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- When Does Farming Unlock?
Though there’s already plenty to see and do in My Time at Sandrock, gardening at your Workshop is essential to creating hearty dishes at your Cooking Stations. The mechanic doesn’t unlock until a little way into the story, but helping repair the Moisture Farm in Sandrock brings your builder into the world of farming.
Stick down straw grids, choose your seed, and harvest your crops to improve your soil quality at the Workshop and broaden your culinary horizons as you do. With several different seeds offering several different ingredient, our guide teaches you how to farm effectively in the desert.
When Does Farming Unlock?
Since you’re doing more building than anything else in My Time at Sandrock, farming is a later-game addition. After you and Mi-an have repaired the stage at the Blue Moon Saloon and helped the town send Mason off in style, you’ll get a morning visit at your Workshop from Matilda.
She explains that Zeke lives up at the Moisture Farm in the northernmost part of Sandrock, and directs you to go pay him a visit. You can either run up there, take your trusty mount, or try out the conveniently located Yakmel station at the Moisture Farm.
This is your introduction to the Yakmel stations if you haven’t used them already on your own, too.
When you arrive at the Moisture Farm, though, you’ll find it under attack by Geeglers. Come prepared to fight – you’ll need to help Zeke fend off a few Geeglers before he’s got time to talk.
Once the monsters have been dispatched, Zeke explains to your builder and the Civil Corps that they’ve broken the hydrogel that’s been keeping the Moisture Farm going, and that without it, growing produce in Sandrock will be all but impossible.
Zeke tells you to commission blueprints from Dr. Qi for new parts, which will run you five Data Discs. We have a full guide on how to rebuild the hydrogel components at your Workshop, so once you’ve done this, bring the Hydrogel Core and Hydrogel Door back to Zeke.
He asks for some time to tidy up, and the following day, he sends you the blueprint for a Basic Planting Kit.
You can make the Planting Kit at your Worktable at your workshop for:
- Three Copper Sticks.
- Six Bronze Bars.
- Three Rubber Tubes.
- Two Old Parts.
Once you’ve got your tools all set, go back to Zeke at the Moisture Farm for a brief farming tutorial. Zeke gives you a farming guide of his own and some Sandrice seeds to get you started.
He tasks you with growing Sandrice for a quest called The Grass is Greener. It’s a main story quest to force your hand in learning to garden in My Time at Sandrock, so grow your Sandrice and bring it to Zeke to conclude the arc.
From here, both the Farm Store at the Moisture Farm and Water World by the Oasis in Sandrock will begin to sell seeds you can plant at home.
More seeds unlock as you progress in the story, so keep checking back to see what you can grow next.
How To Plant Crops
Plant And Water Seeds In Straw Grids
Planting your garden in My Time at Sandrock is a bit more convoluted than other games like it. To begin gardening, simply use your Basic Planting Kit while at your Workshop to begin farming.
After you use the kit for the first time, the gardening function becomes available from the Quick Menu.
The first thing you’ll need to do is build a straw grid. Straw is available from both Zeke and Burgess’ shops, so be sure you’ve got some on hand. It’s one piece of straw per grid you place.
Once your grid is plotted, select the seed bag on the menu at the bottom of the screen. When you’ve got multiple types of seeds, you’re able to cycle through seeds you have on hand or in storage to find the one you’d like to plant.
Choose a seed and plant within the straw grids, but be mindful that some larger crops require more than one straw grid to grow. Items like trees are larger and will need more space at your Workshop.
Depending on the newness of the soil plots, you may immediately see a blue icon above the new plant. This is your reminder that your plants need water. However, you’re growing crops that are pretty stable for a desert, meaning crops don’t need to be watered every day.
Instead, when you check on your plants, you’ll see a blue meter on the plant’s info panel. This is how hydrated the soil is, so be sure there’s always some water in the gauge, or your plants will dry out and wither.
Check your plants regularly to keep an eye on their water levels and growth progress, potentially adding Fertilizer along the way. Before you know it, you’ll be ready to harvest your crops when they’re fully grown.
If the crop is a single-use crop like Sandrice and Wheat, you’re guaranteed to receive at least one crop, but you’ve also got a 50 percent chance to receive a seed for that type of plant as well, helping save money for your next planting cycle.
Most crops are harvested completely, which means you’ll need to replant a straw grid on that plot to plant there again.
However, if you’re harvesting tree crops, you don’t need to worry – these continue to regrow every few days once the tree is fully grown, which continues until you uproot the plant.
Soil Quality And Biocrust
Though you start with dry, desert soil, you can increase the soil quality by planting in the same plot multiple times in a row. When you harvest a fully-grown plant, it will leave behind some of its nutrients, which improves the soil for the next plant.
Better soil retains water and Fertilizer better than lesser soil, so it’s a huge benefit to replant in the same spot when possible to continue improving the soil for later harvests.
After your soil reaches level four in soil quality, that plot will turn into Biocrust. This vastly improved soil allows you to farm without needing straw grids on that particular plot, and it can safely be dug up and replanted elsewhere on the Workshop grounds, if you need to move your garden.
Zeke is also pretty prone to asking for Biocrust on the Commissions Board, but he appears to be the only townsperson who does.
You can save any Biocrust you’re not using, either for future farm builds or for Zeke’s commissions.
Complete Crop List
Below is every seed you can plant in My Time at Sandrock, as well as how long it will take to grow and which crops you can hope to obtain upon harvest.
It’s important to note, though, that crops have seasons during which they grow the best. They’ll still grow outside of these seasons, but the growth rate will be much slower. This guide lists the growing time during their optimal season.
Every Crop In My Time At Sandrock
|
Seed Name |
Seed Price and Location |
Possible Drops |
Best Seasons |
Grow Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
One-Time Seeds that Cost Data Discs to Buy |
||||
|
Cactus Seed |
2 Data Discs/1 Seed (Farm Store or Water World) |
Cactus Fruit Cactus Leaf Cactus Spine |
Year-Round |
6 Days |
|
Pomato Seeds |
Potato Tomato |
Autumn/Spring |
5 Days |
|
|
Sandrice Seed |
1 Data Disc/3 Seeds (Farming Store or Water World) |
Sandrice |
Year-Round |
3 Days |
|
Sand Leek Seed |
Sand Leek |
4 Days |
||
|
Wheat Seed |
Wheat |
Spring/Summer/Autumn |
3 Days |
|
|
One-Time Seeds that Cost Gols to Buy |
||||
|
Jute Cantaloupe Seed |
130 Gols/1 Seed * (Farm Store) |
Cantaloupe Jute |
Summer |
10 Days |
|
Mountain Rose Seed |
65 Gols/1 Seed * (Farm Store) |
Mountain Rose |
Winter/Spring |
7 Days |
|
Rhino Horn Seed |
90 Gols/1 Seed * (Farm Store) |
Rhino Horn Cactus |
Year-Round |
12 Days |
|
Sweet Potato Pepper Seed |
45 Gols/1 Seed * (Farming Store) |
Chili Sweet Potato |
Spring/Summer/Autumn |
8 Days |
|
Tree Seeds |
||||
|
Chestnut Seed |
130 Gols/1 Seed * (Farming Store) |
Chestnut |
Year-Round |
Initial Growth: 20 Days Regrowth: 4 Days |
|
Coffee Tee Tree Seed |
5 Data Discs/1 Seed (Farming Store or Water World) |
Coffee Beans Tea Leaves |
Autumn/Spring |
Initial Growth: 23 Days Regrowth: 5 Days |
Prices marked with an asterisk are charged in Gols instead of Data Discs and are therefore subject to market price fluctuations. These are the average prices for these seeds.