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11 Farming in Windrose is deliberately simple. There is no watering, no fertilizer, no sunlight rule, no wilt state, and no tiered progression through composter or greenhouse structures. The player places one of two planting structures (Seedbed or Ground Plants), waits for a global growth timer of roughly 70 minutes, and harvests. Seeds return 1:1 at harvest, which enables a permanent self-sustaining loop once enough seeds are acquired.
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33 The Only Station: Seedbed
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77 The Seedbed is the only dedicated farming structure. It is built in the farming tab of the base build menu. Each Seedbed has four planting slots (one at each corner) and is built from 5 Fertile Soil. Once placed, a Seedbed is also the soil. There is no additional per-crop soil cost. Placement rules and surface requirements are covered in detail on the Seedbed Placement page.
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99 Three crops (Shrub, Ficus, Palm) are Ground Plants. They can be placed directly on the terrain anywhere on the plot without a Seedbed and without any Fertile Soil cost. The four-slot-per-Seedbed rule does not apply to Ground Plants.
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1111 Growth
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1313 AspectRuleTime to growApproximately 70 minutes of real-world time.Per-crop varianceNone documented; all crops share the same global timer.Offline progressionYes. Crops continue to grow while the game is closed.Water / fertilizer / sunlightNone required.Failure statesNone. Crops do not wilt, rot, or fail.
1414 For a deeper breakdown of the timer, stages, and scheduling, see Crop Growth.
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1616 Harvest and Seeds
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1818 Harvesting a Seedbed plant returns the seed used plus the crop product. Planting 25 seeds across six Seedbeds and waiting out the growth returns 25 seeds at harvest, enabling a permanent loop. This is the main reason early-game farming investments never go to waste: the seed pool is a one-time gather.
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2020 Ground Plants (Shrub, Ficus, Palm) follow the same seed-returns-on-harvest rule. Palm Seeds are slightly harder to source: they only drop from trees deeper inland in the Coastal Jungle, not from beach-edge palm trees.
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2222 Crop Reference
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2424 The eight Seedbed crops and three Ground Plants confirmed in the current build are listed below. Seeds for the Seedbed crops are bought from vendors or gathered from the wild, then return on every harvest, so the table doubles as a shopping list for a first farm.
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2626 CropTypePrimary UseFlaxSeedbedOnly source of Plant Fiber for fabric (armor and sails)CornSeedbedCooking ingredientPeppers (Cayenne)SeedbedCooking ingredientTomatoSeedbedCooking ingredientBeanSeedbedCooking ingredientLeekSeedbedCooking ingredient; wild Leeks grow at Cursed Swamps ruinsCocoplumSeedbedCooking ingredientSweet PotatoSeedbedCooking ingredient (also called Batata)ShrubGround PlantPlaced directly on terrain; no Fertile Soil costFicusGround PlantPlaced directly on terrain; no Fertile Soil costPalmGround PlantSeeds drop from inland Coastal Jungle trees only
2727 Windrose is in Early Access, so this roster will likely grow over time. Saplings such as Aloe, Banana, and Bromeliad can also be raised once their seeds are obtained, so a mature base often mixes food, fiber, and decorative plants on the same plot.
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2929 Fertile Soil
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3333 Seedbeds require Fertile Soil as their construction ingredient. Fertile Soil is mined with a pickaxe from small raised dirt mounds at Ancient Farm ruins in the Foothills. A secondary source exists at ruins in the Cursed Swamps (Leeks grow in these specifically). Access to the Foothills is gated behind defeating the Coastal Jungle boss, Thomas Richards.
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3535 Fertile SoilDetailGather toolPickaxe, used on raised dirt moundsPrimary locationAncient Farm ruins in the FoothillsSecondary locationRuins in the Cursed SwampsCost per Seedbed5 Fertile SoilGateFoothills access requires beating the Coastal Jungle boss
3636 One Seedbed costs 5 Fertile Soil, so a typical mid-game farm of six Seedbeds needs 30 Fertile Soil. Players commonly gather a stack of 100 or more on the first Foothills trip to avoid repeat runs.
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3838 Farming Contractor (Automation)
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4040 The Farming Contractor is a Tortuga NPC that runs a parallel crop cycle passively. It is not a placeable structure and does not compete with Seedbeds; both systems run in parallel, so a stocked home farm and an active contract job can return crops at the same time. The contractor is hired once at the recruitment desk and then takes a fresh job whenever you have the seeds to spare.
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4242 PropertyValueRecruitment cost10 Gold Coins (Guineas) at the Tortuga Recruitment VendorPer-job cost20 Silver Coins plus 50 seeds of the chosen cropJob durationApproximately 8 hours of real-world time, including while offlineReturnAll 50 seeds returned plus a large bulk yield of the crop
4343 Because the job returns the full 50 seeds, the contractor never drains the seed pool. The practical pattern is to queue a Flax contract before a long sailing session or before logging off, so a bulk fiber haul is waiting at the next login on top of whatever the home Seedbeds produced.
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4545 Early-Game Priority: Flax
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4747 Flax is the single most important seedbed crop because it is the only source of Plant Fiber used for fabric, which feeds every armor and sail recipe. Sails in particular get burned through faster than new players expect, so a steady fiber supply directly gates ship progression. Community-consensus guidance is to dedicate 15 to 20 Seedbed slots to Flax as soon as Fertile Soil is accessible. The other crops are nice-to-have; Flax is the engine.
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4949 Quick Start
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5151 Beat the Coastal Jungle boss to unlock the Foothills.Mine a large stack of Fertile Soil from the Ancient Farm dirt mounds with a pickaxe.Build several Seedbeds (5 Fertile Soil each) on flat, exposed ground.Buy or gather a starter batch of Flax Seeds and fill the corner slots.Plant before sailing out, harvest on return; the returned seeds refill the next planting for free.
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5353 See Also
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5555 Seedbed Placement - placement rules and surface requirementsCrop Growth - detailed growth-timer breakdownFarming Contractor - Tortuga-based crop automationFertile Soil - Seedbed construction material