Sims 3: Mastering the Gardening Career

Nothing fancy here. Just a look at how to master the Gardening career path and earn a few Simoleons in the process. I'm assuming that you have Ambitions installed. Otherwise Gardening will be little more than a hobby or sideline to your main career.

Updates

15 January 2016

In my current game, I have a couple of Money Trees and am noticing that the money bags from those ARE counting toward my promotions in the Gardener career (contrary to the Rare and Special section below). This was not happening in earlier games, so either I was experiencing a glitch at the time I wrote this guide or am experiencing one now. In either case, there isn't any good reason to not grow them once you are able to.

On the topic of finding the seeds, my current Sim is a Witch (Supernatural). One of the routines that I used to build her Spellcasting skill was to have her cast Conjure Apple and then repeatedly use the Transformation Ritual (a very low-level spell; available at Skill Level 1 or 2) on it. The spell changes the apple into random collectibles (seeds, insects, gems, minerals). For some reason, I saved all of the Special Seeds and had her plant them when she achieved the appropriate skill level in Gardening. I ended up with Money Trees, Death Flowers, Plasma Fruits, and Life Fruits when all was said and done. I also noticed that once she had raised the plants to Mature, the seeds she produced had a quality indication rather than "Unknown Special Seed".

This is very much like the random spawners in the game world. Once you have produced a Flame Fruit, for example, the seed is no longer Unknown, but a Flame Fruit Seed with a Horrifying, Bad, Normal, Nice, etc. Quality to it.

A note that I've been meaning to include but hadn't because I'd already reached the character limit for that section is that a Fairy (Supernatural) using the "Bloom" power can take a plant from seed to Harvest within a matter of minutes. None of the growth stages get skipped, but they can be compressed into less than one day.

Gardening as a Skill

Gardening is a skill that can be learned by Teens and older. Children cannot Garden, although they can get a head start on a couple of skill levels through other activities, such as Scouting (requires Generations). The skill can be learned by taking a class at the Science Facility, reading a Gardening skill book, or just doing the skill by tending some plants. The Gardening skill book comes in three volumes. Completely reading Volume 1 will get you to Level 3; Volume 2 will get you to Level 6; and Volume 3 will get you all of the way to 10. Like other skill books, you're looking at a few solid days of reading, even with the "Bookworm" trait, to get through all three.

The "Green Thumb" trait gives Sims a boost with learning the skill and doing gardening tasks. Additionally, the Green Thumb trait lets Sims talk to their plants, which fills their Social need and can increase the quality level of the harvest.

Tending to a garden is perhaps the slowest way of advancing the skill. With the Green Thumb trait, it will take about two game weeks with a moderate to large garden to reach Level 10. This can be done with any harvestable plant, so the more plants you have, the faster your skill will develop. But even tending to that single tomato vine next to the back door will do the job; just over a very long time and a few replantings. As your Sim becomes more skilled in Gardening, additional interactions become available.

Level	Ability/Interaction
0	Can plant Common seeds
1	You get some Common seeds in your inventory (randomly chosen and depends on installed Expansion Packs)
2	Can pull weeds; "Tend the Garden" will do this automatically
3	Can use fertilizers (more on that later)
5	Can plant Uncommon seeds
6	Can revive plants (requires Green Thumb trait)
7	Can plant Rare and Special seeds
8	Can plant Cheese and Egg plants (requires completion of an Opportunity)
9	Can plant Burger Patty and Steak plants (requires completion of an Opportunity)
10	Can plant Omni plants (requires completion of an Opportunity) and you get a Certificate of Mastery, already framed, for hanging on your wall.

While you can tend plants and harvest on any lot you can access, you can only plant seeds on lots that you control. So, yeah, while it might be out-of-bounds to go raiding your neighbor's garden in real life, it's perfectly OK for Sims.

There are three Challenges that go wtih the skill:

• Master Planter: must plant 19 different types of plants. It doesn't matter which ones, just that you planted 19 different ones. So 20 tomato plants are only going to count as one plant. Once the challenge is completed, your plants will stay weeded longer.
  
• Botanical Boss: must harvest 75 Perfect specimens (more on quality later). Once the challenge is completed, your plants will not die off from neglect as easily.
  
• Master Farmer: harvest 650 specimens. Once completed, plants will stay watered and fertilized longer.

There are also a couple of Lifetime Wishes that go along with the Gardening Skill:

• Greener Gardens (25,000 Lifetime Reward points): Reach Level 10 in the Gardening Skill and use Bloom 100 times (Bloom is a Fairy power, requiring Supernatural).
  
• The Perfect Garden (32,500 Lifetime Reward points): Grow eight different kinds of Perfect plants.

There are some Lifetime Wishes where Gardening can be helpful:

• Alchemy Artisan (40,000 Lifetuime Rewards points): Reach Level 10 in the Alchemy skill and use 50 Elixirs. Since Alchemy is introduced in Supernatural, you kind of have to have it to even have this wish become available. All of the Elixir recipies require plant ingredients, so growing your own can be a cheap alternative to hoping that what you need shows up at the Alchemy consignment store.
  
• Become a Creature-Robot Cross Breeder (29,000 Lifetime Reward points): Reach Level 9 of the Science career track. The Science career track uses Fishing, Gardening and Handiness to advance.
  
• Bottomless Nectar Cellar (30,000 Lifetime Reward Points): Have at least 50 bottles in your nectar cellar, which must have at least a value ot 50,000 Simoleons. Nectar-Making was introduced with World Adventures. Growing your own grapes and other fruits is handy for making nectar since you just can't count on the neighbors to be growing what you need.
  
• Celebrated Five-Star Chef (30,000 Lifetime Reward Points): Reach Level 10 in the Culinary career track. There are a few opportunities that show up in this career track that require using Perfect ingredients, which you can only get by growing them yourself.

Gardening as a Career

This one is short and simple: you need Ambitions. Gardening is only available as a self-employed career, and self-employment requires Ambitions.

This does not mean that you can't make a living off of gardening, because you can. Just plant, tend, harvest, and sell your produce at the Supermarket or at a Consignment Store. The more you harvest and the better the quality, the more money you will make. Who cares if your Career says, "Unemployed"?

For the self-employment track, you need to register at City Hall as being self-employed. After that, you'll get promoted based upon how much produce you sell. Emphasize "sell"; harvesting stuff from the neighbors' gardens, from the community garden, or from wild plants is perfectly fine and the sales count toward your promotion.

Level	Name	Sales to next Level	Bonus
1	Cucumber Smasher	30
2	Dirt Digger	75
3	Clod Hopper	500
4	Master Weeder	1,000
5	Fertilizer Flinger	2,500	500
6	Bushwhacker	7,500
7	Seed Sewer*	15,000	1,500
8	Famed Farmer	30,000
9	Progeny of the Harvest	60,000	2,500
10	Agricultural Mastermind	---	5,000
	* Gotta love homophones. One sews clothes, but sows seeds.

That's a total of 116,605 Simoleons worth of produce, so plan on a large garden with plants that produce valuable harvests. Money Trees do not, unfortunately, count toward this total, but just about any combination of harvestable plants will work. It really comes down to how much time and effort you are willing to put in to the mix.

Improving Plant Quality

Plants, like the stuff they produce, have a quality attribute. Most seeds you find, produce you buy at the supermarket, stuff you scavenge from neighbor's gardens or find in the wild, etc., will be "Normal" quality. This means that everything about that plant is going to work at base values, unless you do something to change it.

If you take care of a Normal quality plant (feed and water it, keep it weeded, etc.), its produce will be better than the parent plant. That produce can then be planted, tended, watered, weeded, etc., and it will produce better quality harvest than the parent plant. And so forth. The steps up from Normal to Perfect are:

• Normal: 100%
  
• Nice: 110%
  
• Very Nice: 150%
  
• Great: 200%
  
• Excellent: 250%
  
• Outstanding: 300%
  
• Perfect: 400%

The "Super Green Thumb" Lifetime Reward will improve quality by one category two times per plant: once at planting and again at harvest. You buy Normal, but plant Nice and harvest Very Nice, for example. Well worh the points for serious gardeners.

A plant goes through about five life stages: seed, sprout, growing, mature, and harvest. Each of these stages is usually subject to improvement, both in quality and growing time through the use of fertilizers.

One caution on the benefits of fertilizers. If you've ever wondered why your game stutters and lags at about 5:00 a.m., it's because the game is checking and updating every harvestable plant in the neighborhood. Since none of the plant stages can be skipped and the game only updates once per day, none of the plants that go from seed to harvest in four days will benefit from being fertilized, except when it's time to harvest. Aside from that, you can typically improve a plant's quality and shorten its growing time during the sprout and growing stages and you can improve the quality of its produce during maturity and harvest stages.

Garlic is the best fertilizer that is commonly available. It is Excellent quality when purchased from the supermarket, but can be raised to Outstanding or Perfect by a Level 7 or higher Gardening skill (because it's Rare). Life Fruit is an Outstanding fertilizer, even at Normal quality, but it can be a bit hard to come by without doing a lot of scavenging for seeds.

As pointed out by Sir Error in the Comments section, Plumbots with a RoboBotany Gardener trait chip (Into the Future required) fertilize at Outstanding quality and will autonomously tend the garden.

So here is the process of improving some plants from Normal to Perfect. I'll be using Common plants since you can work with them at zero Gardening skill.

Day 1: check the Community Garden to see if anything can be harvested. You're looking for Tomato, Lettuce, or an Apple tree. There might be others, depending on the Expansion Packs you have installed, but we'll stick with the vanilla stuff. Grapes always take eight days to harvest, regardless of the variety, so I seldom bother with them until much later in the game.

You can tend to the Community Garden if you want (about all you can do is water) and, if you're lucky, you'll pop Level 1 in the process and get some free seeds. If you aren't lucky, get whatever you couldn't find at the Community Garden from the supermarket. Remember that tending more plants will develop your skill faster, but you don't want to be spending the whole day in the garden, so don't go overboard. Go home and plant them (a fenced-in area is recommended if you have Supernatural - you don't want zombies chomping on your garden).

Day 2: tend to your plants. They should all be showing as Sprout. Until you reach Level 2, all you can do is water them.

Day 3: tend to your plants. You might also be able to weed the garden. Your plants should be showing as Growing and are probably Nice quality by now.

Day 4: tend to your garden. Your plants should be showing as Mature. Once you hit Level 3, go to the supermarket and buy one Garlic for each of the plants. Come back to the garden and select "Fertilize Garden with Best Fertilizers". The Garlic should last for five or six days, so you'll get several improved harvests off of the initial plants. This is also the point at which Sims with Green Thumb should be talking to their plants as it will improve the quality of the harvest by one level.

Day 5: tend to your garden. Your plants should now be at the Harvest stage. Where you started with a Normal plant, you should now have Very Nice or possibly Excellent produce. These plants will not improve any farther, so you can either tend to them until they become Barren, which will help improve your Gardening skill and get you some more produce to sell over the next few days, or you can dispose of them. Now, plant the best of your harvest. It probably won't all be of the same quality (you'll have some Nice and Very Nice and maybe one or two Excellents), but that's fine. Plant the best and sell the rest.

Day 6: tend to your garden. Your new plants should be at Sprout and you can harvest from the first batch. Your original plants should still be showing Excellent fertilizer. You can sell your harvest at the supermarket or put it up on consignment.

Day 7: tend to your garden. Your new plants should be at Growing and you'll have some more goodies from the original batch. Your first batch should still be showing Excellent fertilizer. Sell or consign your harvest. Buy one Garlic for each of the plants in the second batch.

Day 8: tend to your garden. Your new plants should be at Mature and you'll have some more harvest from the first batch. The first batch should still be showing Excellent fertilizer, but it's time to fertilze the second batch. Green thumbs should talk to the new plants. Sell or consign your harvest.

Day 9: tend to your garden. Your new plants should be at the Harvest stage and you'll still be able to harvest from your first batch. The fertilizer on the first batch should be wearing off today or tomorrow. It's your call on whether to replace it, but you'll likely spend more than you'll earn, so I don't bother. Your harvest from the new plants should be at Excellent or Outstanding with a chance for a couple of Perfects in there somewhere. This is the point where I will typically dispose of the first batch of plants. I've earned the most that I could and since the fertilizer has worn off, they generate less money. Plant the best of the harvest from the new plants and sell or consign the rest of it.

Day 10: tend to your garden. The third batch of plants should be at Sprout and your second batch will still be producing. Plant, sell or consign as the mood strikes you.

Day 11: tend to your garden. The third batch should be at Growing, the second batch will still be producing, and the first batch (if you didn't dispose of it) will be about halfway to the end of its life (going Barren). Plant, sell or consign, as you wish. Pick up some Garlic for the third batch of plants.

Day 12: tend to your garden. The third batch should be at Mature, so some fertilizing is in order. If your first batch is still around, you'll need to specify individual plants to fertilize or you'll end up wasting your Garlic. If your Garlic is in a stack, you'll need to work with the plants one at a time. If you split the stack, though, you can queue up the "Fertilize with..." command. Talk to your new plants and call it a day.

Day 13: tend to your garden. The produce from the third batch of plants should now be Perfect if the parent plants weren't, so "plant the best and sell the rest" still applies. Your Gardening skill should be at least Level 5, so you can start repeating the process for some Uncommon plants.

For plants with longer seed-to-harvest times, you can shave off some days by fertilizing from the time you plant, but you'll likely need to fertilize each plant twice as the fertilizer will wear off before harvest.

Common Plants (List)

The nice thing about Common plants is that you can work with them when you have zero Gardening skill. The bad thing about Common plants is that they won't make you much money unless you have some Expansion Packs installed. The Red Berry Bean from University Life is the best Common plant to work with if your aim is to make money. At Perfect quality, the beans will earn you 220 Simoleons each (usually more if you try to sell them on consignment) and at 20 beans per plant, that's a minimum of 4,400 Simoleons. Having traits like Green Thumb and Gatherer, Lifetime Rewards like Super Green Thumb, and having high Gardening and Science skills will only increase that amount.

Here is about the most comprehensive list of Common plants I can make. There are probably a few more out there (I don't have Pets,Seasons, any Stuff Packs, or any Premium Store content, for example), but I've indicated which expansions are required for the ones that I have.

• Base Value: how much you get for Normal Quality produce. Higher quality generates higher prices:
  
  • Nice: 110%
    
  • Very Nice: 150%
    
  • Great: 200%
    
  • Excellent: 250%
    
  • Outstanding: 300%
    
  • Perfect: 400%
    
• Max Harvest per Plant: how much produce you will get off of an individual plant, assuming it is kept weeded and watered

To calculate the value of the harvest from any given plant, just take the base value, times any quality modifier, times the amount produced. For example, an Outstanding tomato plant would yield about 270 Simoleons ((3 * 300%) * 30) before the plant goes to Barren and would need to be replaced.

Common Plants

Name	Base Value	Max Harvest per Plant	Days to Harvest	Expansion
Apple	4	40	4
Grapes	4	15	8
Lettuce	4	15	4
Tomato	3	20	4
Mandrake Root	6	20	4	Supernatural
Procinis	10	30	5	Supernatural
Red Toadstool	20	30	5	Supernatural
Red Valerian Root	6	20	4	Supernatural
White Caps	5	30	5	Supernatural
Wolfsbane	13	20	4	Supernatural
Basil	15	15	4	University Life increases performance gains and opportunity rewards
Cortado Bean	22	20	4	University Life temporarily freezes Energy and results in "Buzz Crashed" when it wears off
Gensing	13	15	4	University Life slightly decreases Energy decay rate
Kona Bean	9	20	4	University Life temporarily freezes Energy and results in "Buzz Crashed" when it wears off
Maui Bean	11	20	4	University Life temporarily freezes Energy and results in "Buzz Crashed" when it wears off
Midnight Bean	12	20	4	University Life temporarily freezes Energy and results in "Buzz Crashed" when it wears off
Peppermint	12	15	4	University Life should cancel the "Garlic Breath" moodlet
Red Berry Bean	50	20	4	University Life temporarily freezes Energy and results in "Buzz Crashed" when it wears off
Renoit Grapes	4	30	8	World Adventures
Cherimola Blan Grapes	4	30	8	World Adventures
Crystal Flower	35 for all charges, except Neutral (15)	20	?	Into the Future

A note on using herbs from University Life. Eating herbs decreases hunger, so eating them on a full stomach usually results in a "Nauseous" moodlet.

Uncommon Plants (List)

Uncommon plants include a lot of grape varieties from the World Adventures Expansion Pack. Because they all take eight days to mature, I generally don't mess with them unless I'm into making Nectar. You must have Level 5 Gardening to be able to plant Uncommon plants. Even the top earners on this list (Mycenas and Spotlight Mushrooms) are only a bit more than half of the value of the coffee beans from the Common List. If you're looking to make money from your produce, there's nothing here that will help you very much. On the other hand, if you're looking for herbs or ingredients for your recipes, you've got a goodly selection to choose from, but Expansion Packs are required.

• Base Value: how much you get for Normal Quality produce. Higher quality generates higher prices:
  
  • Nice: 110%
    
  • Very Nice: 150%
    
  • Great: 200%
    
  • Excellent: 250%
    
  • Outstanding: 300%
    
  • Perfect: 400%
    
• Max Harvest per Plant: how much produce you will get off of an individual plant, assuming it is kept weeded and watered

Name	Base Value	Max Harvest per Plant	Days to Harvest	Expansion
Lime	9	40	8
Onion	7	25	10
Potato	7	15	8
Watermelon	9	10	8
Mycenas	33	15	5	Supernatural
Spotlight Mushroom	38	15	5	Supernatural
Avornalino Grapes	7	30	8	World Adventures
Meloire Grapes	8	30	8	World Adventures
Pomegranate	8	50	8	World Adventures
Plum	7	50	8	World Adventures
Buzzberry	18	15	4	University Life increases Athletic skill increase rate
Cinnamon	16	15	4	University Life increases the effect of Romantic interactions
Greenleaf	19	15	4	University Life increases weight loss effect
Lavender	17	15	4	University Life increases Energy gain rate
Licorice	13	15	4	University Life decreases the Hunger decay rate
Sweet Grass	9	15	4	University Life removes "Buzz Crash" and various "Nauseous" moodlets
Wonderpetal	12	15	4	University Life increases Academic Performance rate
Pumpkin	9	10	5	Seasons

A note on the herbs from University Life. They all satisfy Hunger, so eating them on a full stomach will usually result in a Nauseous moodlet of some kind.

Rare and Special Plants (List)

Rare Plants

Truffles is the best money maker on a per-plant basis, while Glow Orbs are the best on a per-harvest basis. Both require Supernatural and will require a bit of luck with the seed spawners and some diligent scavenging to find some. Anyone who is doing Gardening seriously should set aside a small section for Garlic as a fertilizer.

Name	Base Value	Max Harvest per Plant	Days to Harvest	Expansion
Bell Pepper	12	15	8
Garlic	15	30	8
Bumbleleaf	26	15	4	University Life extends the duration of the "On Fire" moodlet
Chamomile	29	15	4	University Life increases influence gain for social groups
Cherry Tree	12	50	6	World Adventures
Cranerlet Nuala Grapes	13	30	8	World Adventures
Gralladina Fran Grapes	10	30	6	World Adventures
Polemlo Tree	15	50	6	World Adventures
Ghost Chili	22	15	4	Supernatural
Glow Orbs	64	15	4	Supernatural
Truffles	42	30	4	Supernatural

Special Plants

Special plants are, well, special. They don't follow the same rules as the rest. A Death Flower, for example, will only produce one flower under normal conditions and it can't be sold. Omni Plants will produce whatever you use for fertilzer (including books). The Forbidden Fruit has a chance of harvesting a PlantSim (or turning a Sim into one). Most of the rest require you to complete special opportunities.

Name	Base Value	Max Harvest per Plant	Days to Harvest	Expansion
Burger Patty Plant	16	15	4	Must complete the Outstandingly Rare opportunity
Cheese Plant	5	15	4	Must complete the Uncommonly Good opportunity
Death Flower	--	1	4	Most graveyards have one; almost always Perfect quality
Egg Plant	7	15	4	Must complete the Uncommonly Good opportunity
Flame Fruit	18	20	6
Life Fruit	25	12	6	Best fertilizer in the game
Money Tree	100-200	Infinite?	12	Will automatically drop a Normal seed at Perfect
Omni Plant	Varies	Varies	Varies	Must complete Omnificent Plant opportunity
Steak Plant	20	15	4	Must complete the Outstandingly Rare opportunity
Forbidden Fruit	--	1	4	University Life
Plasma Fruit	30	2	9	Late Night

Money Trees are the Gardener's best friend, Simoleon-wise. While they are not immortal, it will take a few Sim generations before one dies of old age. As long as they are well-tended, they will increase in quality until they reach Perfect, which is when they drop their seed (Normal quality). If neglected to the point of dying, Money Trees will explode and drop bills that must be paid. The money bags produced by Money Trees do not count as sales for your Gardener career, but they certainly go a long way toward padding the bank account.

A quick note on Omni Plants is in order. Once you complete the challenge, you will get an Omni seed in your inventory and can order more by clicking on your mailbox. They will pretty much produce whatever you feed them. So if you feed them that 2,000 Simoleon skill book, that's what that plant will produce. They will not produce recipes (sorry, no 12,000-Simoleons-a-pop Ambrosia recipe plants), comic books, and stuff like that. Probably the best use for them is to feed them the most expensive skill book you can get (that would be a Volume 3) and just sell the harvest to the bookstore.

Concluding Thoughts

As I hope I've shown, Gardening is neither complicated nor exceptionally time-consuming. It can be fun and profitable whether done as a full-blown career or just as a side activity. It stands well on its own and as an adjunct to other activities, such as Cooking, Alchemy (Supernatural), Nectar-Making (World Adventures), or even normal daily activities (Univeristy Life). It is well worth the effort to raise the skill at least to Level 7, so you can deal with Rare and Special plants.

My test Sim for this guide started at zero in all skills. Within two weeks she had reached Level 10 in Gardening, and had a household funds balance of over 60,000 and two Money Trees producing within three. She still had plenty of time for socialization, shooting pool, skinny dipping, fixing broken appliances and the other activities that go with the game and never had to worry about dragging herself out of bed at 6:00 a.m. in order to get to work on time.

Not-So-Concluding Thoughts (March 2021 Update)

A couple of comments (thank you for those) made me revisit this guide and add some stuff that probably should have been in it from the get-go.

Time: This is a big oversight on my part. Each interaction with a plant takes about 15 Sim-minutes. So watering takes about 10-15 minutes, weeding takes about 15 minutes, harvesting takes about 15 minutes, etc., and this is why you really don't want to go overboard on the size of your garden. A couple of dozen plants really is an all-day job at points. I've found that a couple of plots of about eight plants each is really about the maximum if you want time to do other things. Once your Sim has harvested enough produce to get the extended time for watering and weeding, then going bigger is probably an option.

Weather: This mostly applies when you have Seasons installed, but weather will affect how your gardener can do their thing.

• When temperatures drop below freezing, plants will go dormant for a couple of days, but they will continue to grow/produce while temperatures are above freezing. This makes Fall and early Spring somewhat problematic as far as getting anything done on a consistent basis. Plants will be mostly dormant during Winter. This means that you'll be able to garden for most of the year, but should expect interruptions in Spring and Fall.
  
• Rain is both a blessing and a curse. On the blessing side of things, it eliminates the need to water for a day. On the curse side of things, it increases the time a Sim takes to complete the daily gardening tasks, it drops their mood, and can occasionally give you a "singed" moodlet.
  
  • Take away your Sim's umbrella before sending them out to garden. If you try to keep your Sim dry by providing them with an umbrella, they will take out their umbrella to move, put it away to weed, take it out and put it away again, water (unless it's been raining long enough to fill the plant's water meter), take it out and put it away again, harvest, take it out and move to the next plant, rinse and repeat until all plants have been tended. It's not quite as bad as dealing with the "put on/take off the backpack" animation from University Life, but it's close. Regardless of the annoyance level, it increases the time it takes to garden because the animations need to complete before the action you want will happen.
    
  • On that same theme, umbrellas tend to attract lightning during thunderstorms. Ouch!
    
  • If you give up and just let them get wet, then they'll pick up a "Soaked" moodlet pretty quickly and you'll be constantly canceling their desire to go inside to get out of the rain. And let's not forget the puddles they'll leave once they're soaked. Probably the simplest cure is to switch them into swimwear. The don't get soaked and don't care if they're wet while wearing it (also good for World Adventures dive wells), but they get chilled if the temperature is low enough.
• Gardening is a good way to get a frequent "Tanned" moodlet as long as you don't let your Sim stay out too long.
  
• I can't remember whether Seasons added it or not, but I turn off Hail in the settings menu.

Wishes: Once your Sim learns the Gardening skill (moves to Level 1), they will start popping wishes related to Gardening. You can't register as self-employed in any of the available careers until you have at least one level in that skill, so "Join the Gardening Career" cannot be fulfilled until you have some skill in Gardening.

• "Learn the Gardening Skill" is a good early wish and if you can get it at the same time as "Take a Gardening Class", you can fulfill two wishes at once by going to the Science building and taking the class (costs $400).
  
• "Garden" is a pretty easy wish to fulfill, and gets you about 350 or 375 LTR points, so take it whenever it pops.
  
• Because your Sim is outside a lot, you'll get frequent "Cool Off" or "Warm Up" wishes if Seasons is installed.
  
• "Grow <something>" can be a bit problematic because it means you have to acquire the seed, plant it, and raise it to the Harvest stage. If you accept that wish, it will be sitting in your wish list for at least four days unless you have access to a Fairy with the Bloom ability.
  
• Just about any time you learn a new recipe, you'll get wishes to grow the ingredients to make it.
  
• "Buy a Planter" is probably my most hated wish because it pops constantly, even if you have one or more planters. It's almost like Maxis is trying to get you to spend your Simleons or something.
  
• There are a few others that aren't exceptionally useful or helpful outside of a rare set of circumstances. My general rule is that if I can't fulfill the wish within a day (two at most), I generally won't take it.
  
• The exception to that rule is the "Master the Gardening Skill" wish, which generally only pops once. It has a chance to pop once you hit Level 7 in the skill and it's worth a boatload of LTR points. Whether that boatload is worth it eating up one of your four wish slots for an extended time is your call.

[rigor mortis]

thanks for the in-depth guide! super helpful!

[Norard]

I like the Gardening skill. Not only can you make bonkers money but I like to see the progression of bog-standard produce to top-notch.

[marstinson]

If you had a gun mod, you'd be able to do whatever the mod is capable of doing.

[casserole]

if i had a gun mod would i be able to make a gun tree?

[marstinson]

"Reloaded" would probably make more sense to PC players, but no biggie on either the word or the comment. Hadn't thought about fertilizing with apples or watermelons. In a regular pregnancy each fruit consumed pushes the nomal 50/50 odds a few percent toward male (apples) or female
(watermelons), but it's only a few percent, so stacking the deck requires eating several. Because apples and watermelons have different fertilizer values, my best guess is that the reload caused another roll of the dice that turned out in your favor. If PlantSims work like regular Sims, gender is decided late.

[Lisa]

I just wanted to clearify what I meant with "resetted" in case someone reads this: to exit the game without saving. Not: 'resetsim'. (I think resetted for exiting is an old term for Playstation). Sorry to poke your comment thread so much.

[Lisa]

Thank you! I did not think about that. This is what I did: I resetted (efter getting a boy), then fertilized the forbidden fruit with watermelons, "viewed" it, "talked" to it (in that order), then picked it. It was a girl, with traits "love the nature" and "green thumb" - very good traits in my book, I was really happy! I am not sure what actually gives effect, I am inclined to think that "outstanding" quality is close enough to "perfect" for them to both give good traits, and that the gender is not determined beforehand, so that the resetting can change it. Thank you for a great guide and quick answer! :)

[marstinson]

@Lisa: Check out https://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/universitylife/plantsims.php for a non-cheaty idea. Treat the Forbidden Fruit plant like any other plant. Good fertilizers and regular care will increase the quality of the harvest, but always use "Tend Garden" when interacting with the plant because you'll always get a replantable fruit at harvest. Repeat until you have a "Perfect" fruit, then replant, tend, and and harvest your new PlantSim (hopefully with two positive traits).

[Lisa]

Thanks for answering! The quality of the fruit is supposed to give (random) "good" traits to the newborn, but either way they get 2 traits only. I do not use mods and were trying to not cheat. But thanks! And nice to see you here, I've seen you in The sims forum too :)

[marstinson]

@Lisa: lots of questions for which I have few answers, but I'll give it a shot (and stay within the 1000 character limit for comments).

For most of what you're asking, I'd have to say "cheat." PlantSims are oddball in that they rely on a lot of mechanics that weren't initially intended to be used on Sims. For changing the quality of your Forbidden Fruit, use DebugEnabler from nraas.wikispaces.com . No idea how the quality affects the number of traits you can choose, however. For changing gender, either use the console to enable cheats and then use Create-a-Sim to change it or use MasterController's CAS functions (also from NRaas). No idea on the quality produced by the science station, though.