RuneWeb - Farming Guide

Farming Guide

By Rathofdoom, Deathbyape, Twilight Ray, Geo1988, & Data/Loggy; with help from I R Bush, Tangerinez, and DragnFly

(This is a members-only skill.)

Getting Started
- Seeds
- Equipment
- Farming Patch Locations
Farming
- Disease
- Compost
- Scarecrow
- Nature Amulet
Patches
- Allotments
- Flowers
- Hops
- Herbs
- Trees
- Fruit Trees
- Bushes
- Special Crops
Farming Tips
Extra Farming Info
Farming EXP Quest Rewards

RuneScape is a land full of vast areas of diverse vegetation. Finally, its adventurers are able to farm these plants and harvest them for personal use. The skill of farming allows you to grow things such as herbs, trees, fungi, sweet corn, and flowers.

Getting Started

Farming is a very large skill, with many aspects. To start, you need to know about seeds, equipment, and patches.

Seeds

The first thing you will need before you start farming is a variety of seeds. Seeds can be stolen from Master Farmers or Seed Stalls. Two Seed Stalls can be found in Draynor Village. Two Master Farmers are located in Draynor Village in the same area as the Seed Stalls. Another Master Farmer is located near Varrock, just south of Delrith's Stonehenge. Another Master Farmer is located north of Ardougne, in the fenced in area west of the farming shop. Tree seeds can be obtained from Birds Nests, a random event while Woodcutting, as well as a monster drop. Ogres, Trolls, and Dagganoths often drop them. Seeds, of course, can also be bought from other players.

Equipment

There are several pieces of farming equipment that are needed before you can begin farming. Farming equipment can easily be purchased at one of the farming stores. These stores are located near the four allotment farming patches. They are located south of Falador, north of Ardougne, north of Catherby, and northwest of Port Phasmatys. When first beginning farming, you should purchase all of the following farming tools from one of the farming shops, excluding the last four.

Item Name	Picture	Price	Description
Rake		6 gp	Used to remove the weeds from the alloments.
Spade		3 gp	Used to harvest allotments and remove dead plants.
Seed Dibber		6 gp	Used to plant seeds in allotments.
Gardening Trowel		12 gp	Used to plant tree seeds into the flower pots.
Secateurs		5 gp	Used to cut away diseased branches from trees and bushes.
Watering Can		8 gp	Used to keep plants healthy, and to allow tree seedlings to grow into saplings.
Plant Cure		40 gp	Used to cure diseased crops.
Compost		20 gp	Provides a bedding for crops to decrease disease risk and increase harvest outcome.
Plant Pot		1 gp	Provides soil for tree seedlings to grow into saplings.
Sack		1 gp	Can store up to 10 vegetables.
Basket		1 gp	Can store up to 5 fruits.
Gardening Boots		N/A	Dropped from Farmers. No use at this moment other than for decorative purposes.
Magic Secateurs		N/A	Received from A Fairy Tale Part 1 Quest, increase harvests of Herbs, Allotments, or Hops by 10%

Note: Magic Secateurs cannot be brought onto Entrana.

There are also Tool Leprechauns who will take care of your tools for you. They stay near the farming patches, and make it so you don't have to bank every time you want to farm. They will hold one Rake, one Seed Dibber, one Spade, one set of Secateurs, one Watering Can, one Gardening Trowel, 31 Buckets, 255 Normal Compost, and 255 Super Compost.

Farming Patch Locations

If you want to farm, you're going to have to do it on a Farming Patch. There are many patches located through out Runescape. Some patches you can plant anything on; others are specific. Here is a table of them and their locations.

Patch Type	Locations
Allotments	North of East Ardougne, North of Catherby, South East of Falador, North West of Port Phasmatys
Bush Patches	South of East Ardougne, South West of Etcetria Castle, North of Chemist's House in Rimmington, West of the Champion's Guild
Hop Patches	South West coast of Entrana, North of the Chicken Farm enroute from Varrock to Lumbridge, North West of Seers Village, Northern-Central Yanille
Tree Patches	Falador Park, behind Lumbridge Castle (in the swamps), East of Taverly, South East of Varrock Palace (in the grounds)
Fruit Patches	North Coast of Brimhaven, South East of Catherby, South East of the Grand Tree in the Gnome Stronghold, Northwest of the Tree Gnome Village, southeast Lletya
Spirit Tree Patches	South of Etceteria Castle, North East of Port Sarim, North East of Brimhaven
Belladona Patch	West of Draynor Manor
Cactus Patch	North East of Al Kharid
Calquat Patch	North of Tai Bwo Wannai Village on Karamja
Mushroom Patch	South West of Canifis

Farming

Now that you have your seeds and equipment, you are ready to farm! Travel to a farming patch of your choice. Use the Rake with the patch and you will begin weeding the patch. Do not drop the weeds when you finish weeding the patch. Take them over to the Compost Bin if you are at an allotment area and use them with it. Compost will be explained later in the guide.

Content Image

After you have cleared the allotment, use a Bucket of Compost with it. You will spread the Compost. Now, pick the seed of your choice and use it with the patch. You will use your Seed Dibber to plant seeds in the patch. Use your Watering Can with the patch. Your seeds are now ready to grow. Some patches will appear to have puddles of water after you water them.

Content Image

When these puddles disappear, water the patch again. Repeat this process until your plants are fully grown. When your plants are fully grown, harvest them to clear the patch. More info on various farming tasks here.

Task	Exp
Raking Weeds	4
Making Compost	4.5
Spreading Compost	18
Putting Tomatoes in Compost Bin to receive Rotten Tomatoes	8.5
Making Super Compost	8.5
Spreading Super Compost	26
Using Fertile Soil Spell (Super Compost)	18

Disease

Sometimes plants can become diseased. This is easily identified by the look and name of the plant.

The plant will look brown and on its deathbed. When you right click the patch, it will say something like "Diseased Herb". If you do not tend to your plant soon, it will die. To treat a diseased plant, use a Plant Cure Potion, sold at any of the farming shops and by most of the farmers near patches, with the diseased plant to cure it. To cure diseased bushes, use a pair of Secateurs with the bush to trim off the diseased branches.

Compost

Compost is crucial to leveling in farming. When you treat your patches with Compost, your yields when harvesting will be higher and your plants will be better protected from disease. To make Compost, put 15 of certain items such as weeds (most crops can be put into the bin as well) into the Compost Bin until it is full. Close the bin.

After a while, the Compost will rot and you will be able to open the bin again. Use Buckets with the bin to take out the Compost. Some items create Super Compost when put in the Compost Bin. You will need to put 15 of these items into the compost bin to produce Super Compost. Any farmer near a patch will tell you whether an item can be used as Super Compost. These items are:

All Tree Roots

Any Herb above Irit Leaf

Bittercap Mushrooms

Poison Ivy Berries, Jangerberries, and Whiteberries

Pineapples, Watermelons, Coconuts and Papayaas

Super Compost yields and protects your patches more effectively than regular Compost. You can also use the Fertile Soil spell (see Magic: Lunar Magic Spells) to fertilise the soil with Super Compost.

Scarecrows

Birds like to snack on your sweetcorn while it grows. This can be a nuisance and causes lost experience. Building and placing Scarecrows help solve this problem. To build a Scarecrow, use an empty sack on a Straw Bale to fill it - a Straw Bale can be found north of the Ardougne Farming Shop. Use the Sack of Hay with a bronze spear and use the Watermelon with the result; you will have a completed scarecrow. Use the Scarecrow with a Flower Patch to place it.

The Scarecrow will help "scare the crows" away from your allotments of sweet corn. Scarecrows will not decay. They will last forever and ever.

Nature Amulet

This enchanted amulet allows you to keep a watchful eye over your patch without you having to constantly check it. Furthermore, you can talk with a farmer near your patch, and even teleport to your patch! A Nature Amulet is made from a spun magic root into a magic string (similar to bowstring) and an emerald amulet (without the string). Once together, they enchant to produce a Nature Amulet. To assign your amulet a specific patch, you need to use it on any particular patch you think needs to be watched over carefully.

You may either wear the amulet while you go about with your work, or you may keep it in your inventory. Regardless, when your plant has either caught disease, flourished and fully grown, or withered and died, the amulet will resonate with a hum and all you need to do is rub it and it will speak to you, and you can then teleport to your patch. Nature Amulets are un-tradable, but you may trade for the seperate pieces. There are also Farming Amulets, which simply alert tell you the current state of the assigned patch (if it is healthy or not). These have a limited number of uses and can only be used with vegetable and flower patches.

Patches

More info on each kind of patch and what's planted there is found below.

Allotments

Allotments are where you grow crops by the masses. Each time you plant in an allotment, it will use three seeds. You can hire a farmer to take care of your allotments by paying them a fee of a certain type of crop. Allotment patches are located north of Ardougne, north of Catherby, west of Port Phasmatys, and south of Falador. Below is a list of the seeds that can be planted in an allotment.

Please Note: The 'Care Fee' info specified in some of the tables indicates what the fee you will have to pay a gardener NPC to watch that crop.

Name	Seed	Level	Plant	Harvest	Grows	Minutes	Care Fee
Potato		1	8	9		35	2 Buckets of Compost
Onion		5	9.5	10.5		35	1 Sack of Potatoes
Cabbage		7	10	11.5		35	1 Sack of Onions
Tomato		12	12.5	14		35	2 Sacks of Cabbage
Sweet Corn		20	17	19		60	10 Jute Fibers
Strawberry		31	26	29		60	1 Basket of Apples
Watermelon		47	48.5	54.5		60	10 Curry Leaves

Flowers

Flowers are very important when farming in allotments. Certain flowers help protect certain types of crops from disease. It is important to know what plants protect what crops. Flower patches are located north of Ardougne, north of Catherby, west of Port Phasmatys, and south of Falador. It only takes one seed per patch to plant flowers. Below is a table listing all the information you will need about flowers.

Name	Seed	Level	Plant	Pick	Grows	Minutes	Protects
Marigold		2	8.5	47		17.5	Potatoes, Onions, and Tomatoes
Rosemary		11	12	66.5		17.5	Cabbages
Nasturtium		24	19.5	111		17.5	Watermelons
Woad		25	20.5	115.5		17.5	Nothing
Limpwurt		26	21.5	120		17.5	Nothing

Hops

Hops are used for making many different drinks that have vast amounts of benefits. For information on how to brew drinks, see the Cooking Guide. Hops patches are located northwest of Seers Village, inside of Yanille, North and a little East of Lumbridge, and on Entrana, West of where you get off the boat. Hops require you to use 4 seeds for every patch. More information about hops farming:

Name	Seed	Level	Plant	Pick	Grows	Minutes	Care Fee
Barley		3	8.5	9.5		35	3 Buckets of Compost
Hammerstone Hop		4	9	10		35	1 Marigold
Asgarnian Hop		8	10.5	12		45	1 Sack of Onions
Jute		13	13	14.5		45	6 Barley Malt*
Yanillian Hop		16	14.5	16		55	1 Basket of Tomatoes
Krandorian Hop		21	17.5	19.5		65	3 Sacks of Cabbage
Wildblood Hop		28	23	26		75	1 Nasturtium

* Barley Malt is made by using barley on a range.

Herbs

Herbs are one of the most useful aspects of farming. Herblore has always been a slow skill, but farming has helped to speed it up a bit by making it possible to grow your own herbs. Herb allotment patches are located north of Ardougne, north of Catherby, west of Port Phasmatys, and south of Falador. Herbs also only need one seed per patch. Additional information about Herb farming:

Name	Seed	Level	Plant	Pick	Grows	Minutes
Guam Leaf		9	11	12.5		70
Marrentil		14	13.5	15		70
Tarromin		19	16	18		70
Harralander		26	21.5	24		70
Goutweed		29	N/A	45		70
Ranarr Weed		32	27	30.5		70
Toadflax		38	34	38.5		70
Irit Leaf		44	43	48.5		70
Avantoe		50	54.5	61.5		70
Kwuarm		56	69	78		70
Snapdragon		62	87.5	98.5		70
Cadantine		67	106.5	120		70
Lantadyme		73	134.5	151.5		70
Dwarf Weed		79	170.5	192		70
Torstol		85	199.5	224.5		70

Trees

There are two different kinds of trees you can grow in RuneScape. The regular kind that give logs, and new fruit trees which you can pick various fruits from. Regular tree patches are in Falador Park, just south of the Member's Gate on the Taverly side, east of the Varrock Palace front gates, and west of Lumbridge Castle. Trees only need one seed per patch. Unlike flowers, hops, or herbs, you don't actually plant seeds in the patch, you first plant them in a Plant Pot, water the Plant Pot, and wait for it to grow into a sapling. Once you do that, take the sapling and use it on the patch to plant it. Trees are also different in that to clear a tree patch you need to use an axe to chop down the tree, and then a spade to dig up the roots. Keep the roots! There are some drinks you can make with tree roots, not to mention that you can put them in a Compost Bin to make Super Compost. More info on regular trees here:

Name	Seed	Level	Plant	Check-Health	Grows	Minutes	Care Fee
Oak Tree (Acorn)		15	14	467.3		140	1 Basket of Tomatoes
Willow Tree		30	25	1456.3		220	1 Basket of Apples
Maple Tree		45	45	3403.4		300	1 Basket of Oranges
Yew Tree		60	81	7069.9		380	10 Cactus Spines
Magic Tree		75	145.5	13768.3		460	25 Coconuts

Fruit Trees

Fruit Trees are like regular trees in that while planting a seed doesn't yield much exp, once the tree is fully grown, you can check it's health to get a good load of experience. Fruit trees are very good for leveling farming gradually, because once you've checked their health, you can pick whatever the fruit is, be it curry leaves, apples, or even pineapples, and it will give you exp. You can pick 6 of the fruit once you check the tree, and then you have the option to chop it down and dig up the roots, clearing the patch for new crops, or you can just leave it. If you take the second option, come back later; the fruit will have grown again and you can pick them again for more exp. It's a good idea to bank all the fruit, because you can usually then give them to farmers as care fees so they'll take care of your crops for you. Once you get to higher level fruit trees such as Curry trees or Pineapple trees , the fruit is actually worth keeping. Curry can be used for the crop cost for Watermelons and Pineapples can be made into Super Compost! Fruit Tree patches are located in Eastern Catherby, Brimhaven just south of the boat from Ardougne, west of the Tree Gnome Maze and in the Tree Gnome Stronghold, east of the Spirit Tree. More info on fruit trees here:

Name	Seed	Level	Plant	Check-Health	Pick	Grows	Minutes	Care Fee
Apple Tree		27	22	1199.5	8.5		880	9 Raw Sweetcorn
Banana Tree		33	28	1750.5	10.5		880	4 Baskets of Apples
Orange Tree		39	35.5	2470.2	13.5		880	3 Baskets of Strawberries
Curry Tree		42	40	2906.9	15		880	5 Baskets of Bananas
Pineapple Tree		51	57	4605.7	21.5		880	10 Watermelons
Papaya Tree		57	72	6146.4	27		880	10 Pineapples
Palm Tree		68	110.5	10150.1	41.5		880	15 Papaya

Bushes

Bushes, like both kinds of trees, have a large exp reward for checking the health of the bush at the end of it's growing cycle. Bushes are also like fruit trees because the berries you pick after checking the health will grow again after time and can be re-picked for more exp. Bushes can hold a maximum of four berries. Bushes are also good to grow, because some of the higher leveled berries can be used to make Super Compost. Bushes only require one seed per patch, which is planted directly into the patch. Bush patches are located south of the Ardougne Zoo, beside the Champions Guild, on the island of Etcetria and near Rimmington. More info on Bushes here:

Name	Seed	Level	Plant	Check-Health	Pick	Grows	Minutes	Care Fee
Redberry Bush		10	11.5	64	4.5		90	4 Sacks of Cabbage
Cadavaberry Bush		22	18	102.5	7		110	3 Baskets of Tomatoes
Dwellberry Bush		36	31.5	177.5	12		130	3 Baskets of Strawberries
Jangerberry Bush		48	50.5	284.5	19		150	6 Watermelons
Whiteberry Bush		59	78	437.5	29		150	8 Mushrooms
Poison Ivy Bush		70	120	674	45		150	15 Coconuts

Special Crops

The Special category is different from the others because for most of them, there is only one patch in which you can grow them. Also, there are no farmers near the patch to help take care of your crops. More info about specific types here:

Name	Seed	Level	Plant	Check-Health	Pick	Grows	Minutes	Additional Info
Mushroom Spore		53	61.5	N/A	57.7		220	Grows Mushrooms. Used for crop costs, brewing and making mushroom potatoes. Located West of Canifis.
Cactus		55	66.5	374	25		520	Cactus Spines used to make Extra Strong Weapon Poison. Located in Al Kharid, South of the Duel Arena.
Belladonna		63	91	N/A	512		280	Nightshade used to make Super Strong Weapon Poison. Located in Draynor Manor. Need gloves to pick the fruit, elsewise you receive damage.
Calquat		72	129.5	12096	48.5		1200	Calquats can be carved out to make Kegs, in which you can put 8 doses of any beer. Located in Brimhaven Jungle, East of the Jungle Store.
Spirit Tree*		83	199.5	19301.8	N/A		3680	Once grown, can use to teleport to the Gnome Maze. Located on Etcetaria, North of Port Sarim, and on Brimhaven, East of the Fruit Tree Patch. You can only have one Spirit Tree grown at once however.

* The Spirit Tree has a farmer payment of 5 Monkey Nuts, 1 Monkey Bar (both obtained in Ape Atoll Food Stall), and 1 Ground Suqah Tooth (Kill a Suqah on Lunar Isle and grind its tooth).

Farming Tips

The best way to start farming is to make Super Compost. Read the section on Super Compost for info on how to make it. If you start out by making 60 buckets of Super Compost, you'll automatically have much greater success when you plant things, plus a free 510 exp, getting you to level five before you've even planted anything. Once you've done this, you'll be able to plant hops, allotments, and flowers.

To powerlevel farming, you are going to need a lot of law runes. In your inventory, have a spade, rake, seed dibber, watering can, teleport runes to Camelot, Ardougne, Falador, Watchtower, and Lumbridge, Ectophial if you have it, the best allotment, flower, and hops seeds you have, and equip Magic Secateurs if you have them.

Also, keep in mind that you can note your farmer payments to save space while making your runs.

Extra Farming Info

There are some other, extra things that you should know about while raising farming:

Cape of Accomplishment

The ultimate reward for getting level 99 Farming is not only the great ability you will have in the skill, but the Cape of Accomplishment that you will have the oppurtunity to purchase. For more information on Capes of Accomplishment, see the Skill Capes page.

Farming EXP Rewards in Quests

Quest	Exp
Goblin Generals subquest (Recipe for Disaster)	1000 exp
An Enlightened Journey	3000 exp
A Fairy Tale Part 1 - Growing Pains	3500 exp
Grim Tales	4000 exp
Forgettable Tale of a Drunken Dwarf	5000 exp
Garden of Tranquility	5000 exp
My Arm's Big Adventure	5000 exp
Rum Deal	7000 exp
Back To My Roots	24000 exp