Farming
Harvests 18 configured crop blocks that regrow, supplying Cooking, Herblore and Crafting with flax, wheat, fruit and vegetables.
Farming here is a gathering skill, not a planting one. Crops grow in fixed patches around the world and you harvest them where they stand. What you pull out is either food you can eat raw, and the better crops heal as much as a mid-tier cooked fish, or the ingredient list for Cooking's best recipes: wheat for dough, tomatoes for pizza bases, and cabbage, beetroot, potato and corn for salad. Flax is the odd one out and goes to Crafting as string.
Level 1 to 120
One long harvest that gets faster as you go. Bananas and melons at 1, flax at 5 and wheat at 9 start you off, then pumpkins at 12, cabbages at 16 and strawberries at 20. Carrots at 30, beetroot at 40, potatoes at 45 and apples at 50 follow. Lemons at 60, tomatoes at 70, sugar cane at 80 and corn at 90 finish the list and carry you to 120. Every level shaves time off each pull, and a better tool shaves off more.
- Bananas, melons and flax 1 to 12
Bananas (6 XP) hang from jungle trees and melons (9 XP) are open from level 1 as well. Flax follows at 5 for 10 XP and wheat at 9 for 12 XP. Buy a pair of secateurs from any farmer the moment you reach 10.
- Pumpkins, cabbages and strawberries 12 to 30
Pumpkin at 12 (14 XP), cabbage at 16 (15 XP) and strawberry at 20 (17 XP), with redberries also open from 10. None of them is worth much on its own, so take whichever patch is nearest and keep pulling.
- Carrots and beetroot 30 to 45
Carrots at 30 are worth 25 XP and beetroot at 40 is worth 35 XP. Shears unlock at 30 and are a clear step up from secateurs, so pick a pair up before you settle into this stretch.
- Potatoes and apples 45 to 60
Potatoes at 45 give 41 XP, and apples at 50 give 48 XP and are picked from apple trees rather than the ground. Magic secateurs need Farming 45 to use and are faster again than shears. They come from Fairytale I, which itself asks for Farming 31 and Crafting 36.
- Lemons and tomatoes 60 to 80
Lemons at 60 are worth 56 XP and tomatoes at 70 are worth 65 XP. Level 60 also unlocks the hoe, the fastest farming tool in the game, which roughly halves every harvest. Bank the tomatoes: every pizza starts with one.
- Sugar cane and corn 80 to 120
Sugar cane at 80 gives 75 XP and corn at 90 gives 85 XP, and corn is the last crop the skill has. Corn is also the ingredient bottleneck for the best cooking recipes, so the long run to 120 stocks your Cooking at the same time.
The tool ladder
Any item in your hand will harvest a crop, but a proper farming tool cuts the timer: secateurs at 10, shears at 30, magic secateurs at 45 and the hoe at 60, each faster than the last, with the hoe roughly halving the pull.
Secateurs, shears and magic secateurs also speed up picking herbs. Farmers sell secateurs and shears, and shears and the hoe can both be crafted, at Crafting 30 and 60.
Quests that touch Farming
From Flax to String is what teaches you to spin flax at all, and pays 100 Farming XP on the way. Fairytale I rewards 3500 Farming XP and hands you the magic secateurs. Fairytale II needs Farming 49 and opens star flowers.
Nature Spirit is what makes Mort Myre fungus harvestable.
What it feeds
Cooking is the main customer. Wheat becomes dough and then bread and every pie, tomatoes become pizza bases, and cabbage, tomato, beetroot, potato and corn together make the salad that is the fastest cooking XP in the game.
Raw crops are food in their own right and need no fire. Corn restores 180, sugar cane 140 and tomatoes 135, which puts corn level with a cooked monkfish.
Worth knowing
- You cannot harvest while anything is fighting you, so clear the patch before you start pulling.
- A marker appears on the crop as you harvest it. Keep your crosshair on it each second and you earn up to a quarter more XP for that pull.
- Crops grow back, so a dense patch beats a lone high-level plant every time. If you cannot find one, look for the farmers: they stand in the fields around Lumbridge, Draynor, Rimmington and Falador, and at Catherby and Yanille.
- The Farming cape harvests a fifth faster, and the bonus applies to herbs as well as crops.
The full table
XP is shown wherever it is fixed.
