Gardening Guide
- See also: Guides, Gardening and Types of Seeds
Basics
Gardening is the act of planting a seed in soil and then harvesting the resulting plant. There are many different types of seeds, just ask a local Botanist. Most of these seeds are not very useful since the plants are easy enough for a Botanist to gather directly. However, the mechanic of "intercrossing" makes it possible to also harvest seeds in your garden, including seeds that are difficult to find in the wild or that can only be obtained by gardening. The remainder of this section describes how to successfully plant and harvest your crops; see the Intercrossing section for details about deciding what to plant to generate a sustainable supply of your desired seeds.
There are 3 things that are required in order to have a successful garden: seeds, soil, and tending.
Seeds and soils are the materials required for gardening. Each bed can take 1 seed and 1 soil. A 
Deluxe Garden Patch with 8 beds will therefore hold up to 8 seeds and 8 soils. Each time a seed is planted, new soil must be placed in the bed. Seeds, as mentioned, can be harvested by Botanists in the wild or by any homeowner in their own garden. The next important component of gardening is the soil. Three different types of soils exist, each with 3 different grades. The higher the grade, the more potent its effects. If you can gather or afford Grade 3 soils, then there is absolutely no reason to use Grades 1 or 2 of any soil type. The first and most useful type of soil is Thanalan Topsoil. Thanalan Topsoil promotes intercrossing and will be used the vast majority of time. 
Grade 3 Thanalan Topsoil is the most important and most used soil. It can be obtained in Western Thanalan (x18,y27), at 5 am Eorzea Time. Note that Grade 3 soils of any type can only be gathered by a miner with at least 370 gathering. The second type is Shroud Topsoil, which is used to increase garden yield. It can increase the quantity of both mature items and seeds; however, because many of the rarest and most desirable seeds can't have their quantity boosted above 1, Shroud Topsoil is seen as inferior to Thanalan Topsoil. The final soil type is La Noscean Topsoil, which increased the likelihood of obtaining 
high-quality yields; La Noscean Topsoil was never popular, and became equivalent to 
Potting Soil when HQ gathered items were removed from the game in patch 6.0.
A successful garden also requires tending from time to time. Crops will wither and die in an untended garden. Crops need to be tended at least once a day Earth Time to ensure that they survive; some crops require more frequent tending. Crops can also be fertilized with 
Fish Meal; although it is optional, it speeds crop growth and most gardeners will want to do it. When you visit your garden to tend it, it's a good opportunity to fertilize the crops as well. There is a one-hour timer on fertilizing the same crop again. For many years, the exact mechanics of fertilization were not well understood by the player base. It was only in 2020 that a player project organized by FFXIV Gardening showed that fertilizing a crop reduces its growing time by 1% of its remaining growing time. Therefore, fertilizer is most efficiently used early in the crop's growth, when 1% of its remaining growing time is the largest possible amount of time. But Fish Meal is quite cheap, so don't be afraid to fertilize often.
Intercrossing
Intercrossing different seeds is the most important aspect of gardening. Intercrossing is the mechanic of planting a seed next to a seed of a different crop; when fully grown, a harvested crop yields seeds only if it was planted next to an existing crop. Some seeds are otherwise unobtainable, including 
Azeyma Rose, 
Halone Gerbera, 
Jute, 
Broombush, and 
Glazenut. Intercrossing can occur if a seed is planted next to a mature crop or next to a planted seed at any stage of growth, but not if it is planted next to an empty bed; the first seed planted in a patch can therefore never produce a seed.
- See Types of Seeds for the list of crosses.
A player's goal should be to perpetually grow and harvest high-tier seeds without having to intercross from scratch after every harvest. This is done through "loops," or sequences of intercrossings that produce not only the desired high-tier seed but also extra copies of the seeds used for intercrossing. For example, by planting 
Glazenut Seeds with 
Apricot Kernels, players will harvest not only Glazenuts and 
Apricots, but also find some Glazenut Seeds as well. Players can perpetually grow and harvest Glazenuts, Broombushes, and Jutes. Therefore, it is important to have a good supply of 
Almond Seeds, 
Honey Lemon Seeds, 
Mandrake Seeds, and 
Prickly Pineapple Seeds.
How to Perpetually Grow Glazenuts
Players can obtain Glazenut Seeds by planting Glazenuts next to Apricots and Sun Lemons; Glazenuts intercross with Apricots to produce Glazenut Seeds and with Sun Lemons to produce Apricot Kernels. Let's say you start with 10 Glazenut Seeds and 10 Apricot Kernels. 
Sun Lemon Seeds can be harvested from a Level 20 Node, so it is assumed that the player can easily obtain arbitrarily many of them. The number of seeds obtained after each round varies; in theory, zero seeds could be obtained, but anecdotally fewer than 4 have never been reported when using Grade 3 Thanalan Topsoil in a Deluxe Garden Patch. Up to 7 seeds can be obtained if the patch was planted from scratch, or 8 if a round of planting was started next to a mature plant that was then harvested to make way for a new planting. So in each step, 4 of each seed is planted and some assumed number of seeds are harvested along with the crops. The number of seeds remaining thus decreases by the number planted, then increases by the number created by intercrossing.
In a worst-case scenario (4 seeds received at each step),
Glazenut + 
Apricot → 10 Glazenut Seeds, 6 Apricot Kernels- Glazenut +
Sun Lemon → 6 Glazenut Seeds, 10 Apricot Kernels - Glazenut + Apricot → 6 Glazenut Seeds, 6 Apricot Kernels
- Glazenut + Sun Lemon → 2 Glazenut Seeds, 10 Apricot Kernels
This sustains the supply of Apricot Kernels, but Glazenut Seeds would run out after 2 cycles.
In a best-case scenario (7 seeds received at each step),
- Glazenut + Apricot → 13 Glazenut Seeds, 6 Apricot Kernels
- Glazenut + Sun Lemon → 9 Glazenut Seeds, 13 Apricot Kernels
- Glazenut + Apricot → 12 Glazenut Seeds, 9 Apricot Kernels
- Glazenut + Sun Lemon → 8 Glazenut Seeds, 16 Apricot Kernels
- Glazenut + Apricot → 11 Glazenut Seeds, 12 Apricot Kernels
True self-sustainability for Glazenut Seeds would require perfectly receiving the maximum of 8 seeds per harvest, but with 7 seeds these plantings can be sustained for 7 cycles. At that point, it would be necessary to interrupt the pattern to harvest only the Apricots and then re-plant them so that they can intercross with the mature Glazenuts to produce more Glazenut Seeds. Every cycle of 2 plantings uses 8 Glazenut Seeds and 4 Apricot Kernels, because Glazenut Seeds are planted every time but Apricot Kernels are alternated with Sun Lemon Seeds. The self-sustainability point, where enough extra Apricot Kernels are received by the time Glazenut Seeds are depleted, is an average of just over 5 seeds per step. In the unlikely event that the Apricot Kernels deplete, it would be necessary to insert another extra step, this time planting more Sun Lemon Seeds next to mature Glazenuts. We don't currently have statistics on the distribution of # of seeds, but anecdotal evidence suggests 5-7 is where most beds fall.
Effective Gardening
A single garden patch should only be used to intercross one specific seed. Assuming the player has a Deluxe Garden Patch (8 beds) then only 4 of each seed in a intercross pair can exist in a patch. The following image is the ideal pattern for the planting of seeds in a Deluxe Garden Patch. The more mature plants in the corners represent one of the seeds in a intercross pair while the less developed plants represent the other seed in the pair.
Intercrossing occurs at the moment a seed is planted. It means that the first seed that is planted will never yield a seed when it is ready to be harvested. Therefore it is advised that after planting the first seed, subsequent seeds are planted adjacent to it. In other words, aside from the first seed, assure every seed afterwards is planted with a neighbor beside it. Also be sure that the neighboring seeds are a different type from the one you are planting. When done correctly, players are expected to obtain 4 to 7 intercrossed seeds.
Different plants have different growing times. The higher it can be sold for at a vendor, the longer it will take to grow. Take advantage of the this fact. For example, Glazenuts take a much longer time to fully grow than Apricots. When the Apricots are ready to harvest, harvest them and replace them with more Apricot Kernels. These kernels will eventually yield Glazenut Seeds because at the time of planting there should already be Glazenuts growing beside them. The only time a bed should be empty is when the entire patch needs to be prepared to grow a completely different plant. Otherwise, replacing plants as they are ready to be harvested will increase your rate of production.
Finally, it is good practice to ensure that there exists at least 4 of every seed in reserve. This ensures that in the event that something goes wrong, you will still be able to grow high tier seeds without having to start from the beginning.
Tips and Tricks
- The ONLY thing that matters for intercrossing is what type of soil/seed you use, and what's next to the plants at the time of planting. Grade 3 Thanalan Soil has about a 90% chance of successfully intercrossing, while Thanalan 2 drops down to around 50%.
- The order in which you plant your garden is very important for intercrossing. Planting in a circle alternating seeds is a lot better than planting one type at a time since you'll have 7 things planted with intercross plants next to them, instead of 4.
- The intercrossing path is PREDETERMINED and not randomly selected as previously thought.[1]
- You can plant next to fully grown plants then immediately rip out the fully grown plants, and still get intercross results from the new plants.
- Higher tier harvests such as glazenut only give 1 seed even if planted with Grade 3 Shroud Topsoil. Shroud 3 is fairly worthless but can be used for the first plant put into an empty garden for a slightly higher yield on lower tier plants.
- Fertilizing and watering both have absolutely no effect on intercrossing.
- Fertilizing reduces grow time by 1% of the remaining grow time left on the seed. [2]
- Most plants will wilt (turn purple) 48 hours after not being tended. They will wither (die) 24 hours after turning purple without being watered. A few plants will wilt after only 24 hours (Blood Pepper, Gysahl Greens, Jute, Krakka Root, Royal Fern, Thavnairian Onion, Minions) and will wither 24 hours after wilting without tending.
- Plants will not wither no matter how many times (or how long) they wilt during the growing process. Plants also continue growing while they are wilted. [3]
- You cannot crossbreed with withered plants.
- As of patch 4.0, plants that are ready to harvest will no longer wither, and will instead remain fully grown indefinitely. This is exploitable for intercrossing.
- It's a good idea to set all ranks in your Free Company to be able to both fertilize and tend, but not remove or harvest.