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Instructor
Original Poster
#1 Old 1st Mar 2007 at 2:37 PM
Default How do sprinklers work and how do I take care of orchard trees?
I bought an orange tree at the beginning of spring. But it is sickly and since there are rarely any options when I click on it, I don't know how to make it healthy again. Every once in a while there is the option to "tend" and "spray" and I do those options when they come available. I also bought a ladybug house and a sprinkler. The sprinkler doesn't turn on at all and I have had it for two sim days. Plus it has no options on it to turn it on. Does it only come on in the summer? Did I buy the orange tree to early in the year? I need some help! :D

Dream
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 1st Mar 2007 at 2:43 PM
Lol, maybe you need to talk to it. Don't mind me, I'm just reading threads and waiting patiently for the game to come in the shops here.
Test Subject
#3 Old 1st Mar 2007 at 2:50 PM
I had this same problem too. I had some apple trees, but everything I did to take care of them made them sick. So I just had to get rid of them. If anyone has any tips for caring for trees, that would be great.
Instructor
Original Poster
#4 Old 1st Mar 2007 at 3:12 PM
Well for some reason it is healthy again. Maybe it does need to be bought in a warmer season. I sure the hell don't know! LOL! But yeah, if anyone here has figured out how to take care of trees, I'd like to hear it too. And the sprinkler still isn't on. Maybe it doesn't have a sprinkle animation. I hope it does though...I wanted the kids to play in it.

Dream
Lab Assistant
#5 Old 1st Mar 2007 at 3:15 PM
I'm not an expert on it yet, but there seems to be times when you can tend, and spray, and other times not. If you keep paying attention, tend and spray etc. when needed, they do get better. I put the two that were giving me trouble in the greenhouse so I could concentrate on them, and by the next spring, they were fine again.

Ladybug houses close to the trees will stop you from having to spray them - they're the ecofriendly way of pest control.

Trees don't need water - or at least don't need regular water from what I can discern - the sprinklers are for the soil based plants - that's when they turn on intermittently, when you plant something in the soil next to them.
Instructor
Original Poster
#6 Old 1st Mar 2007 at 3:19 PM
OK, thanks calalily! I didn't know that about the sprinklers.
Forum Resident
#7 Old 1st Mar 2007 at 5:32 PM
I struggled a bit at first...but just keep tending, watering and every now and then you will get an option for "spray" - I guess thats for bugs... I have successfully harvested apples and oranges...but the lemon tree is permanently sick...I wonder if it will thrive when the weather cools down...I am in my first cycle of Autumn.
What's up with those darn tomatoes though? They keep dying on me.

I've never been married, but I tell people I'm divorced so they won't think something is wrong with me.
- Anonymous


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Lab Assistant
#8 Old 1st Mar 2007 at 5:37 PM
Quote: Originally posted by eedgan
I struggled a bit at first...but just keep tending, watering and every now and then you will get an option for "spray" - I guess thats for bugs... I have successfully harvested apples and oranges...but the lemon tree is permanently sick...I wonder if it will thrive when the weather cools down...I am in my first cycle of Autumn.
What's up with those darn tomatoes though? They keep dying on me.


Ack, I had so much trouble with tomatoes. My sim now has a gold badge in gardening, and everything else is nearly always Thriving, except the tomatoes! >.< :einstein

My name is Loren.
#9 Old 1st Mar 2007 at 6:21 PM
I've been gardening quite intensively since I got seasons and I got some experience with trees...

Basically trees are rather fickle (so it seems). You can tend them (when they overgrow) and spray them (when the bugs start buzzing around them), but even with that care they will simply be sickly at some points. Mostly they clear up by time, especially during summer.

If your sim has a gold gardening talent badge though, you can talk to those sickly trees and get them to thriving pretty quickly. Maybe they just need some love and attention
Coffee, anyone?
retired moderator
#10 Old 1st Mar 2007 at 6:32 PM
Once you have the ability to talk to plants, you can turn a sickly plant into a thriving plant in no time.

I'm worried that my latest Salvation Army donation will result in homeless people looking like sluts from the 90s.
Test Subject
#11 Old 1st Mar 2007 at 6:44 PM
Well, from what little I've gotten to play (my computer is dying little by little...) Talking to the trees is the best way to make them healthy. Spraying makes them loose health, a little, but talking to them gets them in great shape in no time. I got 9 mouth watering oranges from just simply talking to and tending to the trees.
Instructor
Original Poster
#12 Old 1st Mar 2007 at 6:58 PM
Thanks for the great tips everyone. The family I am playing right now recently had twins (The first twins I have had in the game in AGES!), so the orange tree and tomato plants now look like death warmed over from lack of care. The garden is one of the last things to get tended now (it's after feeding the cat and guinea pig and somewhere above cleaning the house). LOL! Does hiring a gardener help at all, or should I just save my money?

Dream
#13 Old 1st Mar 2007 at 7:22 PM
A gardener will tend your plants, crops and trees and has a bronze gardening badge apparently, so yes it helps.
Lab Assistant
#14 Old 1st Mar 2007 at 7:25 PM
thejarviclan is right - they do lie dormant in winter, and usually (at least for me) when spring came around, they were doing great.

A gardener will tend and water, but won't harvest.

The best way to take care of your garden is to get a plant sim. They are sooo cool. They self spawn, so you can have a great number of offspring, and their kids only have toddler and adult stage.
#15 Old 1st Mar 2007 at 7:26 PM
I haven't managed to get a plantsim yet - they really have to go wacko on the pesticide or something? oO I couldn't get one even while spraying the trees whenever the option popped up in an orchard of 8...
Lab Assistant
#16 Old 1st Mar 2007 at 7:29 PM
Do some kind of money cheat, make sure it's spring, summer or fall (not winter, cause trees don't do anything then) buy about 15 trees, and leave them. When the option clicking on the tree says "spray many" - get your sim to spray away. I got a plant sim in 3 days doing that. I now have a husband and wife plant sims, and 4 self spawned babies. The babies are so cute.

Edit to say: No ladybug houses - they will stop the plants from getting diseases - you WANT diseases so you can spray.
#17 Old 1st Mar 2007 at 7:44 PM
Thanks a lot Calalily I'll try that, I absolutely loved the plantsim that comes standard with Riverblossom Hills.
Instructor
Original Poster
#18 Old 2nd Mar 2007 at 2:01 PM
Thank SO much for that tip on making PlantSims, calalily!! It didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. After just a half a day of doing nothing but spraying for bugs, I got my PlantSim! I'm glad too, because I hate waiting a long time for my sim alternate lifeforms. Becoming a werewolf takes WAY too long in my opinion, even with cheating the wolf onto the lot every night. And one of my big questions has finally been answered! LOL! Male PlantSims can spawn baby PlantSims. Yay! :D

Here is my sim before:



And here he is now:



Dream
Field Researcher
#19 Old 2nd Mar 2007 at 2:14 PM
Guys, do the sprinklers function all the time or only occasionally?

My tomatoes are almost ready for harvesting, and they haven't turned on once! It is quite annoying.

Had no problems whatsoever with trees. It was rather easy, as well as earning the golden badge that to the tomatoes that I had to run around to keep them going.
Test Subject
#20 Old 2nd Mar 2007 at 3:53 PM
I saw the sprinklers go on once with the Greenman Family in Riverblossom Hills or whatnot, but not since. I usually obsess over my plants though, so I always water them, tend them, talk to them, etc. as much as they need and as soon as they need it. For some reason, I'm really in love with the gardening..I think my sim will open a grocery store or fruit stand and make a little profit...or cook things and open a resturant...
Instructor
Original Poster
#21 Old 2nd Mar 2007 at 4:06 PM
Yup, it's talking to the plants that does it! Now that I have my PlantSim and he can talk to everything, all the plants and trees are thriving...even the tomatoes!! LOL! Don't overwater the tomatoes either. I barely watered mine at all and they did great.

APaiger, I really like the gardening too, now that I know how to do it. I also have my sim water the plants by hand. Oh and gardening does take a lot of time. So a large garden is probably not going to get the care it needs if all of your sims are busy with other things such as family or work.

Dream
Lab Assistant
#22 Old 2nd Mar 2007 at 4:11 PM
I'm glad it helped you. Aren't the plant sims gorgeous - I love the curliques all over their skins.

As far as the sprinklers, they go when needed, as far as I can discern, so if you water the garden, they might not turn on at all.
Instructor
Original Poster
#23 Old 2nd Mar 2007 at 4:17 PM
Yes, I think the PlantSims are very beautiful! I'm quite in love with mine! :valentine Thanks again for the tip. I probably wouldn't have tried to get one for a while without your help. When I heard that they got that way from overusing pesticide, I had this vision of making my sim do nothing but spray bugs day after day for weeks before I got one! LOL!

I like the animation they do when they are low on water. It makes me wonder what they look like when they die of no water or no sunlight. Do they turn brown and wither? I'd love to know, but I'm not torturing my PlantSim! HeeHee! Maybe someone more evil can tell me! :D

Dream
Field Researcher
#24 Old 2nd Mar 2007 at 4:19 PM
Quote: Originally posted by calalily
As far as the sprinklers, they go when needed, as far as I can discern, so if you water the garden, they might not turn on at all.


Hmm, but that's odd, or rather what is the point? If I want to keep my plants thriving, and I do, I have to water them, and the sprinklers are never on. So that means they get turned on when the plants are about to keel over, but then I don't even need them. Bummer.
Turquoise Dragon
retired moderator
#25 Old 2nd Mar 2007 at 8:20 PM
Actually, my sprinklers were coming on so much, my plants were dripping water! LOL Well, it rained some too, but even when it wasnt raining, they would be dripping water. And I still got the option to water! weird. Also, if you go into buy mode, you can see what plants the sprinkler's range covers, so you know where to place the next one.
Locked thread | Locked by: HystericalParoxysm Reason: Please see Gardening sticky.
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