Gardening and fertilizing

[ElenaRoan]

Ah.  Now I feel dumb, must have missed it in the 50 thousand traits you can pick from

[cyperangel]

Also, you can only revive a dead plant, not a barren one. They kind'a look the same, but there is the subtle difference that one has a chance of flowering again if revived.

[sloppyhousewife]

**Gained from opportunity that shows up after you learn the egg plant and cheese plant skill. Once done promises to give another oportunity that will open up omni plant.

Does anyone know what happens if you accidently decline this specific opportunity? Will you get a second chance, or are you just screwed (double screwed given that this opportunity seems to be mandatory for the omniplant one)?

[VegaBlack]

Anyone know how to make the quality of a plant worse? I had a sim get an opportunity to bring 10 bad apples to work, but when he planted the bad apple, it became of very nice quality. Probably due to the fact that he has the green thumb trait and/or level 10 gardening skill.

[cyperangel]

My guess would be to not weed it, or let a sim with puny gardening skills do the actual gardening to make the bad apples, and then just hand them to the one who has to hand them in. That works as well.

[redwards]

Could try leaving the apples on the counter for a few days, too. Will they rot?

[Slymenstra]

Found the Putrid Apple seed when my Sim Rummaged in several Garbage cans.  I also had a sim running around the Central Park area and I saw an Apple seed that said Putrid Quality.  I guess planting that would make it go up one to Bad?

Another note..I also saw in a wooded area to the right of the (EDITED) City Hall, across the road (behind this sign) there are tons of Excellent, Outstanding and sometimes Perfect Lettuce, Apple, Grape and Watermelon seeds back there.


Edited:  Sorry was City Hall not the Library
Edited again to add new found seed.

[infamy]

Could try leaving the apples on the counter for a few days, too. Will they rot?

No dice - they seem to be immortal.  I left a bunch scattered about my Sims' front porch for weeks to no avail.

[Rothchild]

Because I was a freak and bought the Prima Guide...according to the section under fertilizer:

As always, Prima had some errors.  Here is the exact data from GameplayData.package, the numbers stand for "Fertilizer_Value"-"Fertilizer_Days", and if the item has an asterisk (*) it means you can't purchase that item from a store.

25-6 = Lifefruit*
25-4 = Angelfish*
25-3 = Vampirefish*
20-4 = Shark*
20-3 = Lobster
15-6 = Garlic
15-4 = Steak, Bell Pepper, Flame Fruit*, Blowfish*,  Piranha*, Red Herring*, Siamese Catfish*, Tragic Clownfish*
12-3 = Black Goldfish, Salmon, Swordfish
10-5 = Watermelon
10-4 = Jellyfish*, Minnow*
10-3 = Tuna
8-3 = Rainbow Trout
5-6 = Lime, Onion
5-5 = Potato
5-4 = Burger Patty, Cheese, Egg, Apple, Lettuce, Tomato
5-3 = Grapes, Alley Catfish, Anchovy, Goldfish
-200-4 = Deathfish*

Based on that, out of the things you can purchase, Lobster is the best thing you can fertilize with, but Garlic is close and lasts twice as long.

NOTE: Could this thread be moved to the Facts & Strategery forum, since it has many useful facts.

[sloppyhousewife]

NOTE: Could this thread be moved to the Facts & Strategery forum, since it has many useful facts.

Seconded.

[cyperangel]

Thirded.  

Oh and eh, according to the list two posts above, as far as I can see, aren't life fruit the best fertilizer, both when it comes to value and longevity? Better than both lobster and garlic?
I know you can use the lifefruit to extend a sims life, but 3 bushes can give a supply large enough for 5 sims, as well as fertilizing a few other plants. At least that is how it works in my sim's garden

Nope, I just cant read. Life fruit still beats the snot out of the store bought fertilizers though.

[Hanlon Razor]

Just some more info. Master Farmer (Journal Challenge) gets an extra two days out of any fertilizer. Great, Excellent, and Outstanding all give an extra one day, Perfect gives two.

Quality of fertilizer has a multiplier, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 2.

1.0 is normal, 2 is perfect, fill in the blanks. So a Perfect Life Fruit used as fertilizer by a Master Farmer yields 50 performance, and 10 days of fertilization.

[Rothchild]

That is awesome!  I was trying to figure out if quality made a difference.

[Hanlon Razor]

All that is from S3_0333406C_00000000_D2DAA8B8E789F61A_Plant_0xd2daa8b8e789f61a%%+UNKN.bnry in the GamplayData.package. There's even more info and variables, but without access to the formulas, it's impossible to say exactly how they play out.

For instance,
<kGreenThumbPlantOffspringQualityBonus value="0.03">
<!--Range: Positive floats.  Description: The additional boost in the gaussian quality curve that Green Thumb trait Sims have when plants they planted create offspring.-->

0.03 doesn't sound very great, but having played with and without green thumb, their harvestables are much greater quality than without.

So to sum up gardening, lobsters until life fruits, get green thumb and super green thumb.

I'm planning on running the farm family in Riverview, see if they can become self sufficient.

[Hanlon Razor]

Double post since I cant edit.

More info to clear up some misinformation/uncertainty from earlier in the thread.

Weight of fish does not affect quality or days.

All fertilizer does is speed growth. Unsure if it speeds time to second, third, etc harvest. Fertilizer has no effect on harvestable quality.

[Gus Smedstad]

That fertilizer table is highly useful.  Particularly since there's no in-game way to predict which items will be more effective.  While the Life Fruit, Lobster, and Death Fish results are intuitive, there's simply no way you'd know that Garlic is better than Bell Pepper.

It's worth noting that if you haven't found any Life Fruit seeds, fishing is your only source for high-quality fertilizer.  However, this is only a very early game issue.  Once any of your households manages to grow a life fruit vine, other households can forage for life fruit easily without having to take a chance on an unknown Special seed.

 - Gus

[Trinity]

Anyone know how to make the quality of a plant worse? I had a sim get an opportunity to bring 10 bad apples to work, but when he planted the bad apple, it became of very nice quality. Probably due to the fact that he has the green thumb trait and/or level 10 gardening skill.

I was finally able to complete this challenge, my sim got it a few times and could not grow "bad" apples, he's a green thumb and level 10 gardener too. I had some omni plant seeds and planted them one of them was of "putrid" quality and another was "horrifying", so I feed them some "very nice" apples, when I harvested it I got apples of "bad" and "foul" quality, it took 2 harvests but he had 10 "bad" or worse apples.

[IgnorantBliss]

I assumed this was my place to go to for information about fertilizing, and I was right. This explains why the option to fertilize a certain plant comes up less often now that my sim has been using garlic a lot (as opposed to using apples). It's also good to know that the fertilizer doesn't actually affect the quality of the produce at all, because that's the opposite of what I'd assumed.

[Gus Smedstad]

I can see why fertilizing doesn't affect produce quality.

Produce quality is far more important in game terms than quantity, unless you're selling produce for profit, which is a marginal activity.  If fertilizer affected quality, that would swamp skill, traits, and perks.  Earlier in this thread Czezechael claimed to get perfect plants by fertilizing with perfect apples.  If this were so, the "grow 8 perfect species" lifetime want would be trivial - harvest 8 perfect apples from some earlier Sim's garden, plant 8 species, success.  You'd need enough skill to plant Uncommons, but you wouldn't need skill 7 for Rares.

It's apparent that both skill and traits affect produce quality, and the boost in quality you get from planting.  A low-skill Sim will get a Normal plant from planting a Normal seed, but a high-skill Sim will get Nice.  Or possibly better, I should experiment at some point to see if multiple grade boosts are possible.

 - Gus

[sloppyhousewife]

Or possibly better, I should experiment at some point to see if multiple grade boosts are possible.

They are - I've had several excellent (or even great) plants jump to perfect after being planted by a level 10 gardener (with the super green thumb perk, but not the green thumb trait). I think that it depends on the plant level, too. It takes several rounds of steak planting to get a perfect plant, whereas low-level stuff like lettuce improves really fast.

[Kyna]

If this were so, the "grow 8 perfect species" lifetime want would be trivial - harvest 8 perfect apples from some earlier Sim's garden, plant 8 species, success.  You'd need enough skill to plant Uncommons, but you wouldn't need skill 7 for Rares.

It still can be trivial.  Instead of 8 perfect apples to fertilise with, they just need to harvest 8 different perfect plants from some earlier sim's garden to plant.

[Gus Smedstad]

Good point.

I just ran the "have 13 perfect fish in fishbowls" lifetime wish.  Easiest one I've done so far, but planting perfect fruit would be even easier than that.

Fishing deathfish is grotesquely overpowered.  It's not hard to farm $4K-$6K a night.

 - Gus

[J. M. Pescado]

Could be easier. I mean, what if we had "Fish Using.../Hand Grenade".

[Mimic]

With or without pin?

[J. M. Pescado]

It wouldn't do much unless it could explode and stun the fish.