Mother Gaia: An In-Depth Manual to Farming

[Zaaps1]

I never use regular compost. There isn't a single instance where regular is economically more efficient than supercompost.

 

 

 

That being said, you should always use supercompost. There are a few exceptions to this rule, and you should refer to that part of the guide. I believe it is under "Training Concepts" in the "How to Train". It is also mentioned under "Bushes" in "The Plants".

 

 

 

The benefits of compost are:

 

 

 

-Less disease

 

-Less growing time

 

-More yield

 

 

 

Bushes grow in about 150 minutes, which is over two hours. 2 herb runs results in about 160 minutes of waiting. Therefore, you should do 1 bush run every 2 herb runs. You don't need it to grow faster, then, because even if it did, it wouldn't help you.

 

 

 

Bushes always yield 4. It can never give you more, so you don't need to increase the yield.

 

 

 

Poison ivy never gets diseased, so there's no need for that either.

 

 

 

As you can see, poison ivy is one of the few exceptions that do not require supercompost to grow efficiently.

 

 

 

Another example would be Fruit Tree if you only do 1 run per day (if you do more, then you should supercompost them) and Jade Vines (if you pay to protect).

[nicrune007]

Maybe add in Wolfpertinger when you do your Bush runs?

 

You get 2x yield and 2x xp.

 

 

 

And awesome guide there. :thumbup:

[Zaaps1]

Maybe add in Wolfpertinger when you do your Bush runs?

 

You get 2x yield and 2x xp.

 

 

 

And awesome guide there. :thumbup:

 

 

 

Hmm, good idea. Will add, thanks!

[Gandorf61]

This is an awesome guide and has motivated me to start farming again. :)

 

 

 

The routes you have shown to use while making your farming runs are a lot better than mine and I can get my runs done so much quicker now. Kudos to you for creating such a detailed guide.

[Zaaps1]

I'm glad it helped you! Farming is a great skill, and I hope you enjoy it :

[vicfung3]

Wow, this guide is very helpful and extremely comphrehensive. I've also read some other farming guides, also on tip.it but it includes things such as hops etc... How much better is saving time to ignore them compared to planting them for extra exp? Otherwise, very good guide, I'll use it for my goal of 70 farming :thumbsup: Btw, any specific profit or exp per hour calculations for your route/methods? Also some mistakes in spelling and grammar. 9.5/10 :thumbup:

[Zaaps1]

Wow, this guide is very helpful and extremely comphrehensive. I've also read some other farming guides, also on tip.it but it includes things such as hops etc... How much better is saving time to ignore them compared to planting them for extra exp? Otherwise, very good guide, I'll use it for my goal of 70 farming :thumbsup: Btw, any specific profit or exp per hour calculations for your route/methods? Also some mistakes in spelling and grammar. 9.5/10 :thumbup:

 

 

 

Can't really put a thumb on specifics since the prices change too much and everyone plants different seeds.

 

 

 

I believe the average harvest of hops yields 17. Including planting xp, that's 465 xp per hop, which is really low. Bushes are double the xp, and more profit, not to mention a ton quicker to get to.

[aspeeder]

Awesome guide Zaaps! This may motivate me to actually get 65 farming for WGS instead of just potting up.

 

 

 

Also, I was just wondering what your thoughts are on using the broomstick from Swept Away for a tele to the cactus instead of the dueling ring. If you wore the skills necklace and just had it in your inv it wouldn't take up any more space, plus you save on dueling ring charges (Every one counts!).

[Zaaps1]

Awesome guide Zaaps! This may motivate me to actually get 65 farming for WGS instead of just potting up.

 

 

 

Also, I was just wondering what your thoughts are on using the broomstick from Swept Away for a tele to the cactus instead of the dueling ring. If you wore the skills necklace and just had it in your inv it wouldn't take up any more space, plus you save on dueling ring charges (Every one counts!).

 

 

 

1 Duelling ring teleport is only about 30-40 gp, if you alch them at 1 charge left. That's more than worth the time you save compared to the Broomstick.

[Tact]

From the title, I was under the impression that a member of female persuasion had authored this guide on farming. Opening it, I saw the avatar... oh, it's only Zaaps with another one of his guides. -.-

 

 

 

At least it lives up to the second part of the title; it's certainly very well researched and I might use it if I ever around to training farming outside of tears. :

 

 

 

2/10 for the misleading title + 7/10 for the content = 9/10

[GibberEsh]

Huh, how is it misleading? Mother Gaia is basically Earth in Greek mythology. might be wrong but this is what I remember.

 

Loved the guide, might actually start planting bushes again but already planted my spirit seed in Etceteria and it'll be a bother for me to go get another seed, move my house to Rimmington, etc.

[Zaaps1]

Lol Granzi.

 

 

 

Thanks for the replys, both of you. Glad it helped. :

[aspeeder]

Awesome guide Zaaps! This may motivate me to actually get 65 farming for WGS instead of just potting up.

 

 

 

Also, I was just wondering what your thoughts are on using the broomstick from Swept Away for a tele to the cactus instead of the dueling ring. If you wore the skills necklace and just had it in your inv it wouldn't take up any more space, plus you save on dueling ring charges (Every one counts!).

 

 

 

1 Duelling ring teleport is only about 30-40 gp, if you alch them at 1 charge left. That's more than worth the time you save compared to the Broomstick.

 

But they are worth 1.8k on the ge and usually sell immedietly :P ; whatever this is still the best guide on farming that I've read, you get a ham sandwich.

[Zaaps1]

Awesome guide Zaaps! This may motivate me to actually get 65 farming for WGS instead of just potting up.

 

 

 

Also, I was just wondering what your thoughts are on using the broomstick from Swept Away for a tele to the cactus instead of the dueling ring. If you wore the skills necklace and just had it in your inv it wouldn't take up any more space, plus you save on dueling ring charges (Every one counts!).

 

 

 

1 Duelling ring teleport is only about 30-40 gp, if you alch them at 1 charge left. That's more than worth the time you save compared to the Broomstick.

 

But they are worth 1.8k on the ge and usually sell immedietly :P ; whatever this is still the best guide on farming that I've read, you get a ham sandwitch.

 

 

 

1.8k each? In that case each teleport is only 180gp or so if you alch at 1 charge left.

 

 

 

Thanks for the sandwich! :thumbsup:

[Wachtwoord]

Very good guide, especially the tree run. It's hard to figure out "the best" tree run with so many teleport options, but I think you came pretty close. Did you figure that one out yourself?

[Zaaps1]

Very good guide, especially the tree run. It's hard to figure out "the best" tree run with so many teleport options, but I think you came pretty close. Did you figure that one out yourself?

 

 

 

Thank you :

 

 

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "figure it out myself". If you mean without any sort of outside help, that's wrong, because I used various databases for assistance, but the actual route was planned by myself after a lot of trial and error.

[Wachtwoord]

Very good guide, especially the tree run. It's hard to figure out "the best" tree run with so many teleport options, but I think you came pretty close. Did you figure that one out yourself?

 

 

 

Thank you :

 

 

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "figure it out myself". If you mean without any sort of outside help, that's wrong, because I used various databases for assistance, but the actual route was planned by myself after a lot of trial and error.

 

Yes, that's what I meant indeed.

[Zaaps1]

Very good guide, especially the tree run. It's hard to figure out "the best" tree run with so many teleport options, but I think you came pretty close. Did you figure that one out yourself?

 

 

 

Thank you :

 

 

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "figure it out myself". If you mean without any sort of outside help, that's wrong, because I used various databases for assistance, but the actual route was planned by myself after a lot of trial and error.

 

Yes, that's what I meant indeed.

 

 

 

I see.

 

 

 

Just wondering, is there any particular reason why you asked?

[FinsToTheLeft]

I'm confused as to why one wouldn't supercompost fruit trees. Wouldn't it help prevent disease, making it worthwhile? (edit2: given that I'm farming palms without protecting b/c the cost of 15 papayas is over the 10%)

 

 

 

Great guide; Fins

 

 

 

Edit: I think the hide titles could be more descriptive and organized better. For example, 'how to train' as you state is more 'what to grow,' so why not name it as such? On organization, the first hide tag seems especially long and ought to be split because the two parts are vastly different: I say have one part for basics (e.g. what is a rake and the order of operations for a patch) and another for items, skills etc. required.

 

 

 

I also think something that would aid your guide is for you to create a GoogleDocs/Excel chart that automatically updates that'll tell farmers the gp/xp ratio. The Wikipage you link to is alright, but it has alot of irrelevant information and doesn't have herbs listed. Now that I think about it though, the wikipage can be viewed by anyone, not just google account owners, so perhaps I'm wrong here.

 

 

 

You never seem to mention dwarf weeds (maybe I overlooked it though). Some people grow them because they have double the experience that snapdragons give. I personally wouldn't grow them, but I know other guides recommend doing so, so give a reason as to why snaps/ranarrs, etc. would be better.

 

 

 

This distracts from your focus, but I don't think it'd be bad to mention adding in daily RS chores to a long farming run (even if you only mention it in an FAQ or whatever, in the main guide it'd obviously distract). Varrock teleport takes you right next to battlestaves, herb runs end at Catherby, and you can use the Seers' Headband in conjunction with Catherby/Camelot teleports.

 

 

 

Finally, I would recommend having a 'quick refer' list of what order to farm trees and such in. If I was a farmer used to doing a different route, I'd have to continually refer back to your guide and scroll through images and such when all I really need to know is 'falador teleport, varrock teleport, lumbridge teleport, elf crystal, duelling ring to MA, etc.' This is just something I like to have, not sure how others would like to have this written after the more in-depth farming run you have already.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, and I really like the MA duelling ring use, nice work on that.

[Zaaps1]

I'm confused as to why one wouldn't supercompost fruit trees. Wouldn't it help prevent disease, making it worthwhile? (edit2: given that I'm farming palms without protecting b/c the cost of 15 papayas is over the 10%)

 

 

 

Remember that there are three things that supercompost does:

 

 

 

Grow faster

 

Greater yield

 

Less disease

 

 

 

Now most people only do 1 fruit tree run per day. Since fruit trees all grow in ~15 hours, you don't need them to grow faster. Even if they did, it wouldn't help you since you'd still only do 1 fruit tree run per day. Therefore, most people do not need them to grow faster (now, if you do more than 1 fruit tree run per day, that's a different story).

 

 

 

All fruit trees has a set yield. The only way to increase a fruit tree's yield is by using a familiar (Giant Ent). Therefore, you do not need supercompost to increase their yield, since you can't.

 

 

 

If you are paying to protect the trees, you do not need to worry about disease, since the farmers will cure them. However, if you do not pay to protect trees, you SHOULD supercompost them. Since you are not paying to protect your Papayas, you should supercompost your trees.

 

 

 

Great guide; Fins

 

 

 

Edit: I think the hide titles could be more descriptive and organized better. For example, 'how to train' as you state is more 'what to grow,' so why not name it as such? On organization, the first hide tag seems especially long and ought to be split because the two parts are vastly different: I say have one part for basics (e.g. what is a rake and the order of operations for a patch) and another for items, skills etc. required.

 

 

 

Makes sense. I'll do that, thanks.

 

 

 

I also think something that would aid your guide is for you to create a GoogleDocs/Excel chart that automatically updates that'll tell farmers the gp/xp ratio. The Wikipage you link to is alright, but it has alot of irrelevant information and doesn't have herbs listed. Now that I think about it though, the wikipage can be viewed by anyone, not just google account owners, so perhaps I'm wrong here.

 

 

 

Good idea, but I have no idea how to do that :-#

 

 

 

You never seem to mention dwarf weeds (maybe I overlooked it though). Some people grow them because they have double the experience that snapdragons give. I personally wouldn't grow them, but I know other guides recommend doing so, so give a reason as to why snaps/ranarrs, etc. would be better.

 

 

 

Dwarf weed is not worth growing. Assuming you break even, you'd get ~3k more xp per run than snaps. However, you are paying 100k for that 3k xp. That means you are paying 33.3gp/xp, which is huge. Comparably, prayer with dbones is only about 14gp/xp and magic trees are only 15gp/xp. So by planting dwarf weed, you are farming extremely inefficiently.

 

 

 

This distracts from your focus, but I don't think it'd be bad to mention adding in daily RS chores to a long farming run (even if you only mention it in an FAQ or whatever, in the main guide it'd obviously distract). Varrock teleport takes you right next to battlestaves, herb runs end at Catherby, and you can use the Seers' Headband in conjunction with Catherby/Camelot teleports.

 

 

 

Good idea. It slows down the run somewhat, and it takes up inventory space you can't spare with my setup. Although you could bank in the middle of the run to make room. That just takes too much time. I prefer to just take care of all those chores after. It works out much quicker this way.

 

 

 

Finally, I would recommend having a 'quick refer' list of what order to farm trees and such in. If I was a farmer used to doing a different route, I'd have to continually refer back to your guide and scroll through images and such when all I really need to know is 'falador teleport, varrock teleport, lumbridge teleport, elf crystal, duelling ring to MA, etc.' This is just something I like to have, not sure how others would like to have this written after the more in-depth farming run you have already.

 

 

 

A compact outline? Sounds good, where should I put that though? Right after the longer one?

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, and I really like the MA duelling ring use, nice work on that.

 

 

 

Thanks, it came to me when I read the MA newspost. I was pretty happy. Before you had to go from the Varrock tree to the GE spirit tree. You'd also have to carry a magic log too in order to balloon back to the Grand Tree after you ballooned to Taverly. MA teleport was a huge help for farming.

 

 

 

Thanks for your post. Will update with everything you suggested when you reply to question on the outline.

[aeternitatis]

Very nice guide. 10/10

 

 

 

 

 

Another method to train farming at a lower level (also, basically bankable XP without needing to farm at all) is to make scarecrows.

 

 

 

They require 23 Farming to make, and you need a sack of hay, a bronze spear and a watermelon. Its quick experience for levels 23-45. Although I'm not sure how much exp they are each I can look into it if you'd like.

[QueenValerie]

Congratulations! After consideration by the PMG moderating team, your guide has been deemed worthy of AOW status! :thumbsup:

[Zaaps1]

Thanks! :

[Kaphias]

I also think something that would aid your guide is for you to create a GoogleDocs/Excel chart that automatically updates that'll tell farmers the gp/xp ratio. The Wikipage you link to is alright, but it has alot of irrelevant information and doesn't have herbs listed. Now that I think about it though, the wikipage can be viewed by anyone, not just google account owners, so perhaps I'm wrong here.

 

Good idea, but I have no idea how to do that :-#

 

I've been working on a farming guide of my own, but after seeing yours and reading that we have mostly the same information, I dropped the project. However, I did have a expansive section in the works on integrating Google docs into farming, and if you are interested, I'd be happy to give you some pointers (or even help write the section) on this.

 

 

 

A couple of examples of farming+google docs:

 

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key= ... Og_AlHMDLg

 

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key= ... 2OWc&hl=en

 

 

 

The first one is by troacctid, the second is my personal sheet which I am continually updating/adding on to once I find something else to add.

 

Current features:

 

-Automatically updated GE prices

 

-Profit per day

 

-Profit per day with weekly MTK

 

-Profit to 99

 

-XP per day

 

-Current XP and level, auto updated

 

-Minutes spent per day

 

-Minutes for 99

 

-Hours for 99

 

-Days, weeks, and months until each level

 

-Number of each plant type left for each level

 

 

 

I don't want to look like a walking advertisement, but it appears we both enjoy farming and I didn't want to pass up an opportunity to help out a great guide writer.

 

 

 

Congratulations on AOW. Well deserved. ;)

[abbydog95]

Very nice guide :thumbup: Seems well written and useful to the players who dont know alot about farming or the veteran farmers who want the best xp for there time, well worth the AoW rank :thumbup: