Craven Reviews: Snapdragon Farming

[Craven Range]

Please note, i am not claiming this as new or ground breaking data, this is simply to share my data with the community, and my observations of the data:

Craven Reviews: Snapdragon Farming

Do you have a green thumb? Do you love the outdoors? Do you love making money? If you said any of these, Snapdragon farming is for you!
The main way to farm will not be covered in this review, as im sure most people reading it have a firm grasp of farming! Pick, Plant and Leave

From over 100 Snapdragons farmed over the period of around one week, i have collected this data. It is 100% Accurate to my test sample, as i took very detailed notes. It all started when i bought exactly 100 Snapdragon seeds, for 3,048,000 Gold Pieces. Over the period of farming, i also Collected 6 willow branches per run from a willow tree i have in falador, whilst on my way to the draynor patch. This meant, after my 20 runs, i had 120 Willow Branches.

My approach to gather this data was simple. Plant 5 seeds, wait 75 minutes, then harvest. I didn't cure not a single snapdragon in my whole test, if they were to die, i let them go. It's just a fact of life that some will die.

Of 100 Seeds, there were 11 Deaths. Of those 11 Deaths, 4 of them were a double death (2 deaths on the 1 run), there were no triple deaths.
This means that Snapdragons have an 11% Chance of dying. There is a 4% Chance two or more of your Herbs will die in a single run. If you are walking up to a Snapdragon that has lived and ready to harvest, you will average a harvest of 7.39 Herbs per plant.

Of 100 Seeds Planted, 658 Grimy Snapdragon were harvested, Giving a ratio of 6.58 Snapdragons per seed purchased. This ratio includes deaths.
With the Current Price As Follows:

Snapdragon Seed: 30,480
Grimy Snapdragon: 7,293

An Average net profit per run of 87,539 gp was obtained. Excellent you might say, well it gets better!
Each run, as you would recall, i collected 6 willow bracnhes, worth 883 gp each.
This reaped another 5,280 gp per run profit, boosting my profit per run to:

92,819.70 Gp per run

The following formula can be used to obtain a rough average profit for x amount of Snapdragon seeds planted
Where N = Number of seeds, S = Price of a snapdragon seed, H = Price of a Grimy snapdragon and P = Profit, we can have

P=N((H*6.58)-S)

I hope this data can be of use to anyone, please feel free to take whatever you want from it. I have posted it here for public use. if you want to add to any of my calculations, or add my sample to a sample of your own, feel free to do so.
I have also included a picture, for all of you visual learners out there:

I have spammed truthscape.com all over the picture, so people don't try to rip it off as their own, or try use it for RWT Purposes. If you would like the original please P.m me

note; table is calculated as profit, seed prices have been deducted. Profit is per patch

Next week: Craven Reviews - Castle Wars
~Craven Range

[Mak 1027]

please feel free to take whatever you want from it. ~Craven Range

Whatever I want? really? Then I'll take all those grimy snapdragons off your hands

Good Work Craven ...good money considering a farming run is so quick to do.

My one complaint about the new Explorer's ring is that it is too convenient ...I used to tele into Fally, get branches like you do, and then run down to the farming patch ...now that I am brought basically right to the patch, I don't bother to get the willow branches, losing 5,280/run.

[Doomedrusher]

Apparently double composting doesn't do a thing. Oh well

[Craven Range]

please feel free to take whatever you want from it. ~Craven Range

Whatever I want? really? Then I'll take all those grimy snapdragons off your hands

Good Work Craven ...good money considering a farming run is so quick to do.

My one complaint about the new Explorer's ring is that it is too convenient ...I used to tele into Fally, get branches like you do, and then run down to the farming patch ...now that I am brought basically right to the patch, I don't bother to get the willow branches, losing 5,280/run.

I too faced this problem. I make myself feel better about it by making falado"r my third patch, or fourth if something dies. Normally i have to bank after that many, and the bank is right on the way, meaning it cuts down on lost time!

Apparently double composting doesn't do a thing. Oh well

I'm still yet to test it, sorry! I actually forgot about it, next review after Castlewars will be Double Composting, Worth it?" (I need 2 weeks to gather data)
I have already pre determined that there will be a 5% (6.251 to 6.91) Margin of safety, anything outside this range will denote a difference in crop yeild.

[Withered Laurels]

Just a quick mathematical note: If there's an 11% chance of death for a single snap dragon, there is a 1.21% chance of a double death. Simply one probability of death times another. Your 4% was experimental data, not theoretical (which is always right, even if the real world says otherwise). Just had to point that out. But great job I've been gathering willow branches when I mole hunt. Like 150 so far

[Craven Range]

Just a quick mathematical note: If there's an 11% chance of death for a single snap dragon, there is a 1.21% chance of a double death. Simply one probability of death times another. Your 4% was experimental data, not theoretical (which is always right, even if the real world says otherwise). Just had to point that out. But great job I've been gathering willow branches when I mole hunt. Like 150 so far

Mathamatically, you are quite right (I currently study maths at university level), i'm not going to argue with you there The main reason i included it as 4% is that it was my real figure. Simply put, to find the chance of a herb dying, you can simple use

D = 100(0.11^x)

Where D = Death Rate corresponding to X, and X = Number of herbs dying in that particular run, lol

edit: not sure if that was clear.
Example: What is the chance of 4 Herbs Dying in one run?
D= 100(0.11^x)
D= 100(0.11^4)
D= 0.0015% , or one in 666 runs

[Lord Klotski]

Whoa, whoa, back to probability class.

This is the binomial distribution here.

Assume that there are 4 herbs that can die in a single run, the probability of each of those dying is .11.

Probability of 0 deaths is (4 C 0) * (.11) ^ 0 * (.89) ^4 = .6274
Probability of 1 death is (4 C 1) * (.11) ^ 1 * (.89) ^3 = .3102
Probability of 2 deaths is (4 C 2) * (.11) ^ 2* (.89) ^2 = .0575
Probability of 3 deaths is (4 C 3) * (.11) ^ 3* (.89) ^1 = .0047
Probability of 4 deaths is (4 C 4) * (.11) ^ 4* (.89) ^0 = .0001

Note that my probabilities total to 1, give or take rounding error

[Alconavt]

Great research!

As I posted previously, I harvested 2064 snaps from 300 seeds, or 6.88 per seed, at 99 farming; my average grew to 7.08 snaps per seed (2123 herbs from 300 seeds) when using stranger plant boosts.

[niperwiper]

Psh I don't get it, I'm still only getting 5-6 herbs max from my herb patches. I have gone from 58 - 73 farm in one week though <3 vinesweeper, probably got 250k pts from that this week. Probably planted close to 20 yew trees as well. Snapdragon farming just still seems to be out of my league in terms of profit, even at 73. I think I'm going to head back to ranarr farming, less chance of death and far greater yield with my lvl. Should help to pay for my love for yew trees haha.

[Sir Valimont]

Of 100 Seeds, there were 11 Deaths.
This means that Snapdragons have an 11% Chance of dying.

I think the death rate is partially based on your farming level ... so there is an 11% of them dying at your particular level.

[Mak 1027]

Psh I don't get it, I'm still only getting 5-6 herbs max from my herb patches.

Stupid question probably, but are you using magic secataurs? they are supposed to increase your yield by 10%

[Rakshar]

I did find the research a little incomplete because certain factors that should have been important like level, compost type and magic secuars that were not included. Craven's yield was not normal from my experience but I have not mapped out any averages. Also including willow branches didn't make much sense when figuring profit as there are many other activities that could be added to farming runs that would up total profit but to use one over the others doesn't give much perspective if you are tring to show max profitability for runs (ie... no comparisons). This is not to say that farming isn't one of the most profitable skills but success rates and/or yields do seem to be at least partially influenced by level, secuars and compost type.

I feel bad breaking it down this way but I just felt there wasn't enough info to be able to replicate Craven's results.

[Alconavt]

I did find the research a little incomplete because certain factors that should have been important like level, compost type and magic secuars that were not included. Craven's yield was not normal from my experience but I have not mapped out any averages. Also including willow branches didn't make much sense when figuring profit as there are many other activities that could be added to farming runs that would up total profit but to use one over the others doesn't give much perspective if you are tring to show max profitability for runs (ie... no comparisons). This is not to say that farming isn't one of the most profitable skills but success rates and/or yields do seem to be at least partially influenced by level, secuars and compost type.

I feel bad breaking it down this way but I just felt there wasn't enough info to be able to replicate Craven's results.

Craven definitely used supercompost and magic secateurs, otherwise his results would be much worse. The main problem here is his sample size, since even a single unsuccessful run of 25 herbs from 5 patches would bring his average down by 0.08 to 6.5; putting these numbers together and recording data run after run is a royal pain, however, so 100 seeds is pretty reasonable from this perspective.

What's not normal about Craven's yield from your experience though?

[Rakshar]

My yields were lower over all but since breaking 70 farming they seem to be going up. We assume the compost type and the secateurs that were used but one thing I have not really seem is comparisons on effects when you vary the items that are supposed to help. I understand that wasn't Craven's goal but it just seemed Craven didn't define the variables very well before making conclusions on the end result.

The only reason I bring this up is that I read alot of info on farming and wonder about plot success rates and yields hopefully Craven will just edit in the info on level and such. I am sorry if I'm coming across too harshly I don't mean to. Just trying to draw out as much info as I can.

[Alconavt]

His farming level is 68. It would indeed be great to see some numbers on growing herbs without secateurs, but again, a decent sample size would be required and you'd need to be REALLY committed to this research to carry that out lol. As far as compost goes, supercompost obviously guarantees that your minimum harvest is going to be 5 herbs, but beyond that we are again in unchartered waters.

Regarding sample sizes, during my above test the first 100 seeds without a familiar yielded 666 herbs, then my yields were 693 and 705. With a stranger plant my results were 718, 721 and 689. Pretty noticeable difference between these batches. It would be ideal to conduct a test for 1000+ seeds, but even 300 was too much of a pain for me.

[Rakshar]

I did not know the supercompost/yield effect. That is good to know. I am a "leasure" farmer, meaning I do 1 run a day that includes trees, fruit trees, marigold, toadflax (or other if I get a drop but toadflax is my default), just started Calquat (my 1st 3 survived !!) I have a belladonna, cactus, poison ivy, and whiteberry but only go to those if I get the urge. I sell extra super compost, marigolds and my toadflax which makes for a good profit since all my trees come from my kingdom. My experience has been that the profit comes from my herbs/flowers but my main xp comes from the trees. I have always been curious about the pre-set success rates and yields and how to maximize your time, but as you said the time investment to get acurate numbers is intimidating. I wouldn't buy snap seeds myself since the margin isn't as good as the Toadflax but I have been looking forward to Craven's results for awhile. So now it is just a matter of pulling as much data as possible from everyone that posts on this thread. Did Craven use the Stranger Plant? That might be why my averages differed when I was that level I not quite to the summoning level yet. Are the Plant and the secateurs effects cumulative?

[Craven Range]

Farming Level: 68
Magic Secatuers and SuperCompost: Yes
Amulet of farming: Yes, even though i have read they don't stack
Familiar: Always Spirit terrorbird

I think I'm going to head back to ranarr farming, less chance of death and far greater yield with my lvl. Should help to pay for my love for yew trees haha.

I havn't fully tested this, but i believe Snaps are better than ranarr in terms of Xp and Profit...

Also including willow branches didn't make much sense when figuring profit as there are many other activities that could be added to farming runs that would up total profit but to use one over the others doesn't give much perspective if you are tring to show max profitability for runs (ie... no comparisons)

Of course, there are probably many better things to do than this. For exmaple, having a magic tree and cutting one log when you run past. I can't be bothered typing out all the things you can do while on a farming run, i just chose to do willows You could even solo hilts from god wars on the way to your trollheim patch if you really want to break into the big bucks!

I wouldn't buy snap seeds myself since the margin isn't as good as the Toadflax but I have been looking forward to Craven's results for awhile.

If you want a high margin, grow marrentil. The seed is around 9gp each at the moment In all seriousness, i still believe that Snapdragons are better than Toadflaxes, I'm pretty sure Kwuarms are bettter than toadflaxes, too. There isn't alot of difference between the big contenders on average.

Craven's yield was not normal from my experience but I have not mapped out any averages.

I'd say 100 seeds would give a fairly good indication of an average. It might not be spot on, but i can't see it moving around much per 100 seeds. I will admit, i did have a few big harvests, my best one being my first, which yeilded 11,11,10,8,9, which came to 49 Snapdragons harvested in one run.

[Rakshar]

Alright I guess I will do some research and contribute also :

For profit margins on seeds to herb, I ll put out the simple numbers if you want the actual margins I'll let someone else crunch them.


seed / price(seed) / grimy (1 herb) / clean(1 herb)
Kwuarm / 3248 / 3098 / 3112
Marrentil / 4 / 182 / 43
Ranarr / 22000 / 6139 / 6187
Snapdragon / 30200 / 7246 / 7229
Toadflax / 239 / 2334 / 2303


So we can see that only Marrentil and Toad pay for themselves on the first herb and yes the margin is best on the marrentil unless you clean it. Kwuarm is profit after the 1st herb, Ranarr and Snap are profit after the 4th. So with a 6+ herb per seed average Toadflax and then Kwuarm are the best profit percentage if we eliminate Marrentil because of the low price. The demand on Toadflax will always be higher because it has many different applications. All the price are todays median price.

[Alconavt]

I'd say 100 seeds would give a fairly good indication of an average. It might not be spot on, but i can't see it moving around much per 100 seeds. I will admit, i did have a few big harvests, my best one being my first, which yeilded 11,11,10,8,9, which came to 49 Snapdragons harvested in one run.

Take a look at the numbers I provided above; I think that's a pretty significant variation from batch to batch. As I said, if your next harvest gave you 25 herbs, which is a normal unsuccessful run, your average would go down right away from 6.58 to 6.5; that's just one extra run.

[Craven Range]

Alconvant, you are correct. It would go down to 6.505. I don't see how your argument holds any water. Because 25 isn't a normal farming run. For me, its around 32.