identical to the one that you can buy in build/buy mode. I normally evolve the plants up to perfect because the berries sell for a good price, but the conversion bug is worth knowing about. Fixing it doesn't seem to be a high priority on the developer's part. If you want to convert them, don't evolve them past excellent.

[Playalot]

At last we have a fix for the bonsai tree! Yay!
http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=27322.0