Starting to garden (although I probably shouldn't)

[Ninster]

I've looked up some gardening sites and I still don't quite understand what goes first and what gets pulled up first or even what is considered "fertilizer". So... could someone help me?

To be direct, I want to try my hand at growing more Thavnairian Onions after giving my choco the two freebies I somehow ended up with. I have... well, I have lvl 50 gatherers, but that's it. Maybe some odd seeds and stuff on a retainer, but all that's from gathering. At the least I have access to what I need, even if I might have to diligently camp ARR unspoiled nodes.

So where do I start? I'm trying to grab as much Grade 3 Thanalan soil at the moment. Both me and my retainer. I understand that's the crossbreeding soil.

EDIT: Going backwards a bit, I bought my own house prior to Heavensward (and now I'm forever poor again) since my FC doesn't have one. SO I'm more or less on my own doing this.

[ChameleonMS]

The best reference site IMO is http://www.ffxivgardening.com/.
The planting pattern assumes Deluxe Garden patch, 8 plots around the Scarecrow.

Planting pattern is start in a corner and plant in clockwise rotation. Alternate each plant seed for each plot.
Thav Onions will take approximately 3 weeks to get, as you need to go through multiple cross classes to get those seeds. Use Grade 3 Thanalan soil for cross classing.

Thav Onion seeds are a cross product of Mimett Gourd and Pearl Roselle
Mimett Gourds seeds are a cross product of Krakka Root and Mandrake
Pearl Roselle seeds are a cross product of Almond and Mandrake

Mandrake and Almond seeds can be gathered and Krakka Roots seeds are available from the vendor in the housing wards.

Your goal is to get 4 Mimett Gourd seeds and 4 Pearl Roselle seeds. This will give you a chance at getting up 7 Thav Onion seeds at harvest.
When planting the Thav Onion seeds, just use the cheapest Grade 1 soil you can get. As the yield is always 1.


Fertilizer, is level 1 Culinarian craft, made from Limsa Anchovies. The effect is, every use of it will reduce the growth time by 1 hr. Most grow times are 3 - 5 days. So, frequent fertilization can save you a bunch of time for a very small Gil cost.

[Shadygrove]

I will second that site. But I disagree with a bit of Chameleon's advice.

The first seed you plant will never set seeds. So if its something with a worthless crop, like mandrake, use cheap soil. If it is something with a useful or salable crop, like krakka roots or mimmet gourds, use G 3 Shroud soil to increase the number harvested. it its something where HQ sells at a premium, like chives, use G 3 La Noscean soil to get HQ.

Always go for a useful crossbreeding when you can. There are 23 known crossings that make T. onions. Only 12 or 16 give decent odds though. There are 18 crossings using T. onions, some of which produce useful and salable crops.

Because T. onions take 10 RL days to mature and most other crops 5 or 6 days, you can run two companion plantings with them. Useful for seed production.

[Ninster]

I've seen that site before, and tried to make sense of it, but apparently I've messed up somewhere because I ended up with 7 Nymeia Lily seeds. I'm a little scared of what my attempt at Mimett Gourd seeds is going to bring.

[PirateCat]

My favored strat for onions is:

Krakka Root + Mandrake = Mimett Gourd (might get Onion Prince instead here) - Krakka root seeds have to be bought but the roots themselves usually turn a modest profit on the MB.
Prickly Pineapple + Old World Fig = Glazenut
Mimett Gourd + Glazenut = Thavnairian Onion (might get Apricot or nothing instead at this step)
Thav Onion + Mandrake = Mimett Gourd (might get Onion Prince instead here too.)

There are more reliable crossbreeds at individual steps, but I like this one because it feeds back on itself. (Edit: This is actually very similar to Chameleon's suggestion, though glazenuts are a more valuable byproduct than pearl roselles.) You can get two plantings of Mandrake in the time it takes for the onions to grow.

A couple of tips for maximizing your crossbreeds:
- If you're planting two types of seeds that take a different amount of time to grow, immediately replace the ones that are done. This way all 4 of the new plants will be eligible to crossbreed.
- If you're starting a bed from scratch and one of the seed types is of low value/easy to get (e.g. mandrake, figs) you can plant the whole bed, then rip out the first plant and replant another to make that space crossbreed too.

[Sida]

While "first planted doesn't give seed" is true, it's good to understand the underlying reason. When you are planting seed B, it has a chance to produce seeds based on what it is placed besides. For this reason, the first planted can't yield seed because it's planted besides nothing, into an empty garden. However, you can very well plant seeds besides other plants planted at different time. Even if they are harvest able, just first pick up corners, so you have four empty slots that are all besides some existing plants. Sow something there and pick the other 4, leaving again 4 empties that are besides something.

[Callback]

My favorite strategy for onions:

Tantaplant Broombrush strategy. Self-replicates both rare seeds once you get it going.

Gathered seeds needed (after you have the base): Midland Basil and Coerthan Tea. Tea seeds are super easy, being Heavensward so you can get 15 in a go. basil is old and grindy, but you get mandrake at the same time which are great for growing minions, and growing minions is a great way to get your starting few broombrush seeds. Tanta seeds can be gained by planting basil and krakka, and alternating replanting as each one completes at different times until you have a good handful. Or again, you can just buy either of them from MB.

Now that you have your starting stock of broombrush and tanta seeds, it's time to start the self-replicating process.

Note: If I don't specify junk soil, use grade 3 Thanalan.


Plant tantas in your corners using junk soil. Now fill in the edges with broombrush. Uproot the tantas, and replace them with coerthan tea. Once the tea harvests, plant a second batch of tea. 8 tea harvests should give you more than the 4 broombrush seeds you used to begin this step. If you ever end up with a surplus, you can either sell it on the market board, or just skip the second tea phase and save a couple days. Repeat until you have at least 4 onion seeds.

Now that you have the onion seeds, we can grow them while replicating the tantas. Start with basil in the corner using junk soil. Then, going around in a single direction, alternate between planting onions and basil. Once you finish the circle, uproot the original basil and replant it with the proper soil. When the basil harvests, replant it. The second harvests should happen simultaneously. harvest only the basil, and replant them. Then harvest the onions, and put krakkas in their place. This should give you more than enough tantas to keep the cycle going forever.


And PirateCat, dude, save your glazenut seeds for blood peppers. Those things are pure gold, and a few midland cabbage seeds can replicate the chives while you grow them.

[PirateCat]

And PirateCat, dude, save your glazenut seeds for blood peppers.

Surprising as this may sound, blood peppers have completely tanked on Balmung. Onions are worth more now.

[Callback]

Surprising as this may sound, blood peppers have completely tanked on Balmung. Onions are worth more now.

Well I'm still growing them to make my FC some Ifrits using the FC garden. I use a private garden (not mine, just a shared resident) for onions using the crop rotation I posted above. Works out well. Ultros prices are still very decent for the peppers too. I like my rotation a lot better because of the lack of alternate crosses. Tanta->broom can ONLY give onion seeds. And while the base cross rate is not that high, it makes up for it by not splitting the seeds (which feel to me like they're weighted towards the common one) and by being fully self-contained without needing to regrow so much and risk alt crosses all over the place. The only alt in my process is if you do the extra round of krakkas in the basil at the very end, and that still works out by refunding the basil if it fails to give bonus tantas, still a worthwhile use for krakkas in otherwise empty slots.