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Herb Farming Overview and Fundamentals Obtaining Herb Farming Equipment, Supplies and Seeds

Once you have made the decision to become an herb farmer, you’ll have to decide what to grow. The process of farming is identical for every herb, so the choice really comes down to two factors. The first is what you can grow, which is a function of your Farming level (and perhaps, seed availability). The second is what you should grow, which depends on your priorities and playing style.

There is, of course, a Farming level requirement for all herb seeds. Jagex wisely made the level sequence of herb seeds approximately the same as the level order of herb cleaning and potion-making—the lowest level herb seed is guam, then marrentill and so forth. This makes it easier to train your Herblore and Farming levels in tandem.

That said, the levels are not an exact match; there are cases where an herb seed has a higher Farming level than the Herblore level of the lowest potion that generally uses it, and vice-versa. For example, marrentill is used in antipoisons at level 5 Herblore, but growing it takes level 14 Farming; conversely, Summoning potions are level 40 but you can grow spirit weed at level 36.

Table 36 shows all of the herb farming options, by level, along with the XP you get and the lowest-level potion that commonly uses that herb.

As soon as you hit level 14 Farming, you will be faced with the first instance of what will be an ongoing question: which herb should you grow? As the title of this topic suggests, this really depends on your playing style and what you are trying to accomplish.

In my experience, there are three major approaches that players use in deciding what herbs to grow:

• XP Focus: Players who want the most XP will grow the highest-level herbs they can, which generally also produces herbs that allow them to make potions that give high Herblore XP.
  
  
• Herb Utility Focus: These players grow herbs that make potions they use. For example, a high-level farmer/herblorist who fights a lot of dragons might plant irit leaf for super attacks, ranarrs for prayer potions and lantadymes for antifires.
  
  
• Money Focus: In this approach, a player grows herbs that provide the most profit, then uses that money to buy herbs that allow cost-effective Herblore leveling.

Naturally, there are pros and cons to all of these styles, and of course, you can combine them or use any other approach you want.

Focusing on XP obviously is the best method for training. On the flip side, some would argue that it is rather rigid, and forces you to make potions that you may not want and may be hard to sell, just because that’s what level you’ve gotten up to.

Concentrating on the herbs you use is the practical approach for those who are self-sufficient and enjoy making their own products. It also means they are freed from worrying about the vagaries of buying and selling on the market. The drawback is that this sometimes means you end up making potions that are more cost-effective to purchase, and you also often give up a lot of Farming XP. One classic example is high-level players who grow their own toadflax for Saradomin brew potions. Sara brews are high-level potions that give good Herblore XP, but toadflax gives very poor Farming XP compared to growing high-level herbs.

Finally, the money-oriented approach is the most cost-effective and practical from an efficiency standpoint. Some would argue, however, that it really defeats the purpose of growing one’s own herbs, effectively using the skill more as a generic money-making tool than a way to supply the Herblore skill. If that doesn’t bother you, though, it’s the best way to stretch your “Herblore budget”.

For example, consider the level 14 Farming example I mentioned before. You could grow marrentills, but guams are currently worth five times as much. If it were me, even if I wanted marrentills for Herblore, I’d grow the guams, accept the slightly lower XP, then sell the guams, buy marrentills and save the difference to finance future Herblore efforts.

If you do want to grow herbs based on how much money they make, you have to figure out how many herbs you get, on average, from each seed, multiply this by the value of the herb and subtract the cost of the seed. What you will generally find when you do this is that the most expensive seeds are still the most profitable—even though this seems counterintuitive.

For example, in a recent TWIRP report, snapdragon herbs were around 8,200 gp each, and snapdragon seeds 32,500 gp, while lantadyme herbs were 1,600 gp and lantadyme seeds 2,000 gp. At first glance, lantadyme seems the better choice: isn’t it the case that one lantadyme almost pays for the seed that grows it, where it takes four snapdragons to pay for its seed? That’s true, but the high value of each snapdragon herb means that once you’ve paid off the cost of the seed, the profit builds up rapidly; Table 37 tells the tale.

The breakeven point in this example is around 4.6 herbs per patch. I typically average 6 to 7 herbs, even taking into account crop failures, and 10 or more is not uncommon (you can see an example of this in Figure 183). Thus, snapdragons make the most sense for me.

In general, you will find that ranarrs and snapdragons are the most profitable to grow, so if making the most money is your goal, you’ll want to grow ranarrs at level 32 and snapdragons when you hit 62. Of course, that all could change depending on game updates. J Also, there are times when these are in heavy demand and may be difficult to buy on the Grand Exchange because of its stupid price controls.

There are several other Herblore-related Farming products that you can also raise: cactus spines, berries, coconuts and so forth. These involve growing a variety of different plants in different patches, and while I certainly recommend learning how to do that, it’s beyond the scope of this mini-guide. I will cover flower patches, though—they are right next to most of the herb patches anyway, so you should take advantage of them!

The only Herblore-specific item you can grow in flower patches is limpwurt roots. Yep, the limpwurt is a flower, and when you pick one you get three roots that you can use in strength or super strength potions. So that’s the one to grow if you are an herblorist.

The alternative is to grow marigolds (Figure 184). These aren’t used in Herblore, but rather are an Herblore secondary ingredient. These are in high demand because of the interest in Summoning, but short supply since not many people grow them, and you only get one bunch of flowers per cycle. As a result, they are worth mucho moolah: around 4k a piece! Using them for Summoning is a colossal waste of money; instead, sell them and use the money to buy other items you need (like other Herblore or Summoning seconds.)

As you can see, limpwurts versus marigolds ends up being another case of growing for your own use versus growing to make money and then buying what you need. Choose whichever you prefer, but definitely grow one or the other!

Herb Farming Overview and Fundamentals Obtaining Herb Farming Equipment, Supplies and Seeds