Minion gardening guide

[Reinha]

Not sure if this is the right subforum for this kind of thing but I thought I'd share my invention for minion mass production. Feel free to post feedback and links to existing minion crossing guides as I didn't find any. This guide is based on crossing data on http://www.ffxivgardening.com/. The required seeds are fairly cheap so this is useful for any fc looking to make minions for their members or anyone with a house looking to make money with gardening.

I recommend having two garden patches - one for crossing minions and the other for growing them (and crossing the fifth minion along the way). One patch will do also but you'll have to clear it out every time you swap between crossing and growing. You should use Thanalan 3 Topsoil in both beds, except if you don't want any Eggplant Knight seeds in which case you can use whichever topsoil you want in patch 2.



By the way, Onion Prince is a bit tricky to get because all its crosses can produce other kinds of seeds. This cross has a chance to make Mimett Gourd seeds so don't panic if you don't get Onion Prince seeds right away. :P

I'm currently testing this and will post results once the first crossing is done. Happy gardening!

[raela]

I was growing minions for friends as well, so I always picked the top cross and did a 2 plant alternating bed every time. It was the slower way to go, but thana soil won't always produce seeds, and sometimes I got the wrong one. I grew up all minions and sold the extra (figured they'd sell quicker than the seeds).

Edit: oh, but I was cheap and only bought seeds from the MB that went for ~10 gil.. I grew all the base seeds myself.

[Reinha]

Raela, that is also a valid way to grow minions and you get a lot of extra to sell for money as well. I designed this crossing chart for those who wish to make equal amounts of all minions in a short amount of time, and for those who don't like clearing their garden bed for a new setup each time. Clearing the garden has the downside that the first planted sprout never produces a seed so you can only ever get 7 at the most, whereas with continuous planting each plant after the very first one will have a chance for new seeds.

Here's what I got from harvesting the first set (Krakkas were planted twice because they grow faster):
-- 3 seedless
+ 1 Tomato King
-- 1 Mimett Gourd
+ 2 Mandragora Queen
+ 2 Garlic Jester
+ 1 Onion Prince

The Broombush didn't produce anything because it was planted first, but the other two seedless plants were both Krakka Roots (left on the diagram). I planted things clockwise so it's possible that the cross Mandrake -> Krakka Root doesn't produce any seeds when planted in that order. I'll report here if that's the case.

[raela]

Oh, if you have extra seeds/soil, you can plant your 8, then pull up the first and replant for cross chance on all. That final krakka of yours has a chance of trying to cross to the broombrush or the mandrake.. and cross is decided at the time of planting, so something showing krakka->mandrake on the gardening website will not work if you plant the mandrake first.

It is an interesting idea though.. so best of luck!

[ShadowYomi]

thanks for the info.

[Reinha]

Reporting in. No trouble so far after a few rounds. Worrying about lack of seeds seems unnecessary now that I realized minions take twice as long to grow (10 days) on the second bed as it takes to produce their seeds in the first one. So my fc is already swimming in different seeds.

Also mixing Krakka in with the minions works because I got an Eggplant Knight seed from all 3 Krakka I planted. It only takes 3 days as well and then you can just plant the Knights where the Krakkas were.