OSRS Farming 1–99 Guide: Tree Runs, Herb Runs and Profit

Why Farming 1–99 Still Matters

Farming is the skill where most of the XP arrives while you are doing something else. You plant, pay the gardener, leave, and come back hours later to check the tree's health. The wiki's estimate for 99 with consistent tree runs is around 3–4 months at most, and the time you actually spend clicking is a few minutes per run.

Bils Services offers hand-done Farming training if you would rather skip the daily runs. Everything below works without it.

The rates and per-run totals below are OSRS Wiki figures for efficient play: every tree protected, no missed checks and a practised route. Sapling and payment prices move with the Grand Exchange, so costs are listed as the payment items each tree needs, and you can price them on the day you buy.

Pick Your Farming Method

Farming XP comes from one-off quest XP, timed runs where you plant and come back later, and a couple of active methods, of which Tithe Farm is the one that lasts to 99. The table puts them side by side using the wiki's Farming training and Tithe Farm strategies numbers.

The tree-run rate is XP per hour you actually spend clicking. In real time you are capped by growth timers, which is why the days-to-99 table further down matters more than the hourly figure. Tithe Farm rates are the wiki's combo-method numbers without the farmer's outfit; the 25x4 route reaches up to 115,000 XP an hour with logavano.

Hours to goal

1. 1

   Tree runs, 85–99:

   9,775,837 XP at the wiki's 215,761 XP per late-game run is about 45 runs, roughly 4 hours of clicking spread over six or seven weeks.

2. 2

   Tithe Farm, 74–99:

   11,938,153 XP at 108,380 XP an hour is about 110 hours.

3. 3

   Tithe Farm, 34–99:

   about 4.6 hours on golovanova (34–54), 14.3 hours on bologano (54–74) and 110 hours on logavano, so about 129 hours in total.

4. 4

   Herb runs only, 85–99:

   a full 10-patch torstol run at 8 herbs a patch is about 20,000 XP, so 99 needs roughly 490 runs, or 41–82 hours at the wiki's 5–10 minutes per run.

Farming 1–99 Level Path

Start with quests. Seven of them give 32,500 Farming XP between them, which is level 38: the Goblin generals part of Recipe for Disaster, Fairytale I - Growing Pains, Forgettable Tale... (17 Farming), The Garden of Death (20), Garden of Tranquillity (25), My Arm's Big Adventure (29) and Enlightened Journey (30).

From there the level path is a tree ladder. Almost all tree XP comes from checking the health of a fully grown tree, so the table lists that number rather than the small amount you get for planting.

Spirit trees (83) give 19,301.8 XP per check, and the newer camphor (66), ironwood (80) and rosewood (92) hardwoods sit alongside teak and mahogany. Plant the best regular tree and the best fruit tree you can on every run, then add the slow special trees whenever a patch is free.

XP Per Run: Tree, Fruit Tree and Hardwood Runs

Per-check numbers are useful, but you plan Farming by the run. These tables multiply the wiki's total XP per tree (planting plus checking with protection paid, plus 6 fruit picked on fruit trees) by the number of patches you are likely to have. Every per-tree figure is from the tables on Farming training.

The wiki's tree-run setup lists 7 tree patches (the Farming Guild one needs 65), 7 fruit tree patches (Lletya needs Mourning's End Part I started and the Farming Guild one needs 85) and 5 hardwood patches: three on Fossil Island after Bone Voyage, one at Locus Oasis after The Ribbiting Tale of a Lily Pad Labour Dispute and one at Anglers' Retreat with 51 Sailing. The Varlamore tree and fruit tree patches need Children of the Sun.

Special trees stack on top: calquat (72) adds 12,516.5 XP per tree across up to 3 patches, crystal (74) 13,366, celastrus (85) 14,404.5 and redwood (90) 22,680. The wiki's own late-game example of 6 magic trees, 6 dragonfruit trees, a calquat and a celastrus comes to 215,761.3 XP with payments.

How Many Tree Runs to 99 Farming

Here is a typical routine: one run a day of regular trees and fruit trees, plus calquat from 72 and celastrus from 85, starting at 38 after the quests. It assumes 6 tree patches (7 from 65), 5 fruit tree patches (6 from 85) and the best tree your level allows. XP needed comes from the wiki's Experience table.

That is about 72 daily runs from 38 to 99, roughly ten weeks. Running the regular trees twice a day (magic trees take 8 hours) and fruit trees once brings it to about 49 days by the same arithmetic, and adding three Fossil Island hardwoods every fourth day saves about six days on the one-run routine.

If each run takes around the wiki's 5 minutes 20 seconds, 72 runs is about 6.4 hours of actual play. The wiki's own estimate of 3–4 months at most leaves room for missed days, cheaper trees and slower routes.

Tree Runs vs Tithe Farm

This is the choice most players ask about once they reach 34. On XP per hour you actually play, it is not close. Tithe Farm still has two things tree runs lack: it costs nothing, and its shop sells items you cannot get anywhere else. Numbers are from Tithe Farm and Tithe Farm/Strategies.

The combo method earns 107 points an hour and the 25x4 route about 110. Every collectible in the shop costs 1,150 points together, which the wiki times at about 10.5 hours on the 25x4 route.

Verdict: pick tree runs if you can buy saplings or already have the seeds. Pick Tithe Farm for 34–65 on an ironman, for the seed box and auto-weed, or when Farming is your last 99 and you would rather put in hours than wait on timers.

Tools, Secateurs and the Outfit

Farming leans on tools more than most skills, and two of them change how much you harvest rather than just letting you work a patch.

Magic secateurs are the single upgrade worth detouring for, because a 10% better yield chance compounds across every herb patch on every run for the rest of the account's life. They come from Fairytale I - Growing Pains, and a lost pair costs 40,000 coins from Malignius Mortifer once Tanglefoot is dead, per the Magic secateurs page.

Leave the tools with a tool leprechaun rather than your bank. Gricoller's can stores in the watering can slot, and once Tithe Farm's auto-weed is bought the rake can stay with the leprechaun too. Herb runs still need a spade in the inventory, plus a seed dibber unless Barbarian Training's barehanded planting is done.

Fastest XP Methods

Tree runs are the fastest effective XP in Farming by a wide margin, and the wiki tells you to make them your first priority. Pay the gardener to protect each tree so it cannot die while you are away, then come back and check its health for the XP in the tables above.

The wiki's example of a late-game run is 6 magic trees, 6 dragonfruit trees, a calquat and a celastrus. It takes about 5 minutes 20 seconds and gives roughly 215,761 XP with payments. Most players do one or two runs a day.

Tithe Farm opens at 34 and is the active alternative. The wiki's Farming training page puts it at about 90,000–100,000 XP an hour from 74, and the combo method on the strategies page reaches 108,380. It is also where the Farmer's outfit, the seed box and Gricoller's can come from. The wiki only recommends active methods if Farming is the last skill you need for 99.

Cheapest / Budget Approach

Herb runs fund the skill and the account. Herbs grow in 80 minutes. Three herb patches are open from the start, and more unlock through Priest in Peril (Morytania), visiting Kourend (Hosidius), 65 Farming (Farming Guild), My Arm's Big Adventure (Troll Stronghold), Making Friends with My Arm plus a Fire of Nourishment (Weiss), Children of the Sun (Civitas illa Fortis) and the elite Morytania Diary (Harmony Island).

Use ultracompost on every herb patch. A grown patch starts with three harvest lives and ultracompost adds three more, so you never get fewer than 6 herbs. Magic secateurs push the average above that, and the Farming cape adds another 5% on herb patches once you have it.

The Farming Guild opens at 45 and no longer needs Kourend favour. Guildmaster Jane's contracts pay seed packs that can contain Hespori, celastrus and redwood seeds, which saves buying the expensive ones.

Cheap tree runs mean staying on lower trees longer. Oaks and willows cost little to pay for, but each level takes more days, so time is the hidden cost.

Two cheaper habits from the wiki's Farming training page: regular trees are usually the expensive part, so a player in no rush can stick to fruit, hardwood and special trees, and palm trees can beat dragonfruit on cost per XP depending on prices. You can also grow your own saplings: a tree seed in a filled plant pot with a gardening trowel, watered once, grows into a sapling even while it sits in the bank.

Herb Run Profit Drivers

A herb patch's profit is the herbs it gives minus the seed and the compost. You cannot change the price of ranarr, but you can change how many herbs each seed turns into. Every patch starts with 3 harvest lives, each pick has a chance not to use one up, and that chance is what the items below raise.

That last row is about 2,315 XP for a torstol patch (199.5 for planting plus 224.5 per herb), against 4.712 herbs with no compost at all. The yields come from the wiki's Herb page and the effects from Ultracompost, Farming cape and Herb patch.

Disease is the other half of profit, and gardeners do not watch herb patches. Five patches can be made disease-free: Troll Stronghold (My Arm's Big Adventure), Weiss (Making Friends with My Arm), Hosidius (easy Kourend & Kebos Diary), Harmony Island (elite Morytania Diary) and Civitas illa Fortis (16,000 Glory at the Fortis Colosseum). Herb prices move daily, so check the wiki's herb calculator before you pick a seed, and our herb run guide for the route.

AFK & Lower-Intensity Options

Farming is the most passive skill in the game. A run takes a few minutes and then nothing happens for hours: magic trees take 8 hours, fruit trees 16, and a redwood 106 hours 40 minutes. A run before work and one in the evening covers most of it.

Tithe Farm is the one method you sit at for a session, and it is active rather than AFK.

Set a timer for herb runs. At 80 minutes a cycle, you can fit several into one evening of play.

Practical Tips That Actually Matter

• The bottomless compost bucket drops from Hespori (1/35), whose patch in the Farming Guild needs 65 Farming. It holds up to 10,000 uses of one compost type, and each bucket you add counts twice.
• Do the seven Farming quests before planting anything bigger than an oak. 32,500 XP is level 38.
• Pay the gardener on every tree and fruit tree. An unprotected tree can die, and a dead magic tree is a lost check-health payout.
• The seed vault in the Farming Guild stores your seeds so they stop clogging the bank.

Ironman Notes

Farming matters more on an Ironman than on any other account because it is the input to Herblore, and Herblore is the input to every serious PvM trip. Herb runs done twice a day for a few weeks change what content your account can attempt.

The XP is close to a side effect. Treat Farming as infrastructure: unlock the patches, get the run efficient, and let the level arrive on its own while the herbs pile up.

The hard part is seeds, not XP. This is the route the wiki's Ironman Guide/Farming page points to:

1. 1

   Quests first.

   The six quests on the ironman guide's list give 27,500 XP and level 37; My Arm's Big Adventure adds 5,000 more for 38 and opens the disease-free Troll Stronghold herb patch.

2. 2

   Tithe Farm from 34 to 65.

   About 9 hours at the combo-method rates, with no seeds spent. Buy the seed box (250 points) and auto-weed (50) first; the outfit can wait.

3. 3

   Farming contracts from 65.

   Medium contracts are the most consistent seed source. Pre-plant the crops the wiki recommends for your tier (for hard contracts: maple and yew trees, palm trees, celastrus, redwood, watermelons, snape grass and white lilies) and do not check them until they are assigned.

4. 4

   Hespori from contract seed packs.

   Every kill rolls an anima seed, and the bottomless compost bucket is a 1/35 drop.

5. 5

   Skip gardener payments.

   The wiki calls gathering protection payments generally inefficient for ironmen: use ultracompost on every tree and keep Resurrect Crops on the Arceuus spellbook for the rare death.

6. 6

   Make your own ultracompost.

   Pineapples from charter ships (or your own watermelons) go into a compost bin, then 25 volcanic ash from Fossil Island after Bone Voyage turns a full bin of supercompost into ultracompost.

More detail sits in our own guides: bird house runs for nests, Thieving for master farmers, the Hespori guide for the fight, and ironman combat training for the levels Nechryael and dagannoth need. The herbs then go into Herblore.

UIM, HCIM, Pure and F2P Notes

Ultimate Ironman. The seed vault is closed to UIMs, so the wiki's UIM Farming guide leans on Tithe Farm early for the seed box (six seed types in one slot) and auto-weed, then medium contracts at 65. Tool leprechauns note herbs, farmable Herblore secondaries and tradeable saplings, so produce never has to sit in the inventory. The bottomless compost bucket is worth chasing early, though the Hespori trip means parking your other items with an item retrieval service; once you have it, a tool leprechaun stores the bucket in its own slot. More on the account type in our UIM guide.

Hardcore Ironman. The one boss in the skill is Hespori at 65; the rest is runs and Tithe Farm. Read the Hespori guide before the first kill, and see our HCIM guide for the wider rules.

Pures. Magic secateurs come from Fairytale I - Growing Pains, and the wiki notes that limited builds such as some Defence pures can take them halfway through the quest without gaining unwanted combat XP. Skillers cannot get them, because the prerequisite quests give combat XP. Plan the build first with our pure builds guide.

Free-to-play. Farming is a members' skill, so an F2P account cannot train it at all. Our F2P training guide covers what you can level instead.

Common Mistakes

1. 1

   Planting before the quests.

   The seven Farming quests give 32,500 XP, level 38. Every oak and willow you pay for before then buys levels the quests give for free.

2. 2

   Leaving expensive trees unprotected.

   A magic tree needs a sapling plus 25 coconuts to protect, and a dead one pays no check-health XP. Pay the gardener, or on an ironman use ultracompost and keep Resurrect Crops ready.

3. 3

   Running herbs without ultracompost and magic secateurs.

   A patch with no compost starts at 3 harvest lives and ultracompost makes it 6. At 99 with secateurs and a cape, ultracompost takes a patch from 4.712 herbs to 9.423, and the secateurs are a free 10% on top once Fairytale I is done.

4. 4

   Putting your best seeds in patches that can catch disease.

   Gardeners do not protect herbs. Save torstol and ranarr for the five disease-free patches and use cheaper seeds everywhere else.

5. 5

   Grinding the farmer's outfit as a main chasing 99.

   The full set costs 400 Tithe Farm points for 2.5% bonus XP. The wiki's Farmer's outfit page works out that it saves about 326,000 XP on the way to 99 and usually costs more time than it saves.

When Paid Training Makes Sense

The case for buying Farming rests on what it is blocking. Tree runs cost gold for saplings and payments, and they need weeks of daily logins even though each run is only a few minutes. Buy it if those daily runs are the only thing between you and the content you actually log in for; skip it if you enjoy the routine, which plenty of players do.

If you do order it, say which route you want as well as the level range: tree runs and Tithe Farm get to the same 99 on very different timelines and supply bills. Our Farming page lists what we need from you, and the work is played rather than botted.

FAQ

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Final Takeaway

Quest to 38, plant the best trees you can every day, and run herbs whenever you log in. Our herb run guide covers the money side, and the Hespori guide covers the bottomless bucket.

Browse Farming training, more skill guides, or the full blog for related progression help.