When lavender is ready
- The plant must be at stage 4 (bud) or stage 5 (bloom), inside its cultivar's bloom window or visibly budding or blooming.
- Fresh, drying and culinary cuts can be taken from bud. A distillation crop needs open flowers (stage 5).
- English lavenders and lavandins must have finished their winter chill first.
- The weather must allow field work: not 32°F or colder, no rain or wet canopy (0.03 inch of rain or a rainy, showery, stormy, drizzly or snowy day), and wind under 20 mph.
Choosing the use
| Use | What you get | XP | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh stems | Stems for bouquets and bundles | 6 | Bud or bloom |
| Drying stems | Stems (90% of a fresh cut's handling) | 8 | Bud or bloom |
| Culinary lot | Culinary lavender for food recipes | 10 | A cultivar with 3★ Culinary or better |
| Distillation crop | Flower units for the still (lavandins fill their own lavandin flower stock) | 9 | Open flowers |
How much you get
The harvest window shows a prediction before you choose. Behind it is the cultivar's yield number (18 to 113) and a handling factor: the plant's health × 1.15 if you own the Harvest Tools upgrade × its woodiness capacity (old woody plants handle as little as 35%).
- Stems: yield ÷ 10 (at least 2) × handling, scaled by the cultivar's Bundles stars (0.65× at 1★ up to 1.45× at 5★).
- Distillation flower: the same base × 0.8, scaled by Bundles.
- Culinary: the same base × 0.45, scaled by Culinary stars (0.9× at 3★, 1× at 4★, 1.18× at 5★).
- Example: a healthy Grosso gives about 9 fresh stems or 8 lavandin flower units; a healthy Hidcote gives about 3 fresh stems or 2 culinary units, but of top quality.
After the cut
- The crown stays. The plant drops to stage 2 (post-bloom), loses 6 health (never below 35) and 8 moisture (never below 20), and regrows.
- Every harvest becomes a traceable lot in your barn that keeps the cultivar's star ratings.
- When the bloom window ends, plants still at bud or bloom drop back to stage 2 anyway, so harvest inside the window.
Other crops
| Area | How harvest works |
|---|---|
| Flower Farm | 10 stems, +5 if pinched, +3 if supported, scaled by bed health (at least 6). Ten stems make a bunch. |
| Diversification | Pays the crop's value × (1 + reputation ÷ 300) at once, +5 XP and one unit to inventory. |
| Perennial Garden | Plants in bloom add bouquet stems each week (2 when mature); cut them all at once for 2 coins each. |
| Greenhouse | Lavender in the bays has the same four harvest uses and stage rules, but outdoor weather does not pause it. From stage 3 a plant can also be finished as a rooted nursery plant. |
In 3D
In the 3D farm you harvest at the field rows with a harvest tool in hand. Better tools, from pruners and a sickle up to a tractor and a commercial harvester, cut more plants in each pass, but every plant still goes through the same harvest choice and rules.
Tips
- Cut for drying when the first flowers on each spike have opened; cut for oil a little later, when about half are open.
- Keep plants healthy before harvest: health is part of every yield.
- Plan for weather. A rainy or windy bloom week can close the field until it dries out.
See also
Written from the game itself. Spot something out of date? and our farm team will check it.
