Impact of Weeds

[Metropolis Man]

Does anyone know if completely ignoring the weeding aspect has negative impact on harvest quantity/quality? I'm assuming it does—otherwise, why would it even be in the game? But, I have not done any testing myself.

[Anushka]

I think that if you don't weed your plant it won't grow to next stage, and if it is mature, it won't become harvestable. Weed kind of stop plants growt. I'm 99% shore about this.

[Metropolis Man]

Great. Thanks. I always click Tend Garden instead of just Harvest, so everything always gets done, but I was hopeful! 

[ratchie]

I never weed my plants and they still grow. I manage to grow them to perfect quality too it is possible that it takes longer for them to grow but someone would have to test that out. I very rarely fertilise them either I do the bare minimum when it comes to gardening.

Rachel

[Anushka]

Ratchie that's a surprise. I too usually tend garden, but once I tested if it is possible for Sim to grow 400 grapes for nectar challenge without maxing gardening so I made him plant 45 grapes, put sprinkles and fence, and waited for them to grow. All were same quality, none fertilized. And then, those with weed didn't sprout but others did, and it continued like that for several days, those who had weed around didn't grow to next stage so gave up and sent Sim to tend garden. I didn't test weeding part then and gave up little too soon as it seems,  but so I said I was 99% shore.

[Leto85]

It may influences the nicely decorated moodlet also. As you may have seen, when your sims is walking by a bunch of mature lifefruit plants, ready to harvest, you will notice he has the nicely decorated moodlet.
Try walking by a bunch of plants which are full of weeds and see if this has any impact on the moodlet.

[Anushka]

I did some testing here, and so far I find out that plants with weed are growing 2x slower then not weeded. Not quite shore about the impact when they are mature, as it seems that they regularly become harvestable, but tomato that got weed when planted took 7 days to mature, instead of usual 4. It is much more significant with uncommon, rare and special plants, so if bell pepper got weed when planted it would take up to 4 sim weeks to mature.

[Schipperke]

Thanks for taking the time to test this and sharing that information, Anushka.  That's very useful to know.  I hope Carl sees your post - it would be good information to have in the Guide.

[Naga]

Interesting topic. Perhaps it was about time we asked other people too.

Well I haven't ever had trouble with the weeds, and didn't even notice if a plant wouldn't grow when it had weeds on them, but I know that weeds do not affect the harvest amount. Every time I send my sim to harvest his money trees (and I only do it when they are all Harvestable), he gets 150-185 money bags in his inventory by the time he's done. I did it again when they all had weeds on them, and still got the same amount, and sold for the same amount too.

I'm not sure about the quality, because Money Trees have a particular quality system, but it didn't seem to affect my Plasma plants or fruits at all (growing a few of them, none are perfect yet, but they are growing just normally).

::EDIT::
I checked the wiki to see if I could find anything weed-related, but there was only the same old Master Planter skill challenge, which doesn't change much. Also, does anyone know what's a Garden Gnome?
Master Farmer

Master Farmers have harvested at least 650 fruits and vegetables. The plants of Master Farmers remain watered and fertilized longer, meaning their gardens are more efficient. And if you have a garden gnome he will come to life and water your garden.

[Saltypaws]

It is an interesting topic.  The only thing I do, when they are seedlings,  is try and weed as often as possible. I usually  just have my sim harvest when fully mature, but right now, all he has is about 60 money trees and 3 or 4 plasma plants.  It literally takes my sim two days to weed, so I had him not weed anymore and the money trees still produce the same with or without weeding.  I do the same thing you do Naga, I try to harvest them all at once and it takes all day and into the night to harvest all of them and he is usually pretty hungry and stinky by the time he gets done, lol.

I can't say for sure on the other plants as to how they do with or without weeding, this is just my observation on the money trees.

[Metropolis Man]

Well, after doing further testing I can say without a doubt that weeds do negatively impact the Harvest stage for Money Trees. Money Trees should be able to be harvested every other day. That's their natural cycle. BUT, if you just harvest and don't remove the weeds that timeline gets extended. That's what I'm finding in my Man Dynasty. If someone obtains different info I'd love to hear about it. Soon. 

[Saltypaws]

I guess I never paid attention before.  Since there were so many and I really had not harvested them all at once at first.  Guess I need to pay more attention to my game, lol.

[Naga]

Were those Money Trees with which you tested fertilized? Where they all perfect quality? Had all of them already given they're offspring seed away? Were all of their harvest times syncronized?

[Metropolis Man]

Were those Money Trees with which you tested fertilized? Where they all perfect quality? Had all of them already given they're offspring seed away? Were all of their harvest times syncronized?

Too many questions!  It was hardly an accurate, controlled test I confess. But, let's just say it was accurate enough for me to go in a certain direction for a certain upcoming challenge. 

[Leto85]

Too many questions!  It was hardly an accurate, controlled test I confess. But, let's just say it was accurate enough for me to go in a certain direction for a certain upcoming challenge. 

Haha!
But this only inflencing money trees, if I've read that right? I asume it must do something with the other plants too. At least something.
I was thinking it woyld make the plants harder to photograph, being some of them part of a photo collection and than too much weed will make the game less able to recognise the plants. But not true. My sim could photograph the plants (while recognizing what it will be) even when it wasn't yet in fully grouth.