Guide to Gardening, Seeds, and Crops in FFXIV

Players in Final Fantasy XIV can grow crops with the Gardening system. Through gardening, players can acquire crafting materials, some of which are used to craft rare cosmetics and minions!

There are two different types of gardening - indoor and outdoor. Both require some form of housing to perform. To learn more about housing, visit our dedicated housing hub.

Gardening outdoors requires a yard, which only housing plots have. Outdoor gardening can be done on either a private or a Free Company plot, although members in a Free Company or tenants in a private house need to be given sufficient permissions to tend to the garden.

Gardening indoors can be done in any type of housing, whether it be in an FC room or in your private estate. It is more limited than outdoor gardening, but still yields the same types of crops.

There are many different interconnected parts related to gardening that contribute to a healthy and successful garden.

First of all, seeds must be planted inside Garden Patches or Garden Planters. For outdoor gardening, the Deluxe Garden Patch is always used, while one of the three flowerpots, such as the Glade Flowerpot, are used for indoor gardening. There is a limit to how many patches and planters can be placed inside or outside an estate.

• Private chambers and apartments can hold up to 2 planters and no patches.
• Cottages can hold up to 2 planters and 1 patch.
• Houses can hold up to 3 planters and 2 patches.
• Mansions can hold up to 4 planters and 3 patches.

The Deluxe Garden Patch can hold up to eight seeds at a time, while planters are only able to hold one seed. There are other patches such as the Round Garden Patch, but they do not hold as many seeds as the Deluxe version.

Seeds are the backbone of gardening. Seeds can be gathered by botanists or created by intercrossing plants. Other sources of seeds include vendors and Ventures.

Flower seeds are a special category of seeds that can only be grown in planters. The color of flowers grown by flower seeds can be manipulated through the usage of topsoil. Flowers can be used to craft cosmetic items or housing items. Additionally, flower seeds can grow shards.

Topsoil is used to enrich the gardening bed, as it enhances the yield and quality of crops grown. Topsoil can be gathered by miners or purchased from vendors. There are different types of topsoil, each with unique effects. You must have soil to plant seeds.

Topsoil	Where to Acquire	Effect
Grade 1 La Noscean Topsoil	Level 30 Mining Node	Increases the chance for HQ crops at a low rate
Grade 2 La Noscean Topsoil	Level 50 Mining Node	Increases the chance for HQ crops at a medium rate
Grade 3 La Noscean Topsoil	Level 50 Unspoiled Mining Node, Vendor	Increases the chance for HQ crops at a high rate
Grade 1 Shroud Topsoil	Level 30 Mining Node	Increases the yield of crops at a low rate
Grade 2 Shroud Topsoil	Level 50 Mining Node	Increases the yield of crops at a medium rate
Grade 3 Shroud Topsoil	Level 50 Unspoiled Mining Node, Vendor	Increases the yield of crops at a high rate
Grade 1 Thanalan Topsoil	Level 30 Mining Node	Increases the success of crossbreeding crops at a low rate
Grade 2 Thanalan Topsoil	Level 50 Mining Node	Increases the success of crossbreeding crops at a medium rate
Grade 3 Thanalan Topsoil	Level 50 Unspoiled Mining Node, Vendor	Increases the success of crossbreeding crops at a high rate
Blue Pomace	Housing vendors	Increases blue pigment in flowers
Mountain Pomace	Housing vendors	Increases yellow pigment in flowers
Red Pomace	Housing vendors	Increases red pigment in flowers
Fishmeal	Housing vendors	Decreases the time it takes for a crop to finish growing - applied as a fertilizer
Potting Soil	Housing vendors	Has no special effects whatsoever

As mentioned previously, crossbreeding allows you to gain new seeds or crops. This has a chance to occur when two plants that can be crossbred are grown next to each other. This process can be repeated to grow rare plants and acquire rare seeds. These rare seeds include Thavnairian Onion Seeds, which can be used to grow Thavnairian Onion, an item used to level up Chocobos, as well as Royal Fern Sori, which can be used to grow Royal Fern, a crafting ingredient for rare minions! Crossbreeding can only be done in an outdoor garden patch, which is why using the Deluxe patch is recommended.

An example of a crossbreeding patch can be seen above. To maximize success, you should use Grade 3 Thanalan Topsoil on each patch except the first planted to ensure the highest chance of crossbreeding. In the example, crossbreeding Mirror Apple and Old World Fig will give you a chance at Royal Kukuru Seeds!

The gardening process is very simple. Crops need to be planted, attended to, and once they are finished growing, harvested.

You will need a garden patch or planter to plant crops. Simply interact with the gardening bed of choice and select both the seed and topsoil.

Once you have planted your crops, you can fertilize them, tend to them, or remove them. Each plant has a growth duration, which varies based on the plant.

• Fertilizing the plant accelerates plant growth, decreasing the time it takes for it to grow. This requires Fishmeal, either bought from a vendor or crafted by a Culinarian.
• Tending the crop waters it. Plants not tended to will eventually wilt. Neglected plants will eventually wither and die, rendering them unusable.
• Removing a crop removes it from the bed.

It is possible to water plants in anyone's gardening bed. Therefore, if you see that someone's garden patch has crops starting to wilt, be a good neighbor and water it for them! Alternatively, if you are growing crops and are unable to water them for a while, you can request for an acquaintance to water them for you.

Once a plant is ready to be harvested, it will emit a glow in the garden bed. You can interact with it to harvest it and place the item and any potential seeds in your inventory!