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Gardening and Farming

This page is very much a work-in-progress and I would be grateful for any comments.

General

For players of previous Sims games - in Sims 3 you cannot hire a gardener. That said, it seems garden flowers and shrubs need no care. The produce plants need a great deal, and your Sim can build the skill by "doing the stuff", or do a course or read gardening books.

Gardening class can be taken at the Science Facility.

If you want to play "realistically", avoid the "special" seeds... these are the magical ones. They will certainly make your Sims rich but have nothing to do with real farming. You can sell the seeds instead of planting them.

Prerequisites

Green Thumb trait

Helps a lot, giving motive boosts for growing.

Loves the Outdoors and Eco-Friendly help too.

Super Green Thumb reward

This is given for a Skills challenge. The benefits of these two stack.

Complementary traits and skills

The Loves the Outdoors trait gives a boost for being out of doors.

The Eco-Friendly trait gives a boost for gardening, though your Sim may not be happy about driving a truck or tractor!

The Angler trait may well be useful for catching good fertilizer fish

Anglers should buy and read all the various fish books - listed under skills in the store - to learn the bait for different types of fish.

Natural Cook would work well with gardening\farming. Recipes are improved if made with excellent or better ingredients.

Handy Sims will find it easier to upgrade the sprinklers.

Seeds

Finding Seeds

Gardening class can be taken at the Science Facility.

When you reach level 1 of Gardening skill you are give some seeds. These are quality "normal". The seeds\fruit you buy at the supermarket are Very Nice, and it may be worth buying some for a better start. 

• Seeds for Watermelon, Garlic, Potato etc cannot be bought - but you can plant the items and they will act as seeds. or search for them in the neighbourhood.
• Mystery seed can come from exploring the catacombs, or from chests in World Adventures.
• Sims can find mystery seeds by rummaging in trashcans
• Mad Scientist Sims may occasionally bring home "leftover" items from experiments at work, including seeds and or deathflower
• Offspring of firemen (even grandchildren!) may have the ability to turn any fruit into a flame fruit
• Cheese, egg, steak, burger patty or omni cannot be found in this way; those come from Opportunities
• If you have awesomemod installed, Supreme Commander allows search for seeds to be macroed.

Seed Table

Plant Info Table

It appears that farming most of the WA plants gives inordinate amounts of experience, due to 500 exp per harvest and 2-5 harvests for most plants. Set against that travel expenses and time of going to find them, this seems reasonable.

Plant name	Grown from	Class of Seed	Name of Item	Fertilizer Value	Fertilizer Lasts Days	Bait used	Obtained from	Comments
Apple Tree	Store, Apple, Apple Seed	Common	Apple	5	4		Grow, can be bought at store	Eating Apples in the earliest stage of pregnancy increases a Sim's chance of having a boy.
Lettuce Plant	Store, Lettuce, Lettuce Seed	Common	Lettuce	5	4		Grow, can be bought at store
Tomato Plant	Store, Tomato, Tomato Seed	Common	Tomato	5	3		Grow, can be bought at store
Lime Tree	Store, Lime, Unknown Common Seed		Lime	5	6		Grow, can be bought at store	Good plant for money making as they produce a lot of fruit at a reasonable rate for a lot of cash
Onion Plant	Store, Onion, Unknown Common Seed	Uncommon	Onion				Grow, can be bought at store
Potato Plant	Store, Potato, Unknown Common Seed	Uncommon	Potato	5	5		Grow, can be bought at store
Watermelon Vine	Store, Watermelon, Unknown Common Seed	Uncommon	Watermelon	10	5		Grow, can be bought at store	Eating Watermelon in the earliest stage of pregnancy increases a Sim's chance of having a girl.
Bell Pepper Plant	Store, Bell Pepper, Unknown Rare Seed	Rare	Bell Pepper	15	4		Grow, can be bought at store
Garlic Plant	Store, Garlic, Unknown Rare Seed	Rare	Garlic	15	6		Grow, can be bought at store	Inflicts 'Garlic Breath' on Sim if eaten. (This has no bad effects)
Life Plant	Life Fruit, Unknown Special Seed, Science career opportunity, Gardening opportunity.	Special	Life Fruit	25	6		Grow, cannot be bought at the store.	Increases a Sim's life span by one extra day per fruit eaten. Best plant Fertilizer. Starts life stage over if cooked with Deathfish to make Ambrosia. Life fruit is best used in cooking to expand life. Cannot be bought at the store
Death Plant	Death Flower, Unknown Special Seed, Science career opportunity, Graveyard, Fishing	Special	Death Flower				Grow, cannot be bought at the store.	Can allow a Sim who carries one in his/her inventory to placate the Grim Reaper. Plant produces only 1 flower before dying. After being revived with Green Thumb trait, it will produce one more and then become permanently barren. (The chances of this Plant's success in being revived is 50/50).
Flame Fruit Bush	Flame Fruit, Unknown Special Seed, Catacombs exploring, Science career opportunity	Special	Flame Fruit	15	4		Grow, cannot be bought at the store.	Fruit provides +5 mood (Cozy Fire) if kept in inventory. (Does not stack).Certain fruits can be turned into flame fruits if your sim has the (hidden) Pyromaniac trait using the interaction Transmogrify.
Money Tree	Money Tree Seed, Unknown Special Seed, Fishing, Criminal career opportunity	Special	Money Bag				Grow	Produces Money Bags f9rom §100 to §800 Per bag and cannot be replanted. If a full vacant square is next to it when it reaches "perfect" a seed (Normal quality) will drop. WARNING: If it dies, the tree will explode, leaving behind 3 hefty bills.
Cheese Plant	Store, Cheese	Special		5	4		Grow, can be bought at store	Enabled through skill opportunity, after which you will be able to directly "plant" cheese.
Eggplant	Store, Egg	Special	Egg	5	4		Grow, can be bought at store	Enabled through skill opportunity, after which you will be able to directly "plant" eggs.
Burger Patty Plant	Store, Burger Patty	Special	Burger	5	4		Grow, can be bought at store	Enabled through skill opportunity, requires ability to plant Cheese/Eggplant
Steak Plant	Store, Steak	Special	Steak	15	4		Grow, can be bought at the store	Enabled through skill opportunity, requires ability to plant Cheese/Eggplant
Omni Plant		Special	Omni Fruit - replicates what you successfully feed it	5	6	Complete The Omnificent Plant Opportunity, Order seeds through mailbox	Grow, cannot be bought at the store.	The Omni Plant has the ability to replicate any item it's fed. (Left click the plant, choose "Feed"). It can only be fed fish, books and food from the store etc. (It can be fed special fruits i.e. Life Fruit. As well as special fish i.e. Death Fish).
Plasma Fruit Bush		Rare	Plasma Fruit	20	4		Grow, can be bought at the store - does Sim need to be a vampire to grow it?	Upon becoming a vampire, a sim receives 3 Plasma Fruits
Grape Vine Cranerlet Nuala	Grape Seed	Rare	Grape	5	3		Grow, can be bought at the store	France
Grape vine	Grape Seed	Common		5	3		Grow, can be bought at the store	France
Grape Vine Gralladina Fran	Store, Grapes, Grape Seed	Rare	Grape	5	3		Grow, can be bought at the store	Key ingredient in Nectar
Grape Vine Cherimola	Grape Seed	Common	Grape	5	3		Grow, can be bought at the store	France
Grape Vine Renoit	Grape Seed	Common	(blanc) Grape	5	3		Grow, can be bought at the store	France
Grape Vine Meloire	Grape Seed	Uncommon	(pink) Grape	5	3		Grow, can be bought at the store	France
Grape Vine Avornalino	GrapeSeedBlue	Uncommon	Grape	5	3		Grow, can be bought at the store	France
Grape Vine Cab	GrapeSeedCab	Uncommon	Grape	5	3		Grow, can be bought at the store	France
Pomegranate Tree	PomegranateSeed	Uncommon	Pomegranate					Egypt
PlumTree	PlumSeed	Uncommon	Plum					China
Cherry Tree	CherrySeed	Rare	Cherry					Egypt and China
Pomelo		Rare	Pomelo					China
			Goldfish	5	3	Lettuce	Freshwater ishing, store
			Anchovy	5	3	Tomato	Saltwater fishing, store
			Alley Catfish	5	3	Goldfish, Cheese	Fishing, store
			Kissing Gourami	5	3
			Rainbow Trout	8	3		Fishing, store
			Tuna	10	3	Goldfish, Onion	Fishing, store
			Minnow	10	4	Goldfish, Apple	Freshwater fishing, cannot be bought at the store
			Jellyfish	10	4		Fishing, cannot be bought at the store
			Swordfish	12	3		Fishing, store
			Salmon	12	3	Lime, Bell Pepper	Fishing, store
			Black Goldfish	12	3	Goldfish	Fishing, store
			Blowfish	15	4	Potato	Fishing, cannot be bought at the store
			Piranha	15	4		Fishing, cannot be bought at the store
			Red Herring	15	4		Fishing, cannot be bought at the store
			Siamese Catfish	15	4	Goldfish, Bell Pepper	Fishing, cannot be bought at the store
			Tragic Clownfish	15	4	Watermelon	Fishing, cannot be bought at the store
			Sewer Trilobite	15	3		Fishing, cannot be bought at the store
			Angel Fish	25	4		Fishing, store
			Sea Sludge	25	4		Fishing, cannot be bought at the store
			Lobster	20	3		Fishing, store
			Shark	20	4		Fishing, cannot be bought at the store
			Vampire Fish	25	3		Fishing, cannot be bought at the store
			MummyFish	25	3	Pomegranate	Egypt Cannot buy from store
			Crocodile	5	3	Siamese Catfish	Can buy from store in Egypt
			Crawfish	5	3	Frogs	Can buy from store in France
			Frogs	5	3		France Cannot buy from store
			DragonFish	25	3	Tancho Koi	China Cannot buy from store
			DoitsuKoi	5	3	Pomelo	China Can buy from store
			KawarimonoKoi	5	3	Plum	China Can buy from store
			OchibaKoi	5	3	Pomelo	China Cannot buy from store
			TanchoKoi	5	3	Plum	China Cannot buy from store
			Snails	5	3	Grapes	France Cannot buy from store
			DeathFish	-200	-4		Fishing, cannot be bought at the store.

Specific Plants

Flame Fruit

Having a flame fruit in your inventory can give your sim a happy  moodlet of +5

Ingredient in Angel Food Cake, which gives a larger warmth bonus

The flame fruit sprout is distinctive looking, it's the only ground-hugging plant of the four special seed plants.

Life Plant

Life Fruits will give your sim 1 day of life back if eaten.

They make excellent fertiliser.

It is a staked plant that wilts the moment it is planted. Move all wilt-upon-planting specials into a single row: all the stake plants in that row will be life fruit plants.

Death Plant

Move all wilt-upon planting special seed plants into one row. They will be Money tree and Plasma? Or Flame?

Staked plants from special seeds, which do NOT wilt upon planting, will be Death Plants

Revival also seems to have a 50% success rate, but only get the option to use it on Death Flowers.

If you have a Deathflower in your sims inventory when he/she meets with a serious accident, the Grim Reaper will take the flower instead of your sim, but NOT if it is due to old age. Basically it is a "Don´t die from accidents" free pass.

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

There are reports that SOME Sims who have the green thumb trait and has the super green thumb, can revive death plants over and over. This might be a bug.

Money Trees

You can tell the  money tree once it is growing because of the icon that shows up as it starts to grow. Once it becomes a sapling it looks very different from all other plants.

An orchard of money trees can bring in $10K in money bags and will drop seeds if there is enough space around the tree. Leave enough space around the tree if you want the seeds (1 clear tile all round)

The money tree sprout is very distinctive looking and starts to wilt the moment it's planted.

Money trees cannot be revived as they'll explode upon their death

The OMNI Plant

You get it by completing a challenge to grow 10 steaks of quality.

You can feed the omni plant any veggies, and fish you can find.

You can also feed it all books, with the exception of the magic scroll books that go poof when read.

You can't reproduce the ambrosia recipe this way.

The omni plant looks pretty weird with 4 swordfish growing on it.

Has special interactions - Feed and Check Diet.

Things you can feed it: 

• All fish
• All fruits
• All vegetables
• All books except recipes
• Rubber Ducks
• Mood Candles

Things you cannot feed it:

• Recipes
• Money bags
• Cars
• Bicycles
• Prepared food
• Stereos
• Paintings
• Seeds
• Rocks
• Birthday Cake
• Bubble Bath
• Death Flowers

The Process of Gardening

Watering

Sprinklers are essential if you are growing more than one or two plants.

They can be upgraded to automatic by a Sim with Tinkering level 4, and this is well worth while. Automatic sprinklers work from 4-7 am and use less water than leaving the sprinklers on all the time, affecting household bills.

Watermelons (and the Money Tree) show the effects of needing water differently than the other plants, though they will all show as 'wilting'

Fertilizing

• There is a book about fertilizing. Gardening Vol 2: Odor Free Fertilizer - but this is simply a skill book.
• Use fish, fruit and vegetables to fertilize.This makes plants come to harvest faster.
• Fertilizer has no effect on harvestable quality because produce quality is far more important in game terms than quantity, unless you're selling produce for profit. Both skill and traits affect produce quality:
  • A low-skill Sim will get a Normal plant from planting a Normal seed, 
  • A high-skill Sim will get Nice. 
  • A level 10 gardener with the super green thumb perk can see plants which were Excellent or Great jump to Perfect.
  • This also 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 much faster.
• Weight of fish does not affect quality or days.
• All fertilizer does is speed growth to first harvest. It is unclear whether it speeds time to second, third, etc harvest.
• See the Plant Info Table for more information about fertilizers.

Life Fruit is the best thing you can fertilize with, though you might prefer to keep those for other uses. Lobster is great if you fish. I found Garlic and Steak are close.

Passing the Skill Journal Challenge Master Farmer adds an extra two days to the lasting time of any fertilizer.

Great, Excellent, and Outstanding quality 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 in which 1.0 is normal, 2 is perfect.

So a Perfect Life Fruit used as fertilizer by a Master Farmer yields 50 performance, and 10 days of fertilization.

Talking raises the Sim's social motive, great for lonely farmers.

Replant to Improve Quality

When you plant an item of produce (eg an apple) you already know the quality of, the new plant will be one better quality. E.g. Nice garlic planted gives a plant with Very Nice quality. 

Plants which die or go barren

Dead plants can occur after you neglect any plants under 'Wilting' condition for one day. After that, your sim will have to dispose or revive them. Dying and barren are two different states.  Barren plants have the same appearance as dead plants, but they cannot be revived. Each plant will become barren after it reaches its maximum amount of produce. The Green Thumb trait (not the reward) allows a Sim to revive a plant. So a Green Thumb Sim can get two Death Flowers.  Everyone else gets just one.

"Going barren" is unavoidable, and not reversible.  It's part of the game balance.  The idea is that you get a limited amount of produce from each planting cycle before you must go through the investment of planting and waiting through the initial growth.

Cleaning up dead plants

Telling a Sim to clean up dead plants is time consuming for a real farmer.  Each trip goes to the lot garbage can, and won't target small trash containers.  You could just delete them manually in Build mode; or use moveobjects on to place the bin closer to the growing plants.

Cooking Fruit and Veg

Usage of fruit and veggies from the fridge goes in alphabetical order.

Sims always use up the ingredient in the inventory first. So if you want to make 'Apple Cobbler,' take an apple from the fridge, put the apple in the cook's inventory and then do the cooking.

Sell Produce at a Supermarket

If the harvested produce is sold to a supermarket, it sells for at least 10% higher value than if sold via an inventory hole, depends on quality.

Seeds for Selling - worth experimenting

Seeds you do not want can be sold to the Supermarket or in the inventory box.

There are rumours that if you collect a lot of seeds with the Collector or Supreme Commander, occasionally a seed is worth a great deal of money. Sorting through Sim's inventory and checking prices may be helpful. There are reports of seeds worth up to §20,000. It's possible these are seeds that spawn close to the Science Building. This has not happened to me yet.

Seeds MAY also vary in price if left lying around on the ground.

To Sort Items in Inventory and Price them Easily

To examine a stack of seeds in inventory, click on the rounded blue triangle in the upper left corner of the inventory icon.  A new window will open in which you can examine each item in the stack individually. Items are always displayed in descending order of quality in this window. I plant the first few fruits, thus keeping to the highest quality available, and sell or stock the fridge with the rest.

Moving house

Without special mods, if your Sims move to a different house, the plants become untendable to them. They can harvest but not tend, weed or water and do not seem to go barren. The new owners of the house can harvest but can only grow according to their own level of Gardening skill. Moving an unskilled Sim into a house with a mature garden is a quick way to help their gardening skill develop.

Save a lot full of grown, perfect fruit/veggies/money trees and place it as a community lot. Sims in the Neighbourhood can go daily and harvest without having to do anything for it. This is particularly useful for Life Fruit.

Credits

Information collected from

MATY, Sims 3 Wiki, Sims 3 guide, my own gameplay.