Gardening

Plant growing on UOTopia is relatively the same as on the original OSI server. The references provided on UOStratics or UOGuide should apply in UOTopia as they did on OSI. Here is a gardening overview.

**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.

Alchemy potions are required for plant care, so you can either create your own or buy them from other players. NPC vendors on UOTopia usually keep the potions you need in stock as well.

**Getting Started**

The first step towards the mastery of botany involves finding some Seeds and a Plant Bowl. The bowl can be purchased from NPC Provisioner Vendors and needs to be filled with dirt. There are three ways you can go about doing this:

1. You can locate a farmer's field (such as those that produce Cotton or Wheat) and use the bowl on the ground there. This is regular, non-fertile dirt.

2. You can collect twenty units of Fertile Dirt to fill the bowl, looted from certain monster corpses. While it can take some time to collect, the use of this enhanced soil will speed the rate at which your plants are able to grow.

3. The easiest way is to purchase Fertile Dirt from NPC Mystics in Ter Mur.

With the bowl filled, it must next be watered. Two applications from a Pitcher of Water will be enough to take the dirt from "hard" to "soft". Be careful not to pour any more, or the dirt will become "squishy"!

The next step is to plant a Seed in the bowl. When this is done, it's fully prepared: You can now lock it down in your House, or place it in your bank box (plants will not grow in other places).

**Growth Checks**

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. 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 plant's 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.

1, *Hydration*

Most plants require a serving of water from a Pitcher of Water daily.If there is a yellow cross next to this, apply one serving; if red, apply two. Depending on how many plants you wish to maintain at once, you might find the Water Trough house add-on to be invaluable.

2. *Infestation*

Occurs randomly. If there is a yellow cross next to this, apply one Greater Poison potion; if red, apply two.

3. *Fungus*

Occurs randomly. If there is a yellow cross next to this, apply one Greater Cure potion; if red, apply two.

4. *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.

5. *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.

**Cross Pollination**

When a plant first reaches its full-grown state, it will sprout its full foliage, no longer contained within the plant bowl. At this stage of the plant’s growth, it will begin to produce pollen. You can view your plant’s current Pollination State in the Plant Resources Menu.

The plant will eventually self-pollinate if left unattended, and then begin to produce seeds. Seeds produced by a self-pollinated plant will grow up into an exact duplicate of the “parent” plant.

Once a plant reaches the pollen-producing stage at days 7 – 9 of the cycle, its pollen may be gathered by the owner by using the Cross-Pollination button. Gathered pollen may be used on another full-grown plant. When you pollinate one plant with pollen from another plant, the targeted plant will produce seeds that will grow into a hybrid of the two plants.

Plants were initially added to the game in four generations. A bug introduced in 2009 accidentally replaced one of the first generation plants, tribarrel cactus, with a random seed. The consequences of this are explored in the page Colored Peculiar Plants. For historical reference the original four generations were as follows:

#### *First Generation*

* *Tribarrel Cactus*
* *Fern*
* *Campion Flowers*

#### *Second Generation*

* *Water Plant (tribarrel x fern)*
* *Lillies (campion x fern)*

#### *Third Generation*

* *Snowdrops (lillies x campion)*
* *Rushes (lillies x fern)*
* *Small Palm (water plant x fern)*
* *Prickly Pear Cactus (tribarrel x water plant)*

#### *Fourth Generation*

* *Barrel Cactus (tribarrel x prickly pear)*
* *Snake Plant (water plant x prickly pear)*
* *Century Plant (water plant x small palm)*
* *Ponytail Palm (small palm x fern)*
* *Elephant Ears (fern x rushes)*
* *Pampas Grass (rushex x lillies)*
* *Bulrushes (lillies x snowdrops)*
* *Poppies (snowdrops x campion)*

**Calculating Pollination Results**

The color and type of each “parent” plant are combined to produce a new type of seed that will grow from the targeted plant. While you may continue to gather pollen from a plant throughout its entire life cycle, a plant may only be pollinated once (either by itself, through natural pollination, or through manual cross-pollination from another plant).

This link will lead you to the UOStratics Plant Crossing Calculator, which is very helpful in determining what combinations can be made with the seeds or plants you have and also shows requirements to get any colored plant you desire.

https://uo.stratics.com/content/basics/plantcrossing.php

**Pollination State**

The Pollination State indicator displays the current pollination state of a plant; indicates that the plant has not yet produced any pollen, as it has not reached full-grown level; indicates that the plant has entered its pollen producing state, and can have pollen gathered from it or be cross-pollinated to; indicates that the plant has been pollinated (either by itself, through natural self-pollination, or by the pollen of another plant). While you can still gather pollen from a plant in this state, the plant can no longer be the target of cross-pollination.

#### **Brightness:**

– *Plain, black and white* seeds are all *dull* colored.

– All other colors come in *dull and bright* versions.

– Brightness of the child is determined by the color of the parents.

– Brightness of the parents does not influence brightness of the child.

– Crossing *two different colors* yields a *dull* color.

– Crossing *two identical* colors yields a *bright* color.

– Self-pollination will result in the *same color and brightness.*

#### **Regular Colors**

– All colors *except* plain, black and white come in dull and bright versions.

– There are three primary colors: *red, blue, yellow.*

 – There are three secondary colors: *purple, green, orange.*

 – Crossing *two identical colors* will give that color.

**Mutant Plants**

Mutants are grown from specially colored seeds, but cannot be bred and do not produce more. There are 2 ways of obtaining mutant seeds.

1. They are typically obtained by completing the Naturalist Quest.

* If you investigate 4 egg nests, they come in aqua, pink and magenta. If you also complete investigation of the secret egg nests, they come in black, white and fire red.
* Aqua, pink, magenta and fire seeds always come in classical breedable variety, (flowery) cactus oddity and vanilla oddity.

* Black and white seeds always come in peculiar varieties.

Rune books and instructions for the Solen Quests are available on the ground floor of the UOTopia Rune Library in Zento.

2. Any plant that can produce seeds (aside from the Cocoa Tree) also has a chance of producing black or white mutants instead of the color they normally would. Such seeds are very rare.

**Bonsai Plants**

With the advent of Ultima Online: Samurai Empire, certain creatures in the Tokuno Islands have a chance of dropping special Bonsai seeds. The seed name corresponds to the name of the Bonsai tree it will grow. For example, an uncommon bonsai comes from an uncommon seed. There are eight varieties:

* Common Bonsai Tree (also available in green)
* Uncommon Bonsai Tree (also available in green)
* Rare Bonsai Tree (also available in green)
* Exotic Bonsai Tree
* Exceptional Bonsai Tree

All forms are dropped by:

* Deathwatch Beetle
* Fan Dancer
* Hiryu
* Lesser Hiryu
* Oni
* Rune Beetle
* Yomotsu Elder
* Yomotsu Priest
* Yomotsu Warrior

**Peculiar Plants**

Peculiar seeds began appearing with Publish 55 and can grow 17 new plant varieties (one of which comes in two facings, for a total of 18). These plants cannot be cross-pollinated and with the exception of Vanilla (began appearing with Publish 76, it can produce seeds and can also produce Vanilla as a resource), do not produce new seeds nor resources. Instead, they are only dropped by certain monsters.

It was initially decided that no coloured Peculiar plants would be available, but due to a bug which caused the Naturalist Quest to produce nothing *but* coloured Peculiar Cactus plants, Publish 56 made both standard and peculiar plants available from the same quest.

The seeds are divided into five groups based on the monsters that drop their seeds. For example, if you want to get a twisted Cypress Tree you must kill monsters from the second group. Assuming you harvested from the correct monster, you have a 20% change of receiving the seed in Group 1 you are after and a 25% chance for the seeds in all Groups 2 to 4

**Growing Plant Seeds/Resources**

Certain plants are capable of producing more Seeds, as well as other resources. They will produce one seed and resource for every growth check after reaching the ninth stage, to a maximum of eight each. Note that only a few plants produce resources, and some do not even produce seeds.

Seeds/resources are extracted by clicking the appropriate icons in the plant resource GUMP, accessed via the plant *Reproduction* icon.

Once a plant has produced its maximum number of seeds and resources, there is no point in maintaining it further.

There are several types of resources one can acquire from certain breeds of plants. These resources are *Green Thorns, Red Leaves, Orange Petals, Cocoa Pulp, and Petals of the Rose of Trinsic.*

* *Green Thorns* are harvested from Bright Green Snake Plants or Bright Green Barrel Cacti. They are stackable, and weigh one stone each. Green Thorns can be used only in those facets where Solen Hives do exist: Trammel and Felucca. In other facets, attempting to plant a green thorn will return the message "*No solen lairs exist on this facet. Try again in Trammel or Felucca.*"

When used on a patch of ground, they have a variety of effects depending on the terrain:

-*Dirt -* Spawns piles of Magery Reagents and Fertile Dirt. These vary in quantity from about ten to twenty each, and usually total between eighty to a hundred and twenty in total.

-*Snow -* Summons a Giant Ice Worm.

-*Field -* Summons a Vorpal Bunny.

-*Swamp* - Summons a Whipping Vine.

-*Desert -* Creates a hole leading to the hidden Solen nest (used in the Naturalist Quest).

(Note: The hole is not always visible, if you can't see it once you've been told it opened simply double click where you planted the thorn).
After planting a Green Thorn, you must wait three minutes before you may plant another.

* *Orange Petals* are harvested from the following:
	+ Bright Orange Pampas Grass
	+ Bright Orange Poppies
	+ Bright Orange Bulrushes

They are stackable, and weigh 1 stone each. When eaten by a character, they bestow a complete resistance to poisoning, except for the highest level, *i.e.*, 6 for a period of five minutes. As of Publish 71, deadly poison and stronger have a 25% chance to break the poison immunity granted by orange petals.

* *Red Leaves* are harvested from:
	+ Bright Red Ponytail Palms
	+ Bright Red Elephant Ear Plants
	+ Bright Red Century Plants

They are stackable, and weigh one stone each. When used on a Book, they lock the contents so that the text can no longer be changed.

* Cocoa pulp is a consumable resource used by cooks as a key ingredient to create chocolate confection preparations, namely Cocoa Butter and Cocoa Liquor. Cocoa pulp is harvested from Cocoa Tree, which are grown with Gardening. Cocoa Trees are grown from Fragrant Seeds which are dropped in lieu of Peculiar Seeds at a lower drop rate.

* *Petals of the Rose of Trinsic* are harvested from the Rose of Trinsic. They are stackable, and weigh one stone each.

When eaten by a character, a petal bestows +5 Strength for a duration of 5 minutes. This buff is in addition to other buffs to Strength, such as Potions of strength, Bless, and equipment strength bonuses. You cannot consume another petal until the 5 minute duration has expired. You can then eat another one immediately, providing an 'almost' uninterrupted effect.

#### Usefulness: If the buff did not stack with the stronger Strength buffs from potions etc. the petals would be almost useless since their effect is inferior. But since the buff *does* stack, the petals are useful to provide a small boost to hit points, damage, and carrying capacity.

* You can also acquire *Seed of Renewal* from any seed producing plant. When you harvest seeds from any plant, there is a slim chance (less than 5%) that you will obtain a Seed of Renewal.

**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.

***This info was obtained and modified for shard accuracy from the websites UOStratics and UOGuide's Gardening Sections. All rights belong to perspective owners.***