Chapter Nine

Farming/Ranching

So, you wanna be a farmer, huh? Someone has to grow the food everyone eats, including yourself, and it’s a good way to earn some cash and stock up on food!

Go to any general store and buy the following items:

• A garden hoe
• Seeds
• Plant trimmer (can be optional)
• Fertilizer (can be optional)
• Empty water buckets

This job is available for anyone in the server, it is not whitelisted.

For every 1 plant, you need 2 seeds in your inventory. So for example, if you wanted to grow five apple trees, you’d need ten apple seeds in your inventory.

Until you’re able to find a house on the server, the only areas you may farm in will be areas outside each town.

So for example, you may NOT farm inside the town limits of Valentine UNLESS you farm at your home in that town. (Feel free to ask any Welcome Wagon member for guidance on where you may or may not farm if you aren’t sure.) Towns include Valentine, Rhodes, St Denis, Annesburg, Armadillo, Tumbleweed, and Blackwater.

Once you have located an area you’d like to farm in, you’ll need all items in your personal inventory in order to plant.

Note: Be mindful of your surroundings when farming. Others could potentially try to steal your crops, or you may run into predators. Be sure you are farming in a safe area before you start planting! You are allowed to defend your crops if there is an attempt to steal them!

To start, open up your inventory by pressing “i” on your keyboard. That will pull up your personal inventory.

Double click on the seeds you wish to start planting. Your character will begin to use the garden hoe to till the dirt before throwing the seeds into the ground. Once the seeds are planted, a plant or tree will spawn.

You’ll be given two options: trim the plant and fertilize the plant.

Trimming is optional, but you will gain 2 extra pieces for each plant. For example, if I choose not to trim my apple tree, upon harvesting I will only collect 5 apples. Had I trimmed the plant, I will harvest 7 apples. (Extra fruit, vegetables, or herbs gains you more money or you can use it for cooking.)

Fertilizer is also optional but it allows you to grow your plants much faster. When plants spawn, they start at 50 minutes. That means it would take 50 minutes for your plant to be watered. By fertilizing, you skip the extra 50 minutes and instead it will only take you 15 minutes to harvest that plant once watered.

So for example, let’s say I planted an apple tree. If I choose not to fertilize it, it will take me 50 minutes for it to grow and an additional 15 minutes after watering to be ready to harvest. If I had fertilized it, it would only take 15 minutes total after watering. (Saves you time and allows you to grow your plants much faster!)

You do not need fertilizer to grow your plants, however. You could spend time panning for gold or doing other things while waiting for your crops to grow.

** You can only plant 20 active plants for each kind of seed. So for example, you can have 20 apple trees, 20 pear trees, 20 peach trees, etc… at a time. You can only have 60 plants growing at one time, so keep that in mind as well. If you try to plant over the limit, it will not allow you to and you’ll lose those seeds.**

To water your plants, walk up to the plant. You should see the number 15 in red. That means your plant needs to be watered in order to fully grow.

You can walk into a river or pond and double click on an empty bucket in your inventory to fill it. You can hold up to 10 buckets in your inventory. You can also use a water pump which is only available for homeowners.

You can also buy a water wagon at the stables in any town and fill your water wagon with water in most rivers or lakes. Keep in mind, some locations will work and others won’t. (Again, please ask for help from the Welcome Wagon members if you need it.)

Back up your wagon into a river or lake and when you exit the wagon, you should get a prompt to fill it. (Water wagons are called “oil wagons” in the stables where you can buy them.) You do not need empty buckets if you choose to own a water wagon!

Rainfall can also water your plants as well, but keep in mind that it may not allow you to trim the plant or fertilize it once activated. Best advice is to first fertilize the plant, then trim it. Unfortunately, some plants will “glitch” and therefore you’d have to wait for the plant to grow for 50 minutes before it would need water.

Once the plant is ready to be harvested, you should see the words “Grown” appear on the plant. Use the prompt to harvest the plant. It will tell you how much of eat plant you harvested and those should appear in your inventory. Be mindful of how many plants you can keep in your inventory at one time.

Keep in mind, there are item stack limits in your inventory, per plant. So for example, I can hold X apples, X pears, X peaches, etc…

You can store plants on your horse or wagon and sell them to the general store. Make sure you have the room in your inventory as well!

Some plants can sell for up to $1 per piece, others will be less. Take the time to grow each kind of plant! Some plants or herbs can be used to make food using the cookbook, so try out some different options!

Again, consult the Welcome Wagon members if you have any questions. Report any bugs in a #saloon-support-request ticket in Discord should you find any bugs.

LIVESTOCK RANCHING:

You can also buy baby livestock from the General Store, feed them, let them grow, and slaughter them for meat and hides. Use the baby livestock item from your inventory ON YOUR PROPERTY and they will spawn. Focus on them like you would your horse and press the joystick to feed them. Of course, you’ll need livestock food from the general store.

Note: You MUST feed each new livestock before spawning another, or they can’t be fed, won’t grow, and are wasted. They’ll have to be despawned at server restart. You are limited to 5 livestock active at once. These must be fed, grown, and slaughtered for meat/hides before logging out or server restarts, or they will despawn.