Guide:Gardening

Gardening is the practice of intentionally spawning resources in a convenient area for harvest. There are several Plants that can be successfully grown in gardens in Terraria.

To grow many items you'll first need to collect seeds. Ordinary grass and corruption spread fairly quickly, though grass requiring mud, like Glowing Mushroom and Jungle, is rather slow. Planting multiple seeds spread throughout the farm is advisable in those cases. Only one tree will grow per acorn planted. All mushrooms grow more abundantly when you trim the weeds often.

You'll then need to prepare the appropriate environment.

Potion and Seed Farm
A well planned seed garden will help cultivate the plants used to create a variety of potions. The individual seeds are listed above including soil type, harvest conditions, and special instructions. A good design can be easily expanded as needed.

There are 2 methods of growing herbs, Clay Pots and Soil planting. Soil farming is far faster than Clay pot farming, but not as precise when only gathering single plants (which if your garden is sufficient in size, you don't need to do anyways). Harvesting Clay Pots also has the added disadvantage of requiring a seperate pickaxe to be used to harvest (or risk tearing out 1/2 the area with a drax, ripping out platforms, background walls, pots, etc., along with the herb).

Both methods are viable farming techniques, but each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Growing plants inside pots makes for precise harvesting, but is very very slow to harvest by comparison. Plants on soil can be harvested by simply running through with weapon swinging or use of a Dart trap to cut all plants at once.

When using soil planting, the need for harvesting plants is reduced due to the large supply given per yield. Once you start gathering 50-100+ herbs per harvest, having 2-3 out of the lot not fully grown per harvest is far less of an impact on total. If looking to have many spare consumable potions, Soil planting is the only known time efficient method of doing so.

When beginning a soil garden, it is possible to harvest individual plants by using seeds. Placing a seed on a bloomed herb will harvest the herb and recover any seeds dropped, leaving a seedling in its place. This is helpful when you are just starting to use soil planting, need a few herbs, but do not yet have a large stash of seeds. If you don't want to place seeds, you can also equip a campfire and swing it above the plants, but be careful not to place the campfire down. Thus harvesting from soil can be just as accurate as pot farming, but soil farms are still much more vulnerable to accidental harvesting or seedling destruction. (This method of harvesting may only work in single player.)

Space requirements should also be considered, as plants require 2 blocks of clearance using Clay Pots versus 1 block to grow on soil.

To quickly harvest your mushrooms and soil-grown plants, place a dart trap just to the left, on the same level with the plants, and wire a switch to the trap block. When activated, it will instantly uproot all the mushrooms or plants in that row. However, this method does not work on potted plants.

Note: Both of these pictures show Waterleaf blooming while submerged in water. However, this is NOT the case in the current PC version of Terraria, as it only blooms when it is raining, and does not need to be submerged at all.

Trees
A tree farm is usually nothing more than a wide, flat surface where players plant their Acorns. If the tree farm sees heavy use, players might level off the area more carefully. It is possible to layer tree farms, much like mushroom farms, but trees require far more height. Trees only grow as many as 16 blocks high, making this an ideal spacing. (Note that trees generated with the map are often much taller.)

Each sapling should have one empty space on either side of it, as well as an empty space between where the trees will be; underground markers such as torches may be used to make this easier. This means there will be three spaces between each acorn, as the first tree to grow may fill an additional space on either side of its trunk.

By placing a dirt wall inside the layer of grass blocks (not behind the tree, the block below the tree), one can prevent tall grass from spawning, maximizing efficiency. The dirt wall should peek out from behind the grass blocks and be visible behind the tree, but not actually being in the block behind the tree. The dirt wall should be behind every block of grass, not just the one under the tree.

A surface jungle may be more efficient in terms of effort, since the trees grow automatically. All that is required is a large, flat area of mud one block deep with Jungle Grass on the surface. The disadvantage is that it can take quite a while for enough trees to grow. Jungle trees also grow higher, up to 21 blocks, so they contain more wood, but also require more spacing if you wish to layer them. This is also a great way of obtaining green dye. However, keep in mind that surface jungle monsters such as Jungle Slimes, Bats, and Snatchers may spawn.

As of 1.2, the Jungle biome spawns less trees, and more bushes. To counter-act this, build two-block wide segments (two mud blocks and a one block gap, for example); this way, the 3 block wide bushes will not spawn, while trees will continue to spawn. Another way to counter-act this, make a single block deep farm with water. Trees will grow in the water, however bushes will not. The new hardmode mobs are more inconvenient now, however.

Also as of 1.2 Jungle trees yield Rich Mahogany and as such if your goal is to harvest Wood this method will prove ineffectual

Jungle
There are two major resources to gather from a jungle farm, Jungle Grass Seeds and Jungle Spores. Jungles require Mud to grow.


 * Jungle Grass Seeds can be gathered both above ground and underground. The same layered methods used for mushroom farming work well here; be warned that the area will spawn jungle monsters. By creating an open-top area, trees will spontaneously grow, which is good for growing wood but not good for growing grass for seeds.


 * Jungle Spores can only be found underground. Be warned that an underground jungle farm can spawn even more dangerous creatures including Man Eaters and Hornets. Bear in mind that in order to farm Jungle Spores, you need to create your farm in the Cavern layer.

Underground Jungle farms will also occasionally grow Jungle Roses and Nature's Gifts. Additionally, an underwater jungle farm can be created to farm Piranha for Hooks and the rare Robot Hat.

Normal Mushrooms
Normal mushrooms will grow anywhere with normal grass. To make a normal mushroom farm, simply place several layers of dirt with gaps in between. The grass must be naturally lit. A compact farm can produce roughly 10-15 mushrooms per screen per harvest.

Note that vines will grow down from strips of grassy dirt, preventing the growth of mushrooms. To combat this, add a layer of stone (or other non-dirt block) under each layer of dirt. Wooden platforms are an excellent option here since the player can walk through them, allowing layers to be packed more tightly.

Glowing Mushrooms
Glowing Mushrooms are perhaps the most worthwhile thing to intentionally grow. Glowing mushroom farms usually consist of several layers of mud with Mushroom Grass Seeds planted on them. Without the need to weed the farm of normal grass (as is the case with normal mushrooms) the Glowing Mushrooms yield astonishing results. Even a small farm can support a multi-player server with 3-5 players.

A gap tall enough to walk through should be kept between finished rows, for ease of harvesting.

As of the 1.2 Update, Glowing Mushrooms no longer need to be underground in order to grow. Mushroom Grass seeds can be placed on any mud block on any level, and in time, Glowing Mushrooms will grow. If enough Mushroom Grass is planted, the area around them will be converted into a Mushroom Biome, allowing access different enemy types, and large tree-like Mushrooms to grow.

A small garden of this sort goes a long way. One roughly the size of the screen can provide as many as 200 glowing mushrooms in a single harvest - enough for around seven full stacks of potions.

Vile Mushrooms
Vile Mushrooms grow on corrupted grass. Be aware that planted corruption will spread like natural corruption does, but this spread can be controlled using sunflowers, before activating hardmode. If it's close enough to your NPCs, the reduction in enemy spawns will keep anything from showing up. Alternately you can place platforms (on which enemies can't spawn) to prevent them from spawning (see image to the right). Vile mushrooms need to be in an area big enough to dim the sunlight, and they need to be naturally lit as with normal mushrooms above.

If your world is in hardmode, you should take extra care to surround your farm in the hallow, or anything else that can't be corrupted. You can also leave a 4 blocks wide open space to prevent the corruption from spreading. (Note that Thorny Bushes can grow in empty spaces, so you still need a single layer of incorruptible blocks before doing so.

This area may also serve as an arena for fighting the Eater of Worlds or the Destroyer (see below). Note that an area of wooden platforms is recommended for the actual fight, however he may be summoned from within the farm.

Mushroom Farm Layouts
It is possible to create higher yield mushroom farms by placing multiple mushroom layers between harvesting layers. In this sort of layout mushroom layers are stacked between harvesting layers to create a much more efficient farm. A mushroom layer is a layer of mushroom grass followed by a layer of air for Glowing Mushroom, and a layer of stone(or any non-dirt block) followed by a layer of grass followed by a layer of air. A harvesting layer is simply a layer of air 3 blocks high in which the player will go though to harvest their mushrooms.

For an efficient mushroom farm, mushroom layers are stacked 2 high, followed by a harvesting layer, followed by another set of mushroom layers. A glowing mushroom farm follows the same layout, but the mushroom layers can be stacked up to 3 high.

To harvest this type of farm a swinging weapon with a longer reach (such as a broadsword or Muramasa) is suggested as they can easily reach and harvest the in-between mushroom layers. There are many other possible layouts for a high-yield mushroom farm.