How Farming xp really works
Almost all Farming xp comes from trees. You plant a sapling, come back hours later, and checking its health pays a large lump of xp. The more patches you plant per run and the more runs you do per day, the faster you level. A full high-level tree run is worth over 200,000 xp for about five minutes of play, which is why 99 takes three to four months of consistent runs rather than hundreds of hours at a keyboard.
Each tree pays a little xp when you plant it and the big lump when you check its health once it is fully grown. Fruit trees add a small amount for every fruit you pick, so pick them clean before you dig them up and replant.
That also means the skill rewards habit more than effort. Two tree runs a day beat a weekend binge every time, because the trees grow while you sleep.
Levels 1 to 38 without planting a seed
Seven quests carry you most of the way: the goblin generals part of Recipe for Disaster, Fairytale I, Forgettable Tale..., The Garden of Death, Garden of Tranquillity, My Arm's Big Adventure and the hot air balloon quest from Entrana. Together they give 32,500 Farming xp, which is level 38.
If you would rather not quest, buy 78 bagged plants from the Garden Supplier and plant them in your house garden to reach 15, then start oak trees. Making supercompost (8.5 xp per bucket) or ultracompost (10 xp) also trickles in early levels and you will need the compost anyway.
What to plant at every level
| Your level | Tree patches | Fruit tree patches | Hardwood and specials |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 to 29 | Oak | none yet (apple at 27) | none yet |
| 30 to 44 | Willow | Banana at 33, orange at 39, curry at 42 | Teak at 35 |
| 45 to 59 | Maple | Pineapple at 51, papaya at 57 | Mahogany at 55 |
| 60 to 74 | Yew | Palm at 68 | Camphor at 66, calquat at 72 |
| 75 to 89 | Magic | Dragonfruit at 81 | Ironwood at 80, celastrus at 85 |
| 90 to 99 | Magic | Dragonfruit | Redwood at 90, rosewood at 92 |
Always plant the highest tree your level allows. The jump from one tier to the next is large: a magic tree pays almost twice what a yew does, and a mahogany pays more than both. Fruit trees take about 16 hours, so they fit a daily run even if your regular trees get two. The Farming calculator shows how many of each sapling you need to reach a goal, priced at today's seed costs.
Check-health xp for the trees that matter
| Tree | Level | Check-health xp |
|---|---|---|
| Willow | 30 | 1,456.5 |
| Maple | 45 | 3,403.4 |
| Yew | 60 | 7,069.9 |
| Magic | 75 | 13,768.3 |
| Palm | 68 | 10,150.1 |
| Dragonfruit | 81 | 17,335 |
| Teak | 35 | 7,290 |
| Mahogany | 55 | 15,720 |
| Calquat | 72 | 12,096 |
| Redwood | 90 | 22,450 |
Hardwood trees stand out. Teaks and mahoganies give big xp for cheap seeds, so the Fossil Island hardwood patches are worth adding as soon as you have access. Calquat at 72 is cheap for its xp too. Celastrus at 85 is the odd one: lower xp, but its harvest is valuable for battlestaves, so it can make money rather than cost it.
Setting up a good tree run
- Protect your trees. Pay the gardener at each patch with the listed produce so the tree cannot die. It is cheaper than replanting a magic sapling.
- Use teleports. Spirit trees, fairy rings, the Farming Guild and house portals cut a run down to a few minutes. You can plant your own spirit tree from 83.
- Bring compost. Ultracompost or supercompost on every patch lowers the chance of disease for anything you do not protect.
- Time it. Regular trees finish within a day, so one run each morning and evening suits most players.
Fastest, cheapest and ironman routes
Fastest: plant the top tree in every patch you can reach, protect every one, and run twice a day. Saplings for magic trees and redwoods are the biggest cost, so this route needs a steady income from somewhere else.
Cheapest: skip protection payments and use ultracompost, accept the odd dead tree, and lean on teaks, mahogany and calquat, which are among the cheapest xp per gold in the skill. Expect 99 to take noticeably longer, but the bill drops a long way.
Ironmen: seeds are the bottleneck. Bird nests from birdhouse runs supply tree and fruit tree seeds, seed packs from Farming Guild contracts and Tithe Farm add more, and Hespori drops its own seeds. Run bird houses alongside every tree run from the start so the seeds are ready when your level is.
Farming Guild and Hespori
The Farming Guild opens at 45 with the beginner wing (cactus, allotments, a flower and a bush patch). At 65 the intermediate wing adds a herb patch, a tree patch, the anima patch and the cave where you fight Hespori. At 85 the advanced wing adds a fruit tree, a spirit tree and a celastrus patch, plus the redwood patch for when you reach 90. Kourend favour no longer applies, so the levels are the only gate.
Herb runs: the money side of Farming
Herbs grow in 80 minutes, so you can run them several times a day. They give modest xp but solid profit: ranarr opens at 32, snapdragon at 62, dwarf weed at 79 and torstol at 85. Herb prices change a lot with Herblore demand, so check the snapdragon price and the other herbs on the day before buying seeds. Our Farming money makers list compares every herb run at current prices.
Tithe Farm: the active alternative
If you want Farming xp from active play instead of runs, the Tithe Farm minigame in Hosidius opens at 34 Farming with no other requirement. You plant, water and harvest a field of seeds in an instance, and every 100 fruit takes about 19 minutes. Boosts work, but the boost has to be active both when you take seeds and when you plant them:
| Seed | Level | XP per 100 fruit | Rough xp per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Golovanova | 34 | 9,660 | about 30,000 |
| Bologano | 54 | 22,540 | about 70,000 |
| Logavano | 74 | 37,030 | about 117,000 |
Its rewards are worth getting even if you never train there: the farmer's outfit (400 points) gives about 2.5% extra harvest xp, the seed box saves bank space, and the herb sack (250 points, 58 Herblore) makes herb runs far less fiddly. Gricoller's can holds 1,000 doses of water.
The Sailing-era hardwoods
Camphor at 66 (17,840 check-health xp), ironwood at 80 (20,380) and rosewood at 92 (23,100) give more per tree than mahogany. They arrived with Sailing alongside the trees of the same names for Woodcutting, and our Sailing guide covers the skill that brought them.