While the average player sees Farming as boring as sin, The herbs alone will make you a ton of cash, though not overnight, and you will most likely get a lot of dirt on you coveralls and compost on your boots…
In a 40 minute run, every day I hit all 5 the herb patches, 5 fruit trees, 2 bushes, belladonna, 1-2 regular trees. In the next 15 minutes I finish the remaining 3 trees and try and hit the Jade Vine. Then time permitting, I do another run just before bed, just omitting the fruit trees and specials. Due to the fruit tree and regular tree seeds that I decided on using, I am getting around 40k exp per day.
Since I am on a budget (and spending all my cash on crafting) I decided on using willows and apple trees. They are so cheap right now I don’t even care if I don’t pay the farmer every time and they happen to die. Oaks have the best cost per experience, but that is a bit too slow for me so I jumped up to willows. Of course when I get good trees from the kingdom I use them.
For fruit trees at the current rock bottom prices I plant 3 apples, 1 banana, and 1 not so cheap papaya. The apples help keep payment costs down on the willows too. The only real money sink here is the papaya, but that is all that I am willing to spend right now.
I have been tracking my seed costs, herb sale prices, and yields at every patch for every herb seed I have used in the past 6 months. I have come up with some nice statistics and have some pretty excel graphs that I play with. My Herb farming consists of Snapdragons at Trollheim and Kwuarms everywhere else. I have done a few rounds of Toadflax recently since the prices were outweighing the lower experience by so much.
My yield averages, since January 1st has been:
Toadflax 9.9 herbs per seed
Snapdragons 7.7
Ranarr 7.9
Kwuarm 6.5
Lantadyme 6.8
Dwarf Weed 6.6
This takes into account every dead herb as well. I don’t bother to check up on any of my plots, I just plant and run away. Prior to January 1st I was averaging 2 higher than this on every seed, so I think that there was an adjustment made to the yields in the game…it could just be me, but my averages should bear out a one or two time mortality.
I really just track profits on Snaps, Kwuarms, Super Restores, and Super Strength potions. After I pay for my seeds with a few herb sales the remaining Herbs are in essence free, so I split them between Herblore training and cashing them in on the G.E.
Tracking prices from January through today (you can reference Qeltar’s TWIRP’s) the break even point for the herbs are:
Toadflaxes are 0.003
Snapdragons are 3.6.
Ranarrs are 2.8
Kwuarm are 1.05
Lantadyme are 1.6
Dwarf Weeds are 2.6
What I mean by this is, in the case of the Snapdragons, the cost of the seed requires 3.6 herbs, sold at current market price, to pay for the seed. Every other herb that I pick is profit or Herblore exp.
So every farming round, I net
29.8k on 1 Snapdragon patch per day
68.4k on 4 kwuarm patches per day
$98.2k profit
On the days that I make potions instead of selling herbs on the GE I net:
$25.5k on Super Restores
$49k on Super Strengths
Plus I get the 3,300 Herblore exp.
Now If I was trying to optimize my cash and Herblore exp I would sell everything and invest the $98.2k in Irits/Eye of Newt or Cadantine/whiteberries. And get 7720 or 7975 herby exp, but have a pot that doesn’t sell at all on the GE. Again it would be free Herblore exp but little to no profit at all.
Conversely I could buy Ranarr/Snape Grass or Snapdragon/Red Eggs and get $85k or $79k profit but very little exp.
This chart is based on investing the $98,200 gp I make per day in herbs.
If I buy all parts of a potion, take Prayer potions for an example:
I could buy enough ranarrs and snape grass to make 16.6 potions per day.
I would get 1451.7 herblore exp
And be able to sell the 16.6 (3) dose Prayer pots for $85,242
While I am by no means a master farmer or Herblorist, I have been doing a fair job of cataloging the costs and trying to make the skills as efficient as possible, with a decent profit ratio.
Any suggestions are much appreciated and if anyone needs and help or advice ask away!
