Gardening

This Gardening guide is intended as an information portal for players looking to understand how the Gardening & Floristry skill operates on Alterworld Online.

Gardening

• Gardening is a non-Skill based activity that any character can try. It allows you to grow many different types of decorative Plants, some of which even produce valuable resources.
• the Gardener NPC can be found loitering around major cities on Alterworld Online
• the Gardener NPC will sell the necessary items to commence Gardening and Floristry

Getting Started

• First you will need to source Seeds, Pitcher of Water, a Plant Bowl and Fertile dirt
• To find Fertile Dirt, You can locate a farmer's field (such as those that produce Cotton or Wheat) and use the bowl on the ground there. This will be regular, non-fertile dirt. Alternatively, you can purchase fertile dirt from the Gardener NPC.
• You will need 20 units of Fertile dirt to fill your Plant Bowl
• Seeds can be found throughout the world, including during PVM (rarity level will determine the frequency of it dropping on creatures)
• The Plant Bowl and Pitcher of Water can be found on the Gardener NPC

Raised Garden Bed

• Raised Garden Bed is a maintenance free garden bed to place seeds without potions or daily care
• It comes in four different sizes and can also be used by the house co-owners.

Seed Box

• The Seed Box allows players to identify all seeds put into the it and will hold up to 300 unique seeds and 5000 total seeds.
• If a seed is dropped into a seed box. its variety is automatically identified.

Plant Growth

• Every 24 hours, at the time you last maintained them, a plant will take a "growth check".
• The check will fail unless it's been in a valid growing location (eg. locked down in a house) for at least 24 hours from the last server start (which happens once per day). A check failed in this way means nothing happens - the plant will not change for better or worse.
• Typically plants will advance one stage each growth check, though they will stay at the same level if they are unhealthy. Seeds planted in Fertile Dirt have a chance of advancing two stages in a single night. The current growth stage is written in the top left corner of the plant's display window, revealed by double clicking on it.
• Plants begin at stage one. When they reach stage seven, their true form becomes revealed. They can then pollinate and then be pollinated by other plants.
• They will not advance beyond stage nine, though at this stage some will start to produce Seeds and other plant resources.

Plant Maintenance

• Double clicking on a growing plant will reveal a display relating to the plants age and health. Ideally, your foliage will remain "vibrant" throughout its life time, but if you fail to maintain your plants they will drop in health with each growth check until they ultimately wither and die.
• Each growth check can cause various ailments to affect your plant. These need to be dealt with prior to the next check in order to prevent them from actually harming it.
• The five icons on the right hand side of the plant display reveal what needs to be done in order to keep your plants healthy. You may apply potions from vials or Potion Kegs you are carrying in your pack by clicking their respective icons within the plant GUMP.

• Icon One: Infestation - Occurs randomly. If there is a yellow cross next to this, apply one Greater Poison potion; if red, apply two.
• Icon One: Fungus - Occurs randomly. If there is a yellow cross next to this, apply one Greater Cure potion; if red, apply two.
• Icon One: Poison - Occurs due to excessive poison potion applications. If there is a yellow cross next to this, apply one Greater Heal (not Cure!) potion; if red, apply two.
• Icon One: Disease - Occurs due to excessive cure potion applications. If there is a yellow cross next to this, apply one Greater Heal potion; if red, apply two.

• Also apply up to two Greater Heal potions if a plant's health display reads as anything less then "healthy". Greater Strength potions may optionally be applied to reduce the rate at which a plant is affected by problems.
• Finally, take care to keep the soil "soft" by applying Pitchers of Water as need be. Depending on how many plants you wish to maintain at once, you might find the Water Trough house add-on to be invaluable.

Plant Breeding

• When a plant reaches the seventh stage, it becomes capable of pollinating. Click the plant Reproduction icon in order to display the resource GUMP.
• Clicking the Pollination icon will then give you a targeting cursor with which to apply pollen to another plant. Assuming that plant is also at the seventh stage it will become fertilised, and capable of producing new seeds after the ninth stage of growth.
• Plants may be used to pollinate themselves. Seeds grown by such plants will be titled according to the name of the parent. If a plant has not been pollinated by the time it reaches the ninth stage, it will automatically pollinate itself.
• Plants grown from Mutant seeds can not pollinate or be pollinated.

Decorative Plants

• Once a plant reaches its ninth stage of growth, you may set it to "decorative" mode by clicking the icon in the plant resource GUMP.
• Once a plant is decorative, you may no longer bring up the display window, extract seeds/resources, or otherwise interact with it: On the other hand, it will no longer require maintenance. It becomes a simple item for display in your house, or perhaps for sale to other players.