Quality Retaining Soil
| Quality Retaining Soil | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Crafted Item |
| Recipe | Farming Level 7 |
| Produces | 2 Quality Retaining Soil per craft |
| Sell Price | 5g |
Quality Retaining Soil is a soil treatment that often keeps a tile watered from one day to the next. On a tile treated with it, about two mornings in three begin with the crop still damp, so the watering can comes out far less often. It is the middle step between Basic Retaining Soil and the island-only Deluxe Retaining Soil, which never dries out at all. The recipe comes at Farming level 7, and it is also sold in town and in the desert. It does its best work on farms that still water by hand.
The in-game description reads: This soil has a good chance of staying watered overnight. Mix into tilled soil.
Recipe
Reaching Farming level 7 teaches the recipe. Crafting Stone with a lump of Clay makes a pair of Quality Retaining Soil, so a small pile of materials covers a good-sized field.
Buying is the other option. Pierre's General Store sells it from the second year onward. Sandy's shop, the Oasis in the Calico Desert, also stocks it, but only on Saturdays and at a higher price. Reaching the desert means repairing the bus at the Bus Stop first, so the Oasis is a later option for most farms. The Traveling Cart sometimes carries a few as well.
These are the ingredients one batch needs.
| Name | Image | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Stone | 
|
3 |
| Clay | 
|
1 |
Use
The soil goes on a tilled tile, and the timing is flexible. It can be added before planting, right after sowing, or at any later stage of growth. That makes it easy to patch in once a field is already planted.
Each morning, a treated tile has a good chance of staying watered without any help. The chance sits at about two in three, double the chance from Basic Retaining Soil. Deluxe Retaining Soil, traded for Cinder Shards at the Island Trader on Ginger Island, keeps the soil wet every single morning.
A tile holds only one kind of fertilizer. Using Retaining Soil there means giving up Quality Fertilizer or Speed-Gro on that square.
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 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 |
| Speed-Gro | 
|
Pine Tar (1), Moss (5) | Farming Level 3 |
| Tree Fertilizer | 
|
Fiber (5), Stone (5) | Foraging Level 7 |
Notes
The soil is most useful early in the game. Before sprinklers cover the fields, every dry tile has to be watered by hand. Treating the hardest-to-reach rows, or a whole small field, frees up time for the Mines, fishing or friendships.
It also suits Garden Pots. A pot treated with retaining soil needs a top-up far less often, which helps when pots are scattered around the house or the porch.
Once sprinklers cover the fields, the soil loses most of its purpose. At that stage, the same tiles usually gain more from Quality Fertilizer or Speed-Gro.
All Crafting
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
