~ harvest moon: magical melody ~ ~ gamecube ~ ~ planting guide ~ ~copywright marcus hanshew 2006~ NOTES!!!! FOR VERSION 1.2: ADD THE NOTES YOU CAN GET WITH CROPS! version 1.12 last update: 20 August, 2006 Welcome again, this time to my first in-depth FAQ. This is a reference for Magical Melody players who want to look up info on planting (crops, trees, grass, flowers, and herbs) right away. I'll try to give as much detail as I can to everything there is about planting, since planting can be both your biggest money-maker and also your biggest mistake. Wasting time on worthless or low- quality crops is a recipe for the Poor Note, but you only get one of those! So, with that out of the way, let's get to the table of contents! Quick find: You can use the FIND function to find any main heading or main heading's subheading in this guide. If you don't know about copy, paste, or find, just follow these instructions: * Highlight an entire line that starts with a roman numeral or capital letter. *NOTE: Make sure not to highlight any spaces used as indentations! * Press CONTROL + C on your keyboard. This copies the line to your clipboard. * Press CONTROL + F on your keyboard. This brings up your FIND function. * Press CONTROL + V on your keyboard. This pastes the clipboard to the FIND. * Press ENTER on your keyboard. This begins the search. ******************************************************************************* ****** TABLE OF CONTENTS ****************************************************** ******************************************************************************* I. Planting Basics A. Tilling and Sewing B. Soil Types C. Fertilizer D. Watering E. Harvesting F. Crop Quality II. Standard Crops A. Spring Crops 1. Turnip 2. Cabbage 3. Potato 4. Breadfruit 5. Strawberry B. Summer Crops 1. Onion 2. Corn 3. Tomato 4. Cocoa C. Fall Crops 1. Yam 2. Bell Pepper 3. Carrot 4. Eggplant 5. Spinach 6. Pumpkin D. Crop Comparison III. Flowers IV. Herbs V. Trees A. Sapling Planting B. Tree Types 1. Orange trees 2. Apple trees 3. Grape trees 4. Chestnut trees 5. Mora trees 6. Evergreen trees VI. Grass VII. FAQ VIII. Updates IX. Legal Disclaimer, etc. ******************************************************************************* ****** I. Planting Basics ***************************************************** ******************************************************************************* Before you plant anything, you're going to need seeds. You can buy these from the "Spring Farm." This is found near the bottom/center of the town, on the west side of the river, southeast from Woody's place. Liz sells you seeds here. It is open from 6 AM to 6 PM every day except Mondays (and of course, it is closed on festival days, too.) On your first time entering the shop and meeting Liz (it is closed on the first day of the game, but you can spend that day clearing land to plant your crops), you will get 2 bags of turnip seeds for free from Liz! This is very helpful, especially since your low stamina at the beginning of the game limits you to only planting really two bags of seeds to start off with, anyway. Just make sure you've cleared your land and tilled as much soil as you can to be ready for the crops to appear. In order to plant and grow your crops, you will need not only your seeds, but land to plant them in, a hoe to till the soil, and a watering can with water to water them. So let's start with the tilling... ---< A. Tilling and Sewing >--------------------------------------------------- **Note that this section applies to CROPS, FLOWERS, and HERBS. For information on planting trees or grass, see those respective sections. Find somewhere to till your soil. You can hoe up any soil that is yours or that belongs to anyone. If you press the Z button until the land changes color, the blue areas will show your own land and green areas will show public land. So if the land isn't blue or green, don't plant there! I'd also be hesitant about planting on green soil, because if someone new moves into the villiage and takes that land, everything you own there will be lost; however, if you have played the game before, you'll know where people are going to move in, so you can plant somewhere if you know that no one can move there. Once you find your land, you'll need to clear it, which consists of breaking rocks with hammers, chopping stumps and logs with axes, and clearing weeds by picking them. You can also pick up the rocks and logs and move them to another area, but be sure not to throw them only on your own property to avoid making the villagers dislike you. You will need a 3x3 square of land to plant your seeds. Each seed bag contains nine seeds that will harvest into nine crops if planted. When you stand on a square and use the seeds with X, the seeds will fall to the square you are standing on and the eight immediate squares connected to it (left, right, up, down, and the four diagnol directions). If you plant your seeds on a rainy day, the seeds may get washed away and be gone in the morning. This is a very rare occurance, I guess, because I have yet to have this happen, though it says on the TV that it can happen, and it happened in previous Harvest Moon games. Now, in the beginning, you can only water one space at a time, so you might not want to till up a 3x3 square right away. You might want to leave some space for walking. There are two basic patterns for people who don't have the silver watering can or higher. The first is planting in ROWS, and the second is planting in a C. In the diagrams for the crop formations, an X means that you will till the ground and a seed will be planted there. A hyphen (-) means that you will not till the ground there, and no seed will be planted when you throw. The ROW formation is a simple formation. From this formation, you can harvest 6 of the 9 crops per bag of seeds. it looks something like this: XXX X-X --- X-X XXX or X-X While you won't be able to harvest as many crops from this formation, it is the most efficient in energy and time. In the early game, this is extremely helpful. You'll still be making a profit, so saving your time and energy for meeting villiagers, foraging in the mountains, and most importantly: fishing, is a very important thing. With the row formation, you can easily plant 3 or 4 bags of seeds on the second day (your first day to plant seeds) with extra time to do other things. The row formation is also good for expanding on and conserving space. With the C formations, you sometimes have to space them out or keep away from walls. With rows, you can easily be up against a wall and put many row formations next to each other to make long rows. As you get further in the game, you may want to increase your profits by using more of the seeds that you get in the bag. This brings us to the C formation which looks like this: XXX XXX X-X XXX XX- XXX XXX -XX XXX or X-X or XXX or XXX Note that this is simply a 3x3 square with one square on the edge missing. If you stand in that square, you will be able to water all of the 5 squares around it. You'll have to walk to the back to harvest and water those squares, so make sure that the back (the side opposite of the "gap") is NOT against a wall, the river, or some other area where you cannot walk. You won't be able to reach the middle crop that way. If you must put your C in a corner or against a wall, you can opt to keep the middle square bare so you get 7 of the 9 crops instead of 8, but can walk into the middle area to water all the crops. This is also a fast and efficient way to water and harvest. Once you've gotten the silver watering can, you will be able to charge up and water a 3x3 square in one blast, so you won't need to leave any holes. If you are planting a renewable crop, go ahead and till the full 3x3 square. When the crops grow, pick them all and then use the sickle to cut down one of the edge crops that you've already picked to reach the center crop, creating the C formation again. Some people choose to leave the center crop for the last harvesting; either way, you are getting one extra crop by starting with the 3x3 square. Once you've gotten the Goddess-level watering can, consider tilling your land in a formation like this: XXX-XXX XXX-XXX XXX-XXX ---O--- XXX-XXX XXX-XXX XXX-XXX In this formation, the "O" is where you will stand and use your fully-charged watering can. Because it waters a 7x7 square with you in the center, this will water all four 3x3 squares. This is very useful and convenient. A good place to do this is in the beach property that you can choose at the beginning of the game. If you fertilize all the land there, you will have a lot of extra room. By the time you have the Goddess watering can, you should be able to do just about anything anywhere, so this is a great tilling formation. Once you get upgrades to your hoe, you can til more soil at once by charging up. For more info on crop formations, check out the cool crop formations guide also here on gamefaqs. ---< B. Soil Types >----------------------------------------------------------- While watering, you may have noticed that there are different colors of soil. There are three qualities of soil in the game, and they directly affect your crops, so cautious of where you are planting your crops. The lightest color of soil almost looks like sand. This soil isn't fertile at all and will give you the worst quality of crop. The medium color has a darker tint toward the center. This soil is average in quality and will give you regular crops. The dark soil is very rich and fertile. It will give you the highest quality crops, and you should aim to plant in that type. However, at the beginning, you will only have access to certain types of soil. The beach property has the worst soil. Most of the soil on the property is low quality, with a bit of medium mixed in. The town property has mostly medium quality soil with a few squares of high quality here and there. The riverside property is mostly high quality soil, but you'll find a few squares of medium quality around, too, especailly near the road. Soil affects crops in two ways: Firstly, crops planted in lower quality soil will take longer to grow than crops in high quality soil. Sometimes crops in high quality soil may take extra time to grow, but this is just because that particular plant got unlucky. Secondly, crops vary in quality depending on the soil type. High quality soil will reap high quality crops, whereas medium and low quality soil will turn out medium and low quality crops. ---< C. Fertilizer >----------------------------------------------------------- Fertilizer is used to increase the quality of soil. You can purchase it at the Spring Farm along with your seeds, but you'll need to ship limestone for it to appear. Limestone can be found in the year-round mine in the lower levels. The mine is found northeast of the doctor's office, to the east of Jamie's farm. Keep falling into the X-shaped holes until you are pretty deep (there are 100 levels total) and start pounding away at the rocks. Limestone is a bit rare to find sometimes, so just keep at it. Once you've shipped 10 limtestones, Liz will start selilng fertilizer for 150G a bag. Fertilizer is used much like a bag of seeds: throw it and it spreads to the square you are on and the eight surrounding squares. Make sure the ground is tilled before you throw it -- all nine spaces, so it can be fertilized. Each tilled square that the fertilizer lands on will increase in quality by one quality level. High-quality soil can not be increased in quality. So if you want low-quality soil to become high-quality soil, you'll have to spread two bags of fertilizer over it. I am not 100% certain on this, but if the land becomes untilled (due to being replaced by a weed or lasting over the winter), it will no longer be fertilized and you'll have to buy new fertilizer. If anyone knows the condition of this for certain, please email me or tell me on the boards. ---< D. Watering >------------------------------------------------------------- Watering is the most tedious but most important task in raising crops. Make sure you water your crops every day, including the day you sew the seeds. If it is raining, you do not need to water that day. You can also water tilled land before sewing a seed, and it will still count as watering that seed. Each individual square with seeds sewn into it needs to be watered. To water, you must use the watering can tool that you get from the beginning of the day. Equip the watering can with X while it is selected on your c-stick reel. While equipped, you can move to a watering hole or well and press A to fill the watering can. Pressing X while holding an equipped watering can with water in it will water the square in front of you. As you upgrade your watering can, you can water more squares at once by charging your tool by holding X. There are a couple of tricks that many players may not know that make watering (and other tasks) a lot easier and faster. First, hold down the R button while holding your watering can. You'll see a blue square appear in front of you. You will water this square when you use the watering can. Now try moving around while still holding R. Notice that your character stays facing the same direction. You can use this non-turning function to water the row formation very easily! It's a great function. The second trick is even better. Stand in a square so that you are surrounded by crops (not completely, just make sure there is more than one crop in the eight spaces surrounding your character). A good place to try this out is in the "hole" in your C-formations. If it is the type where you can stand in the center of the 3x3 square, this will work to the best. Press X to water a crop as usual; however, continue tapping X without pressing the analog stick at all. Your character will continue watering each surrounding square that has a crop or seed on it, and you won't have to worry about positioning your character before each one! Don't worry about pressing X too many times; just keep pressing it as much as you want before your character is finished watering the last crop surrounding him or her. This is an awesome trick for the C-formation, and Pikmin players will be used to the tapping to allow auto- manuevering. Never miss a day of watering! The length it takes a crop to grow depends on your watering. If a crop is supposed to take 4 days to grow, you will have to water it for four days in a row. Don't worry, if you miss a day, the days required will not be reset, but you will have to wait an extra day for your crops to grow. Note that soil quality can affect the number of days required to grow. ---< E. Harvesting >----------------------------------------------------------- Once your crops have grown, it is time to harvest them! To pick a crop, simply face the crop and press A. Some crops may not look like they are ready to be harvested to you even when they are, so you might want to try pressing A when they change to a new shape just to check. Chances are you are going to want to sell your crops. If you are very close to your shipping bin (as in, RIGHT next to it), you can just pick them up, turn to the bin, and toss them in. If you're farther away, a good idea is to put them in your rucksack and then drop them all in the bin at once. Remove everything from your rucksack (except your watering can if you don't want to go back inside and get it) and start picking, pressing B after each pick to deposit it in your bag. At the bin, you can keep pressing X to pull one out and A to drop it in the bin. Some crops can be harvested many times. Strawberries, breadfruits, cocoa, corn, tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplants, and yams all can be harvested many times per season with only the one bag of seeds planted. Once you pick these crops, the plant will still be left behind, unlike the other crops, in which you will be left with nothing but tilled soil. If you continue watering the crops, they will grow new vegetables or fruits for you to harvest. You can repeat this as many times as you like until the end of the season. ---< F. Crop Quality >--------------------------------------------------------- Depending on the soil type a crop is planted in, the quality of the crop will be altered. There are three quality levels of a crop: low, medium, and high. The high quality crops are of course better, and this is the quality level you should be aiming for. Quality affects many things about the crops: * Higher quality crops sell at higher prices. * Higher quality crops replenish more stamina when eaten. * Higher quality crops cook into higher quality recipes. * Higher quality crops are more well-recieved as gifts. * Higher quality crops grow faster. To check on the quality of a crop, go to the rucksack menu (or if it is in the fridge, go to the fridge) and highlight the crop. Read the description for the crop; if there is a star at the end, it is a high quality crop. If there is a musical note at the end, it is a medium quality crop. If it is just the regular description with no notation at the end, it is a low quality crop. Note that flowers and herbs are not affected by quality. ******************************************************************************* ****** II. Standard Crops ***************************************************** ******************************************************************************* There are many, many crops to grow in Magical Melody. This section will help you get an idea what the difference between each crop is and how to choose which crop is right for you. While most people focus on making money, crops have other uses besides shipping and selling. The in-depth sections for each season will give you info on what you can do with each crop, and hints for making the best choices for using each crop. If you are just looking for the best money-makers, go to the CROP COMPARISON section. NOTES ABOUT THIS SECTION: in the cost to sell listing for each crop, the three prices represent HIGH QUALITY / MEDIUM QUALITY / LOW QUALITY. The quality of a crop is determined by the soil type. See the soil type section for more information. If two growing times are listed, the first is the time for the first harvest, and the second is the time for the remaining harvests. The harvesting calendar tells what days the crops should be harvested if planted started on day 1 of each season in high quality soil for maximum proficiency. The planting calendar is a checklist for which days you should plant on for maximum growths per season. Renewable crops are always planted on day 1 only. ---< A. Spring Crops >--------------------------------------------------------- Spring is a great time for crops. It rains a lot and there are no destructive storms to worry about as in the summer. There are five crops available in the spring, though only four are available at the beginning of the game. [ TURNIPS ] Cost per bag: 20G Days to grow: 4 days Cost to sell: 180G / 90G / 63G Planting Calendar : 1 - 4 - 8 - 12 - 16 - 20 - 24 Harvesting Calendar: 4 - 8 - 12 - 16 - 20 - 24 - 28 Turnips are the beginner's crop. Because they grow in only 4 days of watering, you can miss a day or two and still get a decently quick harvest. In later stages of the game, you won't want to plant tons of turnips; however, they can be used to make quick money since they have such a short growing time. If you don't have much experience with Harvest Moon or growing crops, Turnips are a great way to get started. If you chose the beach property and you are starting out, you might want to consider Green Herbs, since they are unaffected by a final quality and will give you more of a profit. Alex also likes turnips, and he is important to befriend at the beginning of the game, so any player will want to start out with turnips right away. Befriending Alex leads to other events that are very useful for you, so check out another guide for more information. [ POTATOES ] Cost per bag: 30G Days to grow: 6 days Cost to sell: 100G Planting Calendar : 1 - 6 - 12 - 18 - 24 Harvesting Calendar: 6 - 12 - 16 - 24 - 30 Potatoes are the odd vegetable in this game. In previous Harvest Moon games, potatoes took longer and cost more than turnips but reaped a larger profit. In this game, they are pretty worthless for selling, and you should stick to turnips if you want a beginner's crop. Potatoes, for some reason, sell the same 100G at any quality level. Things such as gift reception is still affected by the quality. Mayor Theodore likes potatoes, so if you planted some and realize they are not selling, keep them to give away to the Mayor as gifts, since he is an important character to befriend early in the game. [ CABBAGE ] Cost per bag: 40G Days to grow: 7 days Cost to sell: 340G / 170G / 119G Planting Calendar : 1 - 7 - 14 - 21 Harvesting Calendar: 7 - 14 - 21 - 28 Cabbage is a more advanced crop for people who have become accustomed to crops and can water every day without forgetting. Cabbage takes a long time to grow, but your profit is amazing. If you're a Harvest Moon veteran or you think you can remember to keep up on your watering, plant cabbages. Cabbages are also the way to bringing in strawberries, the best-selling crop of the Spring. If you manage to ship 50 or more cabbages, Liz will start selling strawberry seeds in her shop. If your goal is to have strawberries in your second Spring, you'll want to start growing cabbages right away. [ BREADFRUIT ] Cost per bag: 60G Days to grow: 7 days / 2 days Cost to sell: 300G / 150G / 105G Harvesting Calendar: 7 - 9 - 11 - 13 - 15 - 17 - 19 - 21 - 23 - 25 - 27 - 29 Breadfruit is the first renewable crop you can harvest in the game. This is a difficult crop since you will have to wait seven days for the first harvest and then start harvesting every othr day with the quick regrow rate. Without any strawberries to plant, breadfruit is your best money-maker in the spring. Even beginners should have at least one bag of breadfruits to plant on the first day of Spring. Not only is breadfruit great for making money in your first year, you also can use it later on to make many sweets in cooking. Sweets are great for restoring your staminna, and using your own produce to make them is not only fun, but usually cheaper than buying the sweets from Carl's cake shop. You also can carry your homemade sweets with you instead of being forced to eat them at the restaraunt. [ STRAWBERRIES ] Cost per bag: 300G Days to grow: 7 days / 2 days Cost to sell: 400G / 200G / 140G Harvesting Calendar: 7 - 9 - 11 - 13 - 15 - 17 - 19 - 21 - 23 - 25 - 27 - 29 There is no doubt about it, strawberries are the strongest crop of the Spring. Once you ship your first high quality strawberry, you've paid for the bag of seeds and made a 100G profit. After that, you're raking it 400G per fruit! If you want to get rich quick, all you have to do is plant strawberries! Strawberries are also great for turning into jam and other sweets to replenish your energy. I highly reccommend shipping 50 cabbages in your first year so that you can have strawberries ready for the 2nd year. You won't have time to plant and grow the strawberries by the time you get a whole 50 cabbages shipped in your first Spring, so just concentrate on cabbages, and keep a bag of breadfruit going for the whole season, too. ---< B. Summer Crops >--------------------------------------------------------- Summer is the most annoying season for crops. Not only will the sun be blazing and rain a rarity, but you'll have to watch out for typhoons. When a typhoon comes, it can destroy tons of your crops if you get unlucky, as well as your grass and fences. There are only four types of crops for you to harvest in the summer, but you do get the Pinkcat flower to grow here, too. [ ONIONS ] Cost per bag: 20G Days to grow: 4 days Cost to sell: 180G / 90G / 63G Planting Calendar : 1 - 4 - 8 - 12 - 16 - 20 - 24 Harvesting Calendar: 4 - 8 - 12 - 16 - 20 - 24 - 28 Onions are essentially the turnips of Summer, but the situation in the summer is a bit different. To make your money in this season, you'll be relying on difficult crops that take a long time to grow and also get knocked away in typhoons. While it's tempting to plant a ton of the high-selling cocoa, you may want to consider how long it takes before it starts to pay off, and how many could be blown away by the time pay day rolls around for those cocoas. Onions are a great solution to this. In addition to the renewable crops you buy, make sure you pick up a few bags of onions. Having one or two planted at a time while you wait for your renewables to finally grow up is a really great idea to keep the money coming in so you don't get stuck with no cash when you need it. [ CORN ] Cost per bag: 40G Days to grow: 9 days / 2 days Cost to sell: 300G / 150G / 105G Harvesting Calendar: 9 - 11 - 13 - 15 - 17 - 19 - 21 - 23 - 25 - 27 - 29 Corn is a great money-maker. Don't be fooled by the 20G-higher price tag on cocoa -- because cocoa takes twice as long to renew, you actually ship two corns in the time you ship one cocoa. So comparatively, you are getting 600G to each cocoa's 320G. It will take a long time for your corn to be ready for harvest, so in the meantime, go through a few bags of onions to hold you over. Corn isn't only great for cashing in on -- it's good for feeding your chickens! Now, don't go giving a chicken a whole ear of corn. Get a windmill by having Woody build you one. Throw one of your corns into the windmill and your chicken coop will be stocked with more feed! While it is more expensive than just buying the chicken feed, some people think that chickens like homemade feed better than store-bought feed. Also, you can always keep a couple ears of corn in your fridge incase you need to buy more feed on a day when Hank's store is closed or you didn't get around to feeding your animals until night time. [ TOMATOES ] Cost per bag: 50G Days to grow: 8 days / 4 days Cost to sell: 150G Harvesting Calendar: 8 - 12 - 16 - 20 - 24 - 28 Tomatoes are not going to be your big cash crop of Summer. They may take one day less for their first harvest, but the four-day renewal along with their selling price being half that of corn makes tomatoes a lousy flop. In the time it takes to renew the tomatoes after each harvest, you could have just planted a bag of onions: the added 30G from just one onion already makes more than what you paid for the onion bag, so it's cheaper to just keep buying onion bags instead of planting tomatoes. Some people may be enticed by tomatoes keeping the 150G sale price at the low quality level and choose them over corn, which only goes for 105G. Remember, though, that corn renews every two days, making you get two corns to one tomato, and 210G is better than 150G. Add that to the tomatoes' rediculously overpriced seed price, and you've got one of the worst cash crops in this version of Harvest Moon. You're actually better off selling Pinkcat flowers. Tomatoes aren't useless, however. You can keep them around to eat so you can keep your stamina up for the rest of your summer crops; you should have a lot of corn planted. You can also give your tomatoes to Nami. Since Nami is only around in the summer, giving her this crop that she loves is great for getting her hearts up in the short amount of time that you can see her. [ COCOA ] Cost per bag: 50G Days to grow: 9 days / 4 days Cost to sell: 320G / 160G / 112G Harvesting Calendar: 9 - 13 - 17 - 21 - 25- 29 Cocoa is tricky by looking like it would be the best selling crop of the Summer, but the truth is you're better of with corn. Since corn can renew twice in the time it takes cocoa to renew, you're looking at making a lot more money by sticking with corn. Cocoa has one good use though: sweets. By mixing in cocoa to many recepies, you can create a chocolate version. This is better as a gift, and it also renews even more stamina in most cases. Cocoa is a great cooking product, and you'll need it for all the best sweets. ---< C. Fall Crops >----------------------------------------------------------- Fall has six different crops for you to work with. They're a lot more similar this time around, so experienced players have to work hard to make the right choices on which crops to grow. If you need help, refer to this section for a tip on each crop! [ YAMS ] Cost per bag: 30G Days to grow: 6 Days Cost to sell: 80G Planting Calendar : 1 - 6 - 12 - 18 - 24 Harvesting Calendar: 6 - 12 - 16 - 24 - 30 Yams only sell for 80G, which makes them a big waste of time. You can use them in cooking or as gifts, but there is no real good use for yams. I would stay away from them for the most part. Of course, you should ship at least one yam to get it on your list of shipped items. [ BELL PEPPERS ] Cost per bag: 40G Days to grow: 5 days / 3 days Cost to sell: 140G / 70G / 49G Harvesting Calendar: 5 - 8 - 11 - 14 - 17 - 20 - 23 - 26 - 29 Bell peppers, like yams, aren't exactly a big money-maker. Again, just grow them if you need them for a recipe or gift and to get them on your list of shipped items, but if you're just looking for some autumn G in your pocket, don't look into peppers. Eggplants take only one day more for the first growth, and they still give you the same number of harvests per season, but each eggplant will sell for 100G more than a bell pepper will. [ CARROTS ] Cost per bag: 40G Days to grow: 5 days Cost to sell: 220G / 110G / 77G Planting Calendar : 1 - 5 - 10 - 15 - 20 - 25 Harvesting Calendar: 5 - 10 - 15 - 20 - 25 - 30 Because carrots aren't renewable, their 220G selling tag isn't as worthy as it seems. They fall below eggplants in value by a lot. It's still a good idea to plant some in the beginning of Fall to get a good boost of money right before your eggplants grow, but if you're wanting a bigger boost, you might go with spinach instead. Later, carrots make a good gift to Henry, who you will need to befriend in order to get a musical note for your collection. For money reasons, though, you won't find carrots to be too useful. [ EGGPLANTS ] Cost per bag: 40G Days to grow: 6 days / 3 days Cost to sell: 240G / 120G / 84G Harvesting Calendar: 6 - 9 - 12 - 15 - 18 - 21 - 24 - 27 - 30 If you plant eggplants on the first day of Fall, you'll get in the last harvest on the final day, giving you a grand total of 9 harvests in the season, which means lots of profit from the 40G you paid for the bag. I reccommend planting a lot of eggplant, since it is by far the most profitable crop of Fall. Eggplants can also be thrown into the Pot in your kitchen to create a stewed eggplant, which recovers a pretty decent amount of stamina: the perfect thing for slaving over the many, many eggplants in your field. [ SPINACH ] Cost per bag: 40G Days to grow: 5 days Cost to sell: 260G / 130G / 91G Planting Calendar : 1 - 5 - 10 - 15 - 20 - 25 Harvesting Calendar: 5 - 10 - 15 - 20 - 25 - 30 While all the crops in Fall are inferior to eggplants, spinach isn't as bad as some of the Fall crops like yams. Better than carrots, spinach is good for a quick money boost in 5 days. I liked using them as a gift for Maria. [ PUMPKINS ] Cost per bag: 70G Days to grow: 8 days Cost to sell: 360G / 180G / 126G Planting Calendar : 1 - 8 - 16 Harvesting Calendar: 8 - 16 - 24 Pumpkins are appealing with the 360G selling rate, but they take 8 days to grow and do not renew. You're a lot better off skipping over them for most of the season and just worrying about eggplants, but it's nice to grow a few bags in the beginning of the season to get a big boost in money during the second week. Also, you'll want to have a pumpkin during the last week of Fall, because in order for the Pumpkin Festival to take place, you'll have to donate a pumpkin to the blue box in the square sometime during the week leading up to the festival. ---< D. Crop Comparison >------------------------------------------------------ The following charts are made for quick reference about making money with the crops. These charts are based on a hypothetical situation of planting the maximum amount of times in one 3x3 square of high quality soil in a season. To achieve this for non-renewable crops, you'll have to plant again on the same day of the harvest. Renewable crops take into consideration that you will only be able to harvest 9 crops on one of the harvest days and 8 on the others. The sections of the chart denote the following: GAIN : Amount of money gained per season per 3x3 continuous set. LOSS : Amount of money spent on seeds per season to keep up the 3x3. PROFIT: Amount of money profited after subtracting loss from gain. All of these charts list the crops from MOST to LEAST profitable. So, the best money-making crops are at the tops of each chart. Looking for the best way to make money in a season? Look at the first entry in the season you're in. Make sure you start your growing on the 1st of the season to guarantee the best profits. ______________ / SPRING CROPS \ .---------------------------------------. | CROP | GAIN | LOSS | PROFIT | |------------|--------|--------|--------| | Strawberry | 38800G | 300G | 38500G | |------------|--------|--------|--------| | Breadfruit | 29100G | 60G | 29040G | |------------|--------|--------|--------| | Cabbage | 12240G | 160G | 12080G | |------------|--------|--------|--------| | Turnip | 11340G | 140G | 11200G | |------------|--------|--------|--------| | Potato | 4500G | 150G | 4350G | .---------------------------------------. ______________ / SUMMER CROPS \ .---------------------------------------. | CROP | GAIN | LOSS | PROFIT | |------------|--------|--------|--------| | Corn | 26700G | 40G | 26660G | |------------|--------|--------|--------| | Cocoa | 15680G | 50G | 15630G | |------------|--------|--------|--------| | Onion | 11340G | 140G | 11200G | |------------|--------|--------|--------| | Tomato | 7350G | 50G | 7300G | .------------|--------|--------|--------. ____________ / FALL CROPS \ .---------------------------------------. | CROP | GAIN | LOSS | PROFIT | |------------|--------|--------|--------| | Eggplant | 17520G | 40G | 17480G | |------------|--------|--------|--------| | Spinach | 14040G | 240G | 13800G | |------------|--------|--------|--------| | Carrot | 11880G | 240G | 11640G | |------------|--------|--------|--------| | BellPepper | 10220G | 40G | 10180G | |------------|--------|--------|--------| | Pumpkin | 9720G | 210G | 9510G | |------------|--------|--------|--------| | Yam | 3600G | 150G | 3450G | .------------|--------|--------|--------. ******************************************************************************* ****** III. Flowers *********************************************************** ******************************************************************************* Flowers are planted the same way that crops are planted. The thing about flowers, is, however, you might decide to plant them in different formations. Flowers are good for decorating: make your yard around your house look nice, or put rows of flowers on public property. Plant flowers in interesting designs around the trees you have planted. Flowers don't sell for much, so they're not exactly something you should be planting as a cash crop. They do, however, benefit you in other ways, like the decorative way I suggested above. Flowers make great gifts. Just about all the girls in town like each type of flower. Shipping flowers, not for profit, counts as shipping a gift, and this can lead to the opening of a gift shop in your town. You'll need to ship a flower in the week leading up to the Flower Festival in order to make sure the event is held. You can use flowers as a dye in your dye pot. Also note that if you grow flowers, they will wilt and become a useless trash item called "dead grass" if you let them sit too long. You can continue watering them to help them live longer, but they will eventually die. It's best to ship your flowers halfway through the season and then start new ones again. Here is a look at the two flower types you can raise: [ MOONDROP ] Season: Spring Cost per bag: 20G Days to grow: 5 days Cost to sell: 40G [ PINKCAT ] Season: Summer Cost per bag: 20G Days to grow: 6 days Cost to sell: 150G ******************************************************************************* ****** IV. Herbs ************************************************************** ******************************************************************************* Herbs are also planted like crops, much like flowers are. Herbs, also like flowers, are not big money-making plants, so don't plant a lot if you're looking to make a lot of money. There are many reasons to plant herbs outside of money-making, however. Alex will expand his business if you ship enough herbs, so it's very reccommended to ship 30 or more herbs during your first year. This will allow you to have Gina and Dia in your town by the first year, instead of waiting through the winter and trying to get them in the Spring again. Herbs are also good for dying yarn. Each color of herb makes a different color of yarn; however, there are only two colors of herbs you can actually grow yourself. You'll have to find the rest of the colors by foraging in the mountain. Cooking with herbs allows you to create some unique dishes, and they are also an important ingredient in medicines. While the best restoring food is made with toadstools, medicines are still good for restoring your health. I'd stick with the sauteed toadstools, however; they give you 100% restoration. Here is a look at the two herb types you can raise: [ GREEN HERB ] Season: Spring Cost per bag: 20G Days to grow: 4 days Cost to sell: 100G [ ORANGE HERB ] Season: Fall Cost per bag: 20G Days to grow: 4 days Cost to sell: 130G ******************************************************************************* ****** V. Trees *************************************************************** ******************************************************************************* Planting trees is quite different than planting crops, flowers, or herbs. The benefits of trees are different, too. The evergreens have no benefit, mora trees will have truffles buried near them, and the other four trees will drop fruits (or chestnuts) during their season. The problem with this is, fruits drop at a pretty rare rate. You could go an entire season with only getting a couple of fruits per tree. I have three orange trees in my yard by my house, and I think I only got two oranges this past summer total. However, there is one good use for trees: gaining hearts for the villiagers! If you plant a tree in public land (green-marked land by pressing Z) you will hear a cheer for you and a smiley face will appear. This means that the heart level of the villiagers has increased (it is the opposite of when you throw trash on public grounds). It won't raise anyone by a full heart, but if you plant enough trees you could get one heart in every villiager who was outside. Try planting around ten trees at once and watch the hearts go! ---< A. Sapling Planting >----------------------------------------------------- Planting a tree is unlike planting crops, flowers, and herbs. You will only have one sapling, and it is used like a hold item rather than like a tool. You will get it out and drop it to the space in front of you just as you do with things when you throw them in the shipping bin; however, you're not going to ship it, you're going to put it in the ground. To plant your sapling, you will need a 3x3 square. You only need to till the center square in this 3x3, but all of the other eight squares surrounding the sapling must be empty, and also must be able to be tilled if you were to till them. The best way to ensure that your tree will grow is to till a 3x3 square and plant your sapling in the center square. If you still want to spare your energy and till only the center square, make sure the surrounding eight squares are only empty land. They should not contain rocks, stumps, roads, water, ledges, weeds, or anything else. If you could till them at the very second you plant the tree, it is a safe spot to plant. To keep your sapling alive and well and growing into a full tree, you need to keep up with it. If a week or something appears in one of the 8 surrounding spaces while it is still a sapling, pick it up. Leaving it there may stunt its growth. Also, do not hit it with any tools. You do not need to water your baby tree in order for it to grow. For added safety, try not to plant your tree in low quality soil. If you take good care of your tree, you will see a full- grown, healthy tree after your wait! If you don't, your tree will wither away and die. Once your tree is fully grown, it will stay with you year-round and give you its bounty during its season. Also note that even once a tree grows up, the eight spaces around it will be used for the fruits or chestnuts to drop into, and in the case of the mora trees, these spaces will be used for the truffles to be buried. If you plant another tree so that these surrounding spaces overlap with a current tree (or plant two trees with overlapping surrounding spaces), you could not only stunt the trees' growths, but you are also lowering your chances of fruit/chestnut appearances incase the randomizer decides to drop two things in the same space: only one would appear. Planting your own trees is fun, though it is not required. The trees all over the village and mountian are all the same trees you can plant. The smaller trees are the fruit trees and the bigger ones are the other three types. Even though there is not much benefit to trees, I suggest planting them anyway, especially in public property. If you're desperate for truffles, you should go get a ton of Mora saplings and plant them near each other (making sure their surrounding eight spaces do not overlap) so you have a better chance of finding truffles. ---< B. Tree Types >----------------------------------------------------------- There are six types of trees for you to plant. Each is unique, so here is a run-down of each tree type and the things you can gain from planting them: [ ORANGE ] Sapling price: 360G Benefit: Drops oranges that sell for 200G each in the summer Days to grow: 6 days [ APPLE ] Sapling price: 380G Benefit: Drops apples that sell for 300G each in the fall Days to grow: 7 days [ GRAPE ] Sapling price: 370G Benefit: Drops grapes that sell for 220G each in the fall Days to grow: 7 days [ CHESTNUT ] Sapling price: 350G Benefit: Drops chestnuts that sell for 50G each in the fall Days to grow: 20 days [ MORA ] Sapling price: 350G Benefit: Can find truffles buried in its perimeter Days to grow: 20 days [ EVERGREEN ] Sapling price: 300G Benefit: Decoration; looks different from the other trees Days to grow: 20 days ******************************************************************************* ****** VI. Grass ************************************************************** ******************************************************************************* Grass is the easiest of all plants to grow. It requires no watering or care, and it grows on its own. Walking on it will not hurt it, though you can trip over it when it gets long. The purpose to planting grass, besides decoration if you want it, is for feeding animals. Cows, sheep, and horses eat your grass, whether it is in the form of cut grass (fodder) or the live grass (grazing). Grass seeds cost 50G at Liz's shop, and you can purchase and plant them in every season except winter. During winter, all of your grass dies, and you must buy new grass and plant it all over again at the start of the next year. Grass seeds are much like the other seed bags: they will spread over a 3x3 square and make 9 units of grass. Since you can walk on it, there is no need to leave holes as with crops, so you should always plant it in a 3x3 square unless you are filling in the corner of a fenced-in area or something. Once you've planted your grass, all you can do to take care of it is watch it grow, and when it gets too long, you can cut it. You don't need to cut grass, but it prevents you from tripping over it, and most importantly, each unit of grass that you cut adds one unit of fodder to your fodder silo. Spending 50G on one bag of grass will benefit you even after cutting it just once, instead of buying fodder spereately at 30G per unit. One cutting of a 3x3 square saves you 190G, and then each time you cut it after that, you're saving 270G in fodder purchasing. Also, one cutting of a 3x3 of grass can feed a full barn of animals for a day or a single animal for over a week. Grass is definitely more beneficial than purchasing fodder, however, if you don't plant a lot at once, you may run out while you wait for it to grow. You'll probably start your livestock off with eating store-bought fodder unless you plant grass early in the game. I actually reccommend planting grass early on. Since you can plant on any public property, choose where you want to raise livestock later (I chose the beach property since I could put a lot of grass there and give the animals room to graze, though I don't really let them graze much because it is too much of a hassle, and hand-feeding is very sufficient). Grow a lot of grass in that area and cut it now and then. By the time you buy that land and put a barn there, you will have plenty of grass and cut fodder to feed your new cow, sheep, or horse. Note that chickens eat bird food that is created from corn, not grass. ******************************************************************************* ****** VII. FAQ *************************************************************** ******************************************************************************* Here is where I will post questions that are asked to me through email, questions that I see show up on the boards, and questions that I think many people may ask. The more questions you ask, the bigger and better this section will grow. Feel free to email me (nesseggman@yahoo.com) with any questions you may have. I will try to give you a detailed and useful response. I also will post the question here so other people wondering the same thing can find the answer. So, here we go~! Q: What crop should I plant on the first day? A: This really depends on your goal. If your goal is to make lots of money, you might want to plant breadfruits. If your goal is to make money later, you might want to start with some turnips and cabbages and try to unlock the strawberries. If your goal is to make friends and get married, you will want to plant crops that the villiagers you like will like as gifts. See the General Crops section for more info on each crop. I may later add tips on which villiagers like which crops. Q: How do I find the truffles?! A: Truffles are very rare, so if you are not finding them, just keep searching. It is best to try during the fall. You have to hoe the eight immediate spaces surrounding the mora trees. If you have a pet pig, he can help you by sniffing out the truffles. Just drop him near some mora trees, and he may start sniffing a spot! If he finds it, pick him up and use your hoe on the space he was sniffing. I'm not sure if you can find truffles year round, so try in the fall. Some people say that the pig can find and dig up truffles during the winter, but I haven't confirmed this, so you can try that too and tell me if it works for you. Q: My tree died!!!!!!! / I can't get the trees to live!!! A: Keep trying. Trees are fickle. Read the Sapling Planting section of this guide to ensure you are keeping your tree in the healthiest environment for it to grow up safely and strong. Q: My trees are not dropping fruits. A: Be patient and wait out the whole season. There is also a chance that they will drop no fruits at all. It's rare for them to give a bounty of 0 fruits, but it can happen. Q: Can you find truffles without the pig? A: Sure. It's about equally time consuming as carrying your pig around to just hoe all the squares around your mora trees, unless you have a ton right next to each other, then the pig is probably a good idea. Either way, it's really just up to how much you like the pig. Q: I'm having trouble jumping over my crops :( A: You can only jump over a crop if you have picked the crop. Crops that are ready to be harvested cannot be jumped. Also, holding a crop in your hand increases the chance that you won't get "stuck in the wedges" between crops and will make a quick jump. If there is another jumpable crop behind it, holding a crop reduces your speed and lessens your chance of jumping two crops in a row when you only wanted to jump one. Q: How do you get the strawberries? A: After shipping 50 cabbages, Liz will begin selling the seeds in her shop. You can also chance it by getting one of the grab bags to see if any strawberries pop out... but you also get grass seeds in there, so it is pretty annoying to remove the grass later. Q: How do you remove grass? A: If you planted grass that you no longer want, cut it so that it is at its smallest height and then drop a rock or stake on it, or try pounding it with your hammer. I am not sure if the hammer works, so if someone tries it, please tell me. Q: How do you remove trees? A: To chop down a tree, you must hit it with your axe. It will take many swings of your axe to chop it down, and you can use any level of axe. So just stand next to the tree and start chopping until it has fallen down. This is the only way to remove a tree. Removing too many trees on public property may hurt your affection level of villiagers. (*THANK YOU* to Neiko_Tejeha for this question idea and rosebabykiss for the proper answer) Q: I planted seeds, and they were fine, but the next day they were gone! Why? A: If you plant seeds on a rainy day, they could get washed away overnight. It is best to plant on sunny or cloudy days, but the chance of seeds washing away doesn't seem too bad. Also, if you walk on your seeds a lot, you may trample them to death, just like stomping on the saplings. Q: How do I do some fishing/livestock/mining/cooking/etc. thing? A: While the answers for questions outside of crops will not appear in this guide, feel free to ask me any questions about any aspect of this game. While I don't know every single last thing, I have gotten far in this game and I'm prepared for any questions you may have! Also, this guide is the first of many I have planned, as I want to do many in-depth guides for Magical Melody. If you would like to request that I do a certain guide next, feel free. My current next goal is a mining or livestock guide, so if you would like to see something different, please ask. And I will include any non-crop questions in the other guides for those topics when I make them, if that is a topic I plan on making a guide for. ******************************************************************************* ****** VIII. Updates ********************************************************** ******************************************************************************* v1.12- (08/20/06) Added question about seeds disappearing. Added the rain factor to the sewing & planting section. v1.10- (08/10/06) Added question about removing trees to the FAQ section. Added the UPDATES section. Added credit to Neiko_Tejeha and rosebabykiss Changed the contact info a bit. v1.00- (08/04/06) First posting of the guide! ******************************************************************************* ****** IX. Legal Disclaimer, etc. ******************************************* ******************************************************************************* These characters, titles, etc. are not mine, obviously, as I never claimed they were. This guide, however, is mine and cannot be used without my permission, punishable by law. Do not use any part of this faq for your own use without BOTH permission AND credit. I spent a lot of time (and going through three copies of the game since you can't erase game data) to figure some of this out. So in other words, you can have a personal copy, but it cannot be used for ANY other reason except for personal use. If you would like to distibute, post, or do ANYTHING else publicly with this document, you MUST HAVE my permission. Currently, the only permission to use this guide is given to gamefaqs.com and ign.com (gamespot is also part of gamefaqs as far as permission). / \ \ / You can contact me through my email at nesseggman@yahoo.com. Please put SOMETHING in the subject. Something with no subject, I will probably skip over and it may take me a while to get around to reading it. Don't worry, I won't delete your emails just because it doesn't have some exact title that I want it to have. Please send me feedback! I love hearing what you have to say so I can continue to improve and write. I write these with the intent on helping others, so if you feel like I could do better, please tell me! If you feel like I'm doing a good job, motivational mail wouldn't be bad either. Keep farming! <> <> <*> <> <> <><>SPECIAL THANKS!<><> <> <> <-> <> <> Thanks for reading! Much thanks to Marvelous Interactive for the creation of Harvest Moon and to Natsume and Rising Star for bringing it out of Japan. Lots of thanks to the Harvest Moon board and Wolfire for his great FAQ coming along for this game. Thanks to Kasumi and Pix for also playing this game and sharing experiences like getting notes and other game tips. And thanks to all Harvest Moon fans who help keep this wonderful series alive! Special thanks for the people who contributed information and ideas: Neiko_Tejeha rosebabykiss R. Beltran