Greenhouse building

[pTowel]

I'm trying to build a small side greenhouse on my home lot using content from the Stone's Throw Greenhouse. I have a number of questions about building a greenhouse.

1. What do the greenhouse roof parts do? Does it actually keep out the elements or are they pure decoration?

2. Why can't I plant anything in it normally? I get a message saying I have to plant outside but there aren't any floor tiles in it.

3. Do sprinklers work with planters? I'm really averse to using planters in a greenhouse but if they work with sprinklers then they might be a useful stopgap until I can get my plants properly inside the greenhouse with their roots firmly in the ground.

4. I've tried using moveobjects to forcefully dump some old plants in there. It looks to be superficially working but I also have a Swiftgro Station there forcefully squeezed in with moveobjects along with everything else and am wondering how or if it works inside there. The product description claims it will fertilise and weed the entire greenhouse but you'll forgive me for being skeptical when the greenhouse doesn't even register as a valid place to plant seeds in the first place. Also, does it affect planters?

[Sammijo]

1. The roof pieces will keep out rain and snow, but plants may still go dormant in winter.

2. Some have said that you can leave out one wall section, plant things, then add in that section.

3. The swiftgro station will water planters, but sprinklers will not.

4. The swiftgro station can be used indoors or outdoors. It has an option to open the composter and add 3 pieces of fertilizer. After that you can choose to fertilize all plants under the station. If that fertilizer is the sunshine from a dancing sunflower, it will also weed the plants. The station will also cause plants to "age up" twice a day, giving you 2 harvests but you also have to weed twice. You can use the station to identify unknown seeds, but separate the seeds first. If you have them all in the same stack and they turn out to be different types of seeds after identifying them, the game will error. You'll loose all but 1 seed in the stack.

[pTowel]

Thanks for the information. Disappointing that the greenhouse roof pieces don't actually stop the effects of winter on the plants.

It seems that knocking down one wall section, planting seeds, then adding the wall back prevents Sims from being able to tend the plants inside though. I guess I'll have to fill the entire greenhouse with Swiftgro Stations and planters.

[Chuckles_82]

If you use the sunshine, you can make the plants grow every time you use the composter. You can basically use it like the fairy's 'bloom' skill, and just keep growing and growing your plants. Combine it with the gatherer trait, and the excellent produce from the market stalls, and you can get perfect produce first time for most plants. Others might require you to level up to level 10, and have the green thumb trait to boost it that little bit further for a first time perfect produce. The only plant that doesn't respond to the fertiliser is the money tree. Once it has reached maturity, it only seems to be harvestable after 5am every day like normal.

If you want plants inside, plant them outside first, then use MOO to move them inside.

[Zyffyr]

If you want plants inside, plant them outside first, then use MOO to move them inside.

With MOO, you can just plant them inside to begin with.

[Branr]

The greenhouse roof objects do keep your plants from going dormant if you place a flat roof on top of the greenhouse then add the toppers.  The toppers make the flat roof invisible so you can see through the roof.

What I do to plant inside is turn moveobjects on, select plant activity, then turn it right off. It keeps me from forgetting to turn it off later, and your sim will actually go in the greenhouse and plant.

[pTowel]

I see. Why not leave moveobjects on, though? It seems like a real hassle to toggle it on and off everytime my Sims need to do their gardening.

[Ricalynn]

If you leave it on, it means that trying to place anything will allow it to go anywhere and while for some things that's not a bad idea.  For others in can be a real pain in the buns.  Especially if you place some items, save the game and quit. Then all of a sudden none of your Sims can access something that had been perfectly reachable the last time you played.  It could be one of the items that had been placed with MOO.

[ilovethesims]

I've tried building a greenhouse and placing my plants inside until Winter season came. Some of the plants turned white but they still kept on producing fruits and didn't wither until spring came.