Gardening Crossbreed Bug

Date & Time: April 27, 2022
Frequency: Always
World name: Leviathan
Character name: Phlange Phace
Retainer name: None
NPC name: None
Monster name: None
Class/Level: Any
Party or solo: None
In-game time: Any
Area and coordinates: Any garden plot
Housing: Any garden plot

Steps: This is in regards to the Old World Fig x Royal Fern cross. The cross % on the Old World Fig (OWF) using G3 Thanalan soil appears to be around 45%. Testing numerous other crosses using OWF with G3 Thanalan shows the cross % around 90% (we've tested thousands of crosses to find this cross % with G3 Than).

We thought maybe ilvl of the seed was the reason for this so we decided to test OWF x Cloudsbreath (Royal Fern & Cloudsbreath ilvl are both 1). The cross % of the OWF next to Cloudsbreath is 90% debunking this theory as well.

Another theory we thought was maybe this specific cross (OWF x Royal Fern) was being reserved for a future alternate cross. However, every other cross that does not have an alternate cross doesn't behave this way (they all have 90% cross chance with G3 Than soil).

We cannot find any other reason for this low cross chance on the OWF when crossed with Royal Fern. We've confirmed over 4000 crosses and this seems to be the only one that behaves this way.

Screenshot of data:
https://imgur.com/4GP1TO2

We have also observed very low cross rates with Premium Chocobo Food x Old World Fig. Similar to the above results.

These results contradict the information in the Official Square Enix Guide for Crafting and Gathering (2013) which mentioned that Grade 3 Thanalan Soil intercross success is 90% and Grade 2 Thanalan Topsoil is 70%.

I'm a long time Gardening and Intercrossing enthusiast, I can second that. It seems that when Intercrossing Old World Fig seed with Royal Fern Sori with Grade 3 Thanalan Topsoil, the number of successful obtaining a seed via intercross are less than the Percentage mentioned in the Official Square Enix Guide for Crafting and Gathering (2013) which mentioned that Grade 3 Thanalan Soil intercross success is 90% and Grade 2 Thanalan Topsoil is 70%.
I also need to mention that I doubt that it is "working as intended" since using Grade 2 Thanalan Topsoil proved to have more success in obtaining an intercross seed, which makes no sense having Grade 2 topsoil results higher chance that Grade 2 topsoil results.

I hope the developers review this and shed some light about the issue here.

I haven't done any testing myself but I enjoy gardening and appreciate the research the FFXIV Gardening community has done. There seems to be a resurgence of interest in gardening with the release of Empyreum housing and a lot of players are coming in with questions lately. If there is a bug, the Gardening community is sure to notice. I hope the devs look into this, too.