Palia Farming (Gardening) Guide: Everything You Need to Know

Gardening in Palia is one of the most essential skills. It levels up relatively slowly and is more challenging compared to others, but it provides you with a near-passive source of food and gold. In this brief guide, I will tell you everything I know about gardening in Palia.

How to Obtain Soils and Place Them on Your Property

Soils can be purchased for gold from NPC Badruu, who resides on the farm near Leafhopper Hills to the west of Kilima Village.

Each subsequent Soil will cost more than the previous one. There is also a limit to the number of soils you can place. At the time of writing this guide, you can have a maximum of 9 soils (at least in my case).

After purchasing soils, you should assign them to your quick-access panel (1-8) and place them in the desired location, just like any other item. Don’t worry about the placement of your soils – you can move them around after placement, even if plants are already growing in them.

How to Obtain Seeds and Fertilizers

Seeds and fertilizers can be purchased for gold at the General Store located in Kilima Village. Some seeds can also be acquired from NPC Badruu.

Sometimes, you will receive seeds as rewards for completing certain quests. The primary source of seeds is their production from fruits using Seed Makers.

To craft fertilizers, you will need to purchase the recipe from NPC Badruu. To produce fertilizers, you’ll have to build a Worm Farm on your property. The Worm Farm allows you to produce worms for fishing, as well as QualityUp Fertilizer.

How to Plant and Fertilize Plants Properly

First, you need to craft a Hoe and a Watering Can (recipes are also available from NPC Badruu).

The first step is to prepare your garden beds. To do this, equip the Hoe (use the radial tool menu “R“), hold the left mouse button, and move the Hoe over the Soil surface until planting cells are formed.

Afterward, select seeds from your quick-access panel (1-8), hover your cursor over a cell, and plant the seed. Some plants occupy only one cell, while others take up four.

When planting, consider the individual bonuses that plants provide to neighboring cells. For instance, tomatoes reduce the water consumption of plants in adjacent cells, which means you need to water them less frequently. With this in mind, it makes sense to plant crops in a “chessboard” pattern to benefit from these bonuses.

By hovering your cursor over any of your plants and pressing “G” (Examine), you can check the modifiers affecting each planted crop at the moment.

In Palia, garden crops only grow when they are hydrated. As soon as the soil dries out, plants stop growing and require watering again. To water your plants, equip the Watering Can and fill it with water (right mouse button) from a small water source on your property.

Water your garden beds until the corresponding blue gauge is filled. Initially, this may be a bit tiring, but in the future, you can upgrade your Watering Can, significantly speeding up the process.

Now, it’s time to fertilize the plants. In Palia, there are several types of fertilizers:

• QualityUp Fertilizer (produced in the Worm Farm) – increases the quality of the plant (star-rated harvest; starred items in Palia are of higher quality, more efficient, and sell for higher prices).
  
• HydratePro Fertilizer (purchased at the General Store) – the plant won’t require water the next day, reducing the need for watering.
  
• WeedBlock Fertilizer (purchased at the General Store) – prevents weed growth in the cell with the plant.
  
• HarvestBoost Fertilizer (purchased from NPC Badruu) – increases the yield.
  
• SpeedyGro Fertilizer (purchased from NPC Badruu) – doubles the plant’s growth rate.
  

You can use only one type of fertilizer on each individual cell at a time. The fertilizer’s effect will also be displayed in the “Examine” (G) interface.

That’s why it’s essential to always check the effects on each individual plant. If the fertilizer’s effect duplicates what the plant gets from neighboring crops, you’ll simply waste that fertilizer.

Growing Plants and Harvesting

After planting, watering, and fertilizing the plant, all that’s left is to wait for it to grow. Different plants have varying growth rates (the speed is indicated in the in-game seed description): some take 5 days, while others take 3 days.

Your task is to ensure timely watering of your garden. The watering status of beds refreshes once per in-game day (at least as far as I understand).

If weeds appear in your garden (they are also visible visually), you can remove them by interacting with the cell to prevent them from hindering plant growth.

When a plant grows and ripens (this is also easily visible visually), the “Harvest” option will be active when you hover your cursor over it.

Some plants (such as berries, tomatoes, and peppers) yield harvests for several cycles before disappearing. This means you won’t have to replant them after each harvest.

Efficient Use of Harvest

To maximize your profit from the harvest, I recommend using the fruits to prepare food and then selling the prepared dishes. Specifically, use starred fruits (higher quality) to make starred food (which will sell for more and provide more Focus when consumed).

This way, you simultaneously level up Gardening and Cooking while earning gold. A cooking guide for Palia will be available on the website very soon…