Final Fantasy Xi Gardening Guide

The hobby of horticulture is the tending and nurturing of plants. In Final Fantasy, gardening provides players another way to make money through harvesting plants they grow, and crafters with another way to obtain their materials.

To make a garden, you need a few things:

A moogle
A pot (Your moghouse can hold a maximum of 10)
A seed (From grain seeds to tree cuttings, there are many varieties)
A crystal (optional, you may also need multiples depending on the plant)

By moogle, we mean this all takes place in your moghouse. Pots can be bought at merchants, the Auction House, or obtained through certain quests. Pots are placed in your moghouse just like any piece of furniture. Once they are placed, you can begin planting seeds. Seeds that you wish to plant must be placed in your Mog Safe, as well as any crystals you want to feed to it to help it grow.

There are three types of pots:

Vendor bought: Ceramic Flowerpot, Earthen Flowerpot, Brass Flowerpot.
Crafted: Porcelain Flowerpot, Brass Flowerpot.
Quested: Arcane Flowerpot, Wooden Flowerpot.
Special Event: Mandragora Pot, Korrigan Pot, Adenium Pot, Citrullus Pot.

Note: Results (what you harvest) are the same for all pots. The only variation is amount.

There are two types of seeds:

Flowering Plants: Grain Seeds, Vegetable Seeds, Herb Seeds, Wildgrass Seeds.
Trees: Fruit Seeds, Tree Cuttings, Tree Saplings, Cactus Stems.

Flowering plants grow faster than trees, and only ask you to feed them once. Trees can take weeks (Earth time) to grow to fruition, and will ask to be fed twice. Before you worry how a tree can fit in your Moghouse, be assured that these are small trees, like bonsai.

Once planted, your moogle does most of the work. Now you wait for your plant to grow. This will take some time, so go out and level, fish, farm or whatever your heart desires. After some time, you will come back to your moghouse and there will be plants in your pot(s). You'll want to examine them, as this will make them happy and prevent them from wilting. By Examining the plants you are basically watering and pruning the plants. Wilting periods tend to happen around feeding time, examining your plant will make it feel better. Moghancement: Gardening will lessen the chance of your plant wilting, giving you more time to come back and check on it. If your plant wilts, your only option will be to empty your pot and try again.

After a certain period of time (length depends on the seed) you will be given the option to feed a crystal to your plant. While feeding it a crystal is not necessary, it may help your plant grow faster, and will affect the results of what you harvest when it's ready. Trees will ask you to feed crystals to it twice.

At the end of the plant's growing cycle, you will be given the option to harvest your plant. You will know it's harvest time just by looking at your plant, as they emit a pleasant glow. When you harvest your plant, your results will be placed directly into your Mog Safe, so make room, as you will not be allowed to harvest until there is room. Your harvest will automatically stack in your safe. Your results depend mainly on what seed was used, what crystal you fed to it (if any), and (possibly) what day of the week you fed the crystal to the plant (or what day you declined to feed the plant), the phase of the moon (Full moon said to be best) and the elemental affinity of the plant versus the day you are harvesting*. A suggestion is to try delaying Harvesting by continuing to Examine twice per earth day and harvest 1 or more Vana'diel weeks after the plant is ready, to improve the yield. Experiment with delays. During the first 90 days after a character has been created, all gardening results will be limited to a single item. (This limit was introduced on August 3rd, 2009 to counter the massive amounts of gardening trial accounts made by RMT.)

Some plants will distill the elemental energy out of the air and water, which will crystallize on their roots. This is why sometimes you will receive crystals when harvesting your plants. It can also calcify into colored rocks and ores. Mostly your results will fall in line with what type of seed you planted. You will get fruit from fruit seeds, grain from grain seeds, etc. For example, if you wanted to try to grow Tarutaru Rice, you would use a Grain Seed.

It can also be noted that at anytime during the growing cycle (once green begins to show) you have the option to dry your flowers. This will freeze your plant as it is right then, making it a permanent furniture fixture. If you're doing this for the look, the best time to do this is at harvest time, as your flowers will stay in their perpetually glowing state. Once you dry your flowers, you cannot harvest them ever, though you will always have the option to empty your pot and begin again.

Arranging flowering plants for display.
Left to right: Vegetable seeds, tree saplings, cactus stems, tree cuttings, herb seeds.

Freezing Your Plant (Things you should know)

Q: Can I harvest my plant then freeze it?
A: No, the pot will be emptied.

Q: Will it glow brighter (once its glowing) if I wait just a lil longer?
A: No, you might risk it wilting (dying) though.

Advice: If it's glowing an your moogle says you can harvest the plant, freeze it if you want it to stay this way. --Waterdust 03:44, June 14, 2011 (UTC)

For 'recipe' information, please see the following:
*Note: When reading the recipes, the results are all possibilities; You will receive only one of them when harvesting.

Results by Seed

Flowering Plants:

Grain Seeds Results
Herb Seeds Results
Vegetable Seeds Results
Wildgrass Seeds Results

Trees:

Cactus Stems Results
Fruit Seeds Results
Tree Cuttings Results
Tree Saplings Results

Results by Flowerpot

Adenium Pot Results
Arcane Flowerpot Results
Brass Flowerpot Results
Ceramic Flowerpot Results
Citrullus Pot Results
Earthen Flowerpot Results
Korrigan Pot Results
Mandragora Pot Results
Porcelain Flowerpot Results
Wooden Flowerpot Results

Common Gardening Theories

Note: You should "Examine" all plants at least once per earth day and experience has shown once in the morning and once in the evening each earth day is better. You will have better results if you wear Field Gear, armor, pants and boots (gloves don't help on gardening) at all times when planting, harvesting, examining and giving crystals. You can get "Overwhelming Earth Energy" most efficiently by using furniture: Bahut (8 storage spaces), 8 or 9 each, 1 Oak Table, 1 Maple Table and then your bed, flowerpots (give 1 storage space each) and odds and ends. Storage space is max at 80.

Note: Each plant is thought to have an elemental affinity by some gardeners. This would mean you'll get your best results if you plant your seeds or harvest your plant on the day of its affinity. Affinities are:

Lightsday = Cactus Stems
Darksday = Tree Saplings
Firesday = Grain Seeds
Earthsday = Vegetable Seeds
Watersday = Fruit Seeds
Windsday = Herb Seeds
Iceday = Tree Cuttings
Lightningsday = Wildgrass Seeds

Note: Plants grown in arcane pots are slower to mature but harvest yield averages more than with other pots. Plants grown in Wooden, Brass, Porcelain, Ceramic and Earthen pots all mature at the same speed but Wooden yields more on average. For example, Wildgrass seeds using a water crystal given on Watersday can yield a maximum of 22 Tokopekko Wildgrass in a Wooden pot but only 16 in the other normal pots. You won't always get the maximum, though. Brass, Ceramic and Earthen Pots are each associated with Cities and give a "City Bonus" when used in the correct city. Each is sold by a NPC or Shop in the correct city. They are:

Bastok = Brass Flowerpot sold in Boytz's Knicknack Shop behind the AH in Bastok Mines, G/H-7
Windurst = Earthen Flowerpot sold in Ensaha's Catalyst Shop in Windhurst Waters, H-9
San d'Oria = Ceramic Pot sold by Pirvidiauce, NPC near the Ranperre Gate in North San d'Oria, D-8

For best results, give the crystals on the day of the crystal, e.g., fire crystal = Firesday. This is especially important growing Tree Saplings. On all seeds, time is important. For instance if you are giving dark crystals to grain seed plants and you examine them on Firesday and they are asking for a crystal you are better off giving them the dark crystal immediately rather than waiting 7 earth hours for Darksday. This is true of all plants except Tree Saplings where you should wait for the day of the crystal always.