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    Anyone else finding Oversized Crops WAY too much work?

    BeardedgeekBeardedgeek Posts: 5,520 Member
    in The Sims 4 Packs Discussion
    Basically the title.
    The amount of work vs reward for oversized crops is like 17 to 1 or something. It takes me half a day taking care of the oversized crops, I barely have time with my chickens, rabbits and my regular crops.

    If I had a cow it would literally be impossible to do anything fun at all. Glad I opted to not have a large animal.
    Origin ID: A_Bearded_Geek

    Comments

    • crocobauracrocobaura Posts: 7,382 Member
      You could grow one or two as oversized vegetables not the whole garden. I love the way they look in the garden, so detailed and pretty, wish all crops were like that.
    • 83bienchen83bienchen Posts: 2,577 Member
      edited October 2021
      In my game, they aren't much work. As soon as you have befriended rabbits and birds they basically do all the work except for watering and fertilizing.
      Now now EA, don't be stinking up our lovely lavender bath with your shopping fart. - My TS4 mods - Gallery ID: 83bienchen
    • GalacticGalGalacticGal Posts: 28,552 Member
      No, not really. I accidentally manage to get a Great Pumpkin. I had my Sim plant the oversized pumpkin seeds. Water all, fertilize using the Vitality fertilizer and then I clicked on the crop at one point and it had 'encourage growth'. I selected that one and my Sim removed all but one of the pumpkins in progress. Voila. The Great Pumpkin was grown.

      Here he is so proud of his work, that he used it as an album cover:
      TQJkDeR.jpg
      You can download (free) all three volumes of my Night Whispers Star Trek Fanfiction here: http://galacticgal.deviantart.com/gallery/ You'll need to have a pdf reader. New websites: http://www.trekkiefanfiction.com/st-tos.php
      http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
    • simgirl1010simgirl1010 Posts: 35,862 Member
      Beardedgeek wrote: »
      Basically the title.
      The amount of work vs reward for oversized crops is like 17 to 1 or something. It takes me half a day taking care of the oversized crops, I barely have time with my chickens, rabbits and my regular crops.

      If I had a cow it would literally be impossible to do anything fun at all. Glad I opted to not have a large animal.

      Welcome to farm life in the Sims. 😄 I believe there are a couple of threads floating around on how to manage it. I have chickens, a cow, a llama, and the new crops and I admit my sim is busy all day.
    • Pamtastic72Pamtastic72 Posts: 4,545 Member
      edited October 2021
      Once I befriended rabbits to weed and birds to eat bugs, and fertilized a couple time I had plenty of time to have a cow and a llama and a full coop of chickens. Make sure you place your bird and rabbit homes close to the garden patches you want them to help with, then ask for garden help and in about 24 sim hours they take up a large portion of your workload. Patchy from Seasons is a huge help too!
      Gallery ID: Pamtastic72 If I'm not here, I'm here: Spoutible: https://spoutible.com/Pamtastic72Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pamtastic72/Threads: https://www.threads.net/@pamtastic72Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/pamela072-blogTwitter/X :s : https://twitter.com/Pamtastic72
    • alexspoom13alexspoom13 Posts: 7,439 Member
      I'm not sure if it's a mod conflict, but I never have the option to weed the oversized crop patches even if their status is 'sickly'. 9/10 of my large crops just die because the interactions to keep them alive aren't available.
    • BeardedgeekBeardedgeek Posts: 5,520 Member
      alexspoom13 wrote: »
      I'm not sure if it's a mod conflict, but I never have the option to weed the oversized crop patches even if their status is 'sickly'. 9/10 of my large crops just die because the interactions to keep them alive aren't available.

      You don't get any option to weed. It's "Encourage Growth" that doubles as weeding. As usual it is never explained anywhere.
      Origin ID: A_Bearded_Geek
    • BeardedgeekBeardedgeek Posts: 5,520 Member
      I have taken the advice and limited the OS crops to one single pumpkin field. I don't have any birds for bug eating so I have to start every day with spraying for bugs. (I just haven't had time to talk to any birds yet).
      Origin ID: A_Bearded_Geek
    • IsharellIsharell Posts: 1,158 Member
      It seems to be easier with a higher Gardening Skill. I only do one giant plant at a time. I want more money, so Mavis is busy tending the flowers I'm having her sell at the market. It helps a lot that she only has 2 chickens right now. In fall and winter she'll do a bit more crops, and I also am having her work on her canning and baking.

      I like that my sim is busy most days.
    • BeardedgeekBeardedgeek Posts: 5,520 Member
      Isharell wrote: »
      It seems to be easier with a higher Gardening Skill. I only do one giant plant at a time. I want more money, so Mavis is busy tending the flowers I'm having her sell at the market. It helps a lot that she only has 2 chickens right now. In fall and winter she'll do a bit more crops, and I also am having her work on her canning and baking.

      I like that my sim is busy most days.

      Yeah, I spent the whole winter making preserves.
      Turns out that after you have a mushroom patch of some description you virtually never have to order groceries, since meat substitute is so quick to make.
      Origin ID: A_Bearded_Geek
    • DianesimsDianesims Posts: 2,876 Member
      If you befriend birds and rabbits, they’ll take care of weeding and bugs for you. Also now my sim is better at gardening it’s much faster.
      So far, he has 7 or 8 giant crops.
    • BeardedgeekBeardedgeek Posts: 5,520 Member
      Dianesims wrote: »
      If you befriend birds and rabbits, they’ll take care of weeding and bugs for you. Also now my sim is better at gardening it’s much faster.
      So far, he has 7 or 8 giant crops.

      I've not had the time to befriend any birds yet. Rabbits I have, but I find they do a lousy job. I have four rabbits on weeding duty atm and none of them actually ever do anything. Basically it is quicker to weed myself.
      Might be another bug I have with CL to be fair, it is by far the buggiest expansion ever for me, I think I have come across 7-8 serious bugs in 48 hours. I have the latest MCCC and that's the only mod I use, and I refuse to play without it.
      Origin ID: A_Bearded_Geek
    • babajaynebabajayne Posts: 1,866 Member
      Spraying for bugs is the most time consuming activity when caring for the garden, and once I finally befriended the birds in my area, they helped with my gardening from quite a distance. I would definitely make that a priority.

      I suggest you work towards a golden chicken who will make your crops perfect/healthy. I just achieved this in week 3 of my rags to ranches save, and I’m able to grow things on a much larger scale (thus far I’ve been very busy maintaining 6 oversized crops and several regular crops). If your oversized crops are healthy then you don’t need to fertilize them.
    • babajaynebabajayne Posts: 1,866 Member
      Beardedgeek wrote: »
      alexspoom13 wrote: »
      I'm not sure if it's a mod conflict, but I never have the option to weed the oversized crop patches even if their status is 'sickly'. 9/10 of my large crops just die because the interactions to keep them alive aren't available.

      You don't get any option to weed. It's "Encourage Growth" that doubles as weeding. As usual it is never explained anywhere.
      In my game I get the usual weed/weed area options when there are weeds. Encouraging crop growth raises its health.
    • SimmervilleSimmerville Posts: 11,669 Member
      I didn't grow many oversized crops, so I'm not an expert on how much time it takes. I play rotationally so the oversized stuff is not really an option, it would take my sim 5-6 years to grow one plot... So, I better stick with the old fashioned single crops :)
      Simmerville on Youtube | My blog is updated weekly: Simmerville's Sims<br>a.jpg
    • Amapola76Amapola76 Posts: 1,904 Member
      I guess it depends how many you have? I'd say at any given time, I have 2-4 oversized plots going. Usually I'm shooting for one oversized for the festival, two normal, and one small. (The normal and small are for some combination of eating, selling, and canning.)

      I have found that typically one dose of super vitality fertilizer and one round of encouraging growth is usually sufficient to get an oversized crop. (Although I do also have bees and rabbits most of the time, so that could be a factor as well.) One dose of regular vitality fertilizer will generally make normal sized crops with the oversized seeds. For the ones I want to be small, I don't apply fertilizer or encourage growth, but I do weed and spray for bugs (unless my bird and rabbit helpers get there first).

      Long story short, it's not so bad, but having helpers makes things better, and it will obviously depend on how many you have going at one time.

      (For what it's worth, my typical small farm/home garden household also has most of the berry bushes, one fruit tree, and 4-6 regular/staple crops. Sometimes also herbs.)
    • LoanetLoanet Posts: 4,079 Member
      Yes, let's nerf them, like everything else gets nerfed.
      Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.
    • LadyKynLadyKyn Posts: 3,595 Member
      Huh, haven't found any difficulty in growing oversized crops. 4 Oversized ones plus 8 other crops, plus two trees it takes over two sims hours to 3 (without any gardening help from animals or using sprinklers)? With my sim having a high gardening skill is definitely takes less time.

      I find the livestock to take much longer taking care of than gardening. Usually tend to the animals first then gardening.

      Can always just hire a gardener now and again. Or just invite a neighbor, as high chance they're gonna tend your garden for you. Had a Sim's friend that lived in the city visit and after some chatting and leaving her to herself for awhile she decided to go out back to weed some of plants and water them.

      Profit get. $$$
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    • Amapola76Amapola76 Posts: 1,904 Member
      Oh, yeah, the other thing about visitors is that if you're living in HoB and have even a low green bar with the villager NPCs, they will visit constantly, and once you invite them in, if you ignore them, they will do tons of gardening for you. After I did the first errand each for Sara and Kim, they started to come over and visit every day, rain or shine.
    • keekee53keekee53 Posts: 4,328 Member
      Honestly, this has been my favorite pack because my sims are so busy all the time. I am literally never bored when I am playing my farming sims.
    • bshag4lvbshag4lv Posts: 9,377 Member
      The only thing I have against oversized plots is a spellcaster's floriloral doesn't work, she has to weed, water and spray for bugs, by hand. :D
      In my house, dog hair sticks to everything but the dog.
    • ignominiusrexignominiusrex Posts: 2,680 Member
      Haha I thought this was going to be about over-sized crop TOPS and was dying to know what kind of work they were 🤣
      You can call me Iggy or Rex (he/him) 10 ways to Fight Hate
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    • SharoniaSharonia Posts: 4,853 Member
      edited October 2021
      I actually found them easier than the garden plants we’ve always had because they don’t rely on any specific season to grow, they don’t go dormant for most of the year or need to be sheltered and the daily care is fairly straightforward. I wish all the plants would be like this.
    • BeardedgeekBeardedgeek Posts: 5,520 Member
      Sharonia wrote: »
      I actually found them easier than the garden plants we’ve always had because they don’t rely on any specific season to grow, they don’t go dormant for most of the year or need to be sheltered and the daily care is fairly straightforward. I wish all the plants would be like this.

      Apparently the combination of the trait "Super Green Thumb" and the lot trait "Great Soil" makes most hard work redundant too. My Sim was really into gardening so I bought that reward trait and next thing I know all my Oversized Plants went into hyperdrive ;)
      Origin ID: A_Bearded_Geek
    • GalacticGalGalacticGal Posts: 28,552 Member
      edited October 2021
      alexspoom13 wrote: »
      I'm not sure if it's a mod conflict, but I never have the option to weed the oversized crop patches even if their status is 'sickly'. 9/10 of my large crops just die because the interactions to keep them alive aren't available.

      I use MCCC and Road to Fame. (I had others until my Sim could no longer be joined at the movie studio.) If you believe this to be the problem, remove the mods and try growing oversized crops again.
      You can download (free) all three volumes of my Night Whispers Star Trek Fanfiction here: http://galacticgal.deviantart.com/gallery/ You'll need to have a pdf reader. New websites: http://www.trekkiefanfiction.com/st-tos.php
      http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
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