Deluxe Retaining Soil
| Deluxe Retaining Soil | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Crafted Item |
| Recipe | Island Trader for Cinder Shard (50) |
| Sell Price | 30g |
Deluxe Retaining Soil is the top tier of water-keeping fertiliser, and it removes the watering chore almost completely. A tile treated with it stays wet every single night after its first watering. That makes it the go-to answer for crops that sprinklers cannot reach, above all plants in Garden Pots. The recipe comes from the Island Trader on Ginger Island, paid for in Cinder Shards from the volcano. Its own materials are cheap and common, so once the recipe is known, it can be made in large numbers.
Recipe
The Island Trader is a bluebird merchant on the north side of Ginger Island. Opening that shop costs Golden Walnuts after the Island Farmhouse is bought. The trader takes items rather than gold, and this recipe is paid for with Cinder Shards. Those shards come from Cinder Shard nodes and magma monsters inside the Volcano Dungeon.
Crafting each bag is easy after that. Stone comes from any rock, and Fiber drops from weeds cut with a Scythe or any other tool. Clay turns up when tilling dirt or digging Artifact Spots, and it sometimes falls out of Geodes too.
These are the ingredients one batch needs.
| Name | Image | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Stone | 
|
5 |
| Fiber | 
|
3 |
| Clay | 
|
1 |
Use
The soil can go on at any time: before sowing, right after, or on a crop that is already growing. It keeps water in, but it cannot make water appear. A tile has to be watered once by hand before the effect starts. After that single watering, the tile stays wet every night until the crop is ready.
Regrowing crops get even more from it. On a plant that produces again and again from one sowing, the soil keeps working through every repeat harvest. A single watering at planting time can carry a whole run of Cranberries or Blueberries through to the end of their season.
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 |
| Basic Retaining Soil | 
|
Stone (2) | Farming Level 4 |
| Deluxe Fertilizer | 
|
Iridium Bar (1), Sap (40) | Qi's Walnut Room (20) |
| 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
Garden Pots are where this soil matters most. Sprinklers never water a pot, so every potted crop normally needs a watering can each day. With Deluxe Retaining Soil in the pot, one watering is enough for the whole crop. Rows of potted plants in a shed, a barn or the farmhouse become hands-off.
Players on the Beach Farm can also find a few bags for free. The supply crates that wash up on that farm's shore start carrying it once the farmhouse has been upgraded at least twice.
In the Greenhouse, where the seasons never end a planting, the soil stays in the tile until the ground is cleared.
All Crafting
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
