Surefire way to grow grass for hay?

[orbajo]

I remember in older Harvest Moon games you could plant grass like a crop and water it, but there doesn't seem to be a way to do that in this one. Grass starter has a deceiving title, you just put it down and it's there. Also, I have cleared out everything from the farm below the greenhouse and such and NO GRASS EVER GROWS. Is there a better way to grow it that I'm missing? My second winter is coming and I have like no hay in my silo and I have 9 animals currently. Any help is appreciated.

[Mackenzie]

I hear watering the grass makes it grow faster but I have no proof of that. Otherwise just plant the grass every 2 or 3 tiles in a pattern and then each tile only has to spread once to double the starter grass value. It will spread with time. Relying on newly spawning grass isn't all that reliable.

[Petrothian]

and dont harvest everything at all once, leave some for it to spread.

[orbajo]

Nice to see you again, Mackenzie lol... So if I place it outside of the fenced area for my animals and leave it it will multiply? I've been putting it inside the fence like an idiot, it appears...

[mcsproot]

Grass will grow over time. I think I read that each piece of grass will grow a new grass piece every day if it has the space to do so.

So once you have a large field to harvest, don't cut it all but cut some areas around the edge and the middle, so it has more opportunity to grow.

[orbajo]

Gotcha, thanks for the help

[Hoshiro]

I just get like six grass starters and plant them in open areas that are close but spread apart for them to grow. They grow like wildfire if left alone for a few days

[Magic Mike]

Grass CAN grow inside fences, I have a small fenced area outside my barns and I can confirm that Grass starters are able to grow there. The thing that doesn't grow inside fences are supposed to be "wild nature" aka random herb, stones, branches, and spontaneous common trees and grass.

Grass harvesting is one of those unclear stuffs that are ingame, how I place them and it seems to work is thinking the area where you want to cover with Grass like a square (or circle if you want to) so place around 6 to 9 starters evenly of what should be the heart or center of that area, leaving like 4 spaces between each starter. Also when you have an even area covered with Grass I cut it like in small chunks (lets say 2x2 tiles chunks) within the area leaving something like a "spotted pattern", only time when I cut it from the outline of the big even areas is when the grass mass already reached a limit like flooring, trees, barns, etc.

[ThatChickWithTheRabbit]

Originally posted by Magic Mike:

The thing that doesn't grow inside fences are supposed to be "wild nature" aka random herb, stones, branches, and spontaneous common trees and grass.

I'm going to assume that's only the case if the area is completely enclosed. I use the bottom-right boundry of my farm as part of my 'fence', and I still get trees, branches, stones, etc. I don't mind it that much, actually. It's still 90% grass, and giant mushrooms keep popping up in that spot. My pigs will be thrilled when I finally get them! XD