The Greenhouse
To grow crops out of their proper season, you can construct a Greenhouse on your farm. The Greenhouse can be set to grow crops from a specific season even though the outside weather is a different season. To build a Greenhouse, you first need to purchase the blueprint. The plan is for sale at the Wheat Country vendor for 60,000 G when you reach Spring of year 2 or later. To construct a Greenhouse, combine 15 Lumber, 10 Rocks, 15 Soft Soil, 8 White Cloth, and 5 Silver. You can build more than one Greenhouse, but you have to remember to place it on your farm to use it.
Controlling the active season within the Greenhouse is done by placing a seasonal sun stone in the sun box within the house. The stones can be bought from the Sakura Country vendor for 2000 G each after you own the blueprint for the Greenhouse.
To utilize the Greenhouse, set a seasonal sun in the sun box. The season set by the sun stone will remain until you swap the stone with another stone, but swapping stones will destroy the crops that are currently associated with that specific season. For example, if you have a Spring Sun in the box and are growing Turnips and Flax, the Turnips will die if you switch to a Summer Sun but the Flax will remain because it can survive in Summer.
Inside a Geenhouse you can grow any soil-based crop or bush/tree; Rice, Lotus Root, and Wasabi cannot grow within a Greenhouse. There are 15 soil plots to grow with, and you can use Fertilizer to increase the crops' Star Rank while growing. The building also has a watering well to refill your watering can.
One disadvantage to the greenhouse is that crops grow slower than if they were growing outside. When outside you can water crops twice per day to speed up the crop maturity rate, but within the Greehouse you can only water once per day.
You can move a Greenhouse around on your farm by using the Farm Edit menu, but if you put the building back into your object storage then all of the crops you were growing within it will be destroyed.
The maximum number of Greeenhouses you can have in each farm area is four, for a maximum total of eight.
The Ferris Wheel
Starting in Fall of year 4, you can build an enhanced Greenhouse containing six mini greenhouse spaces for crops! The Ferris Wheel blueprint can be purchased from the Silk Country vendor for 170,000 G if you have built a Greenhouse. To build the colorful attraction, combine 60 Lumber, 30 Glass Stone, 10 Amethyst, 10 Emerald, and 5 Pink Diamonds.
This object is incredibly nice to use. There are 6 gondolas that contain 4 soil plots within them (for a total of 24 spaces), and you can set a specific sun in each of the gondolas. With the Ferris Wheel:
- you do not need to water the crops.
- delicate golden crops will not wilt.
- crops will grow twice as fast.
- the Star Rank of the crops will naturally increase at 2 Star Points per day.
This upgraded Greenhouse is great for growing golden crops, as they grow faster then normal, their Star Rank increases quickly, and they won't wilt when they move from growth stage to growth stage. If you plan to grow a lot of goldies, it may be less frustrating to simply wait until you've constructed the Ferris Wheel instead of growing them in the outdoor fields.
You may also grow trees inside of the gondolas.
