Basic Retaining Soil
| Basic Retaining Soil | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Crafted Item |
| Recipe | Farming Level 4 |
| Sell Price | 4g |
Basic Retaining Soil is the entry-level water-saving treatment for crops. Mixed into a tilled tile, it gives the soil a fair chance to stay damp overnight, so some mornings that tile needs no watering at all. It is made from nothing but Stone, which makes it one of the cheapest things a farmer can craft. It does nothing for crop quality or growth speed, only for the daily watering chore. That makes it most useful in the early game, before sprinklers cover every field.
The in-game description reads: This soil has a chance of staying watered overnight. Mix into tilled soil.
Recipe
The recipe unlocks at Farming level 4. Breaking rocks with a pickaxe yields plenty of Stone, whether on the farm, in the Mines or in the Quarry. Two pieces of Stone make a single bag. Pierre's General Store also sells it from the middle of the first Spring, though crafting it costs almost nothing by comparison.
These are the ingredients one batch needs.
| Name | Image | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Stone | 
|
2 |
Use
Unlike quality fertilisers, retaining soil can go down at any point. It works before planting, right after planting, or on a crop that is already half grown. Each night there is roughly a one-in-three chance that the treated tile stays watered into the next day. On the other nights it dries out as normal and needs the watering can.
That chance is the catch. Over a season it saves some watering, but never on a schedule anyone can count on. A field still needs checking every morning, so the soil trims the chore rather than removing it.
Retaining soil is one of three separate fertiliser families. Quality fertilisers raise the star rating of a harvest, and Speed-Gro shortens growing time. Retaining soil only deals with water, so it never changes what the crop is worth.
Variants
The other fertilisers in the game, with what each one takes and where the recipe comes from.
| Name | Image | Ingredients | Recipe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Fertilizer | 
|
Sap (2) | Farming Level 1 |
| Deluxe Fertilizer | 
|
Iridium Bar (1), Sap (40) | Qi's Walnut Room (20) |
| Deluxe Retaining Soil | 
|
Stone (5), Fiber (3), Clay (1) | Island Trader for Cinder Shard (50) |
| Deluxe Speed-Gro | 
|
Oak Resin (1), Bone Fragment (5) | Farming Level 8 |
| Hyper Speed-Gro | 
|
Radioactive Ore (1), Bone Fragment (3), Solar Essence (1) | Qi's Walnut Room for 30 |
| Quality Fertilizer | 
|
Sap (4), Any Fish (1) | Farming Level 9 |
| Quality Retaining Soil | 
|
Stone (3), Clay (1) | Farming Level 7 |
| Speed-Gro | 
|
Pine Tar (1), Moss (5) | Farming Level 3 |
| Tree Fertilizer | 
|
Fiber (5), Stone (5) | Foraging Level 7 |
Notes
Sprinklers soon make this soil less important. Once a field has enough of them, the daily watering disappears and the retaining soil has nothing left to save.
Garden Pots are the exception. Sprinklers never water a pot, so potted crops always need the watering can. Even the basic soil's occasional damp mornings add up there, especially for a long row of pots in a shed or the farmhouse.
The better versions follow the same idea with higher odds. Quality Retaining Soil arrives at Farming level 7 and keeps the soil damp about two nights in three. Deluxe Retaining Soil, traded for Cinder Shards on Ginger Island, keeps a tile watered every single night. Basic Retaining Soil is the cheap stopgap until those arrive.
All Crafting
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
