Farming training/Growth guide

The progression of time in the Farming skill is a relatively complicated process.

Growth stage windows
Crops do not continuously grow; instead, there are a discrete set of growth stages for each plant, and each of them takes a set amount of time. Nothing happens when a plant is in the waiting time between growth stages. Plants can only grow to the next growth stage during five minute periods called growth stage windows.

Growth stage windows are periodically repeating five minute windows during which plants are allowed to grow to the next growth stage. The exact period of these windows is determined by the type of seed. Flowers only need to spend five minutes per growth stage, so their growth stage windows repeat every five minutes; id est, flowers are constantly in a growth stage window. Spirit trees spend 320 minutes per growth stage, so they have a 5 minute window followed by 315 minutes of inactivity, repeated ad infinitum. Regardless of the seed, growth stage windows last five minutes for every crop.

The following table shows the frequency of growth stage windows for each type of seed. Please note that while all seeds of each type have the same frequency of growth stage windows, for some seed varieties higher level seeds in that category typically require more growth stages, and hence more time, to grow than lower level seeds.

Only the special seeds for growing Cacti and Deadly nightshades grow on 80 minute cycles.

These growth stage cycles all start at midnight UTC, and repeat indefinitely until the next midnight, when they all occur again. The only exception is the 320 minute cycle, which repeats on the second midnight.

The following tables list the start times for the growth stage windows. Please note that these last for five minutes, so add 5 minutes to the start time to obtain the end time for the growth stage window. Every seed has a growth stage window from 12:00 AM to 12:05 AM.

The following is a schematic representation of the smallest unit of the growth stage windows. The green blocks represent growth stage windows, and the red blocks represent units of time in which plants cannot grow.

Crop growth
As previously mentioned, crops only grow in the five minute growth stage windows. Furthermore, they only grow when the player reaches a growth tick based on RuneScape's game ticks. Only when a growth tick falls within a growth window does a crop grow.

A player reaches a growth tick every 500 game ticks. This is theoretically once every five minutes, but may be slightly longer due to lag. The fact that growth ticks occur at a frequency of slightly over five minutes means that most of the time one will fall into each growth window, but that occasionally one may be missed. However, the frequency at which that occurs is fairly low.

The first growth tick occurs 500 game ticks after the player logs in or logs out. Growth ticks are reset when either action occurs, meaning that nothing can grow five minutes after a player logs in or logs out. This may cause players who are constantly switching worlds to miss growth stage windows due to resetting the growth tick timer.

Note that many other farming actions occur with growth ticks. These include weeds growing and wood and fruit tree seedlings growing into saplings. These grow at any growth tick, so they may be treated as running on a growth stage window with a cycle period of 5 minutes.

Growth stage advancement
Crops will advance a growth stage upon reaching the first growth tick that falls within a growth stage window. Thus, the first growth stage is typically less than the time between two growth stage windows for that crop.

For example, herb seeds have 20 minute growth cycles. Suppose a player logs in at 6:32 and plants a seed at 6:35. A growth window for herbs will occur from 6:40 to 6:45, and the player will reach a growth tick every five minutes after logging in, at 6:37, 6:42, et cetera. Thus, assuming the player does not log out after planting the herb, they will advance a growth stage at when the tick falls within the growth stage window. Nothing happens at 6:37, as it is not within a window, but the herbs will advance a growth stage at 6:42, as it is a tick within a window. The herbs will only have spent 7 minutes in the first growth stage instead of the stated 20.

Disease
Just like growth stage advancement, crops can only become diseased when they reach a growth tick that falls within a growth stage window. If a plant does become diseased, it does not advance a growth stage in the same tick. Furthermore, a diseased plant cannot advance any growth stages until it is cured or dies. Therefore, disease will cost the plant at least one growth cycle's worth of time.

The plant, however, cannot die until the next growth tick that falls in a growth stage window. This provides the player some time to cure the plant. The plant is not guaranteed to die at the next growth tick in a growth stage window; each such tick merely provides a chance for the plant to die. It is reported that the death chance is roughly 50%.

Preventing disease
Plants also cannot become diseased in their first growth stage immediately after planting. They are guaranteed to advance to the second growth stage. Furthermore, plants will not become diseased if they are watered. This only works for hops, allotments, flowers, and vine blossoms, however. Allotments cannot become diseased if they are being protected by the appropriate fully grown flower in the adjacent flower patch.

Paying a gardener for protection does prevent disease.