Onions

Bulk	1
Weight	1

Grown on sand from Onion Seeds.

How to obtain:

• Plant Onion Seeds in a sandy area. Water it immediately, and water it again each time it changes size. Harvest once the option appears.

Unlike the other vegetables, if you over water onions they do not die. It appears that watering onions resets their growth timer, making it take longer for the onion to reach the next stage of growth. (see discussion for details)

Uses

• Cooking (Grilled Onions)
• Sheep food

Yield

7 around -500, -500ish west of S Harmony in Seven Lakes (Raw Data: MrStoned)
12 @1113,275 and 13@0,0 (Raw Data: Stoneyard)

Seed Production

Based on tests with a lot of Lower Egypt Advanced Research Network this evening, we believe we have found it:

• There are avatar-specific special trees, likely based on some hash function. These seem to be every 100 or so coords, so there's probably one near your camp.
• Every time you harvest a tree, it adds that tree to your "batch".
• Every time you harvest onions, your "batch" resets.
• If you harvest onions with fewer than seven trees in your "batch", you get normal yield.
• If your batch contains one or more of your "magic" trees, you get a seed.
• If your batch doesn't contain any "magic" trees but it does contain a tree that is within about 25-50 coords of a "magic" tree, you get a half yield.

You can find a "magic" tree by the following:

1. Harvest onions to reset your batch
2. Harvest 7 trees.
3. Harvest onions. If you get normal yield, go back to step 2 in a new area.
4. If you got half yield, harvest every tree within about 50 coords of the original 7.
5. Harvest onions. This time you should get a seed. You can now narrow down which of that huge set of trees is "magic" by cutting the search in half, knowing that when you no longer get a tree after doing that half the magic tree is in the other half. Then repeat as needed until you find it exactly.

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I received 0 yield and 2 seeds on my first growth. I got 2 yield and 1 seed on my 2nd growth. Then yield went to 5 with 1 seed after that. senario: Guildmate was working flax, had a 100+ bundle in the water near where I was growing. I recently built a building (brick racks, small distaff, chest). Have not been able to duplicate again. -- Shiranai

Guildie got 0 yield and 2 seeds on first growth. I had been teaching him a skill, there was rotting flax nearby, he was picking slate up at the time and had recently picked grass. He has been unable to repeat it. I got 0 yield and 2 seeds on the first growth. I had been teaching, rotting flax nearby, and making bricks. We both had perfect waterings. Happened again to another guildie. He was not being taught a skill. Maybe its having another avatar nearby, or opposite sex avatar or having a guildie nearby. I was 10-12 coordinates away. But this was not repeatable. Once a day kind of thing? This all happened around 11:30a.m. game time --Amora

I also received 2 seeds, 0 yield on my first planting. I planted two seeds; the second harvested produced 1 seed, 2 yield and all subsequent plantings produced 1 seed, 4 yield. All waterings were punctual. I had not yet taught any skills this tale. All guild members were in another region; I saw no one else nearby. Both just before and during the growing period, I gathered thorns, slate, and water, and caught three species of insect. Time was 12:10AM --Axhakumu

I have produced my second onion seed. Each night (after midnight) for several nights (4), I planted several onions. The first planted seed of the night has so far always given a smaller yield than any neighbouring or subsequent seeds planted in that spot-- in my case, 3 vs. 5 yield. When the seed was produced, the yield was 0, the yield of the next planted seed was 3, and all other seeds planted at that time gave 5 yield. I was not doing anything else at the time (earlier, I gathered slate and dirt), and was relatively far from buildings and other people. Time at seed production was ~4:20am. --Axhakumu

My hypothesis is that the first planted seed each day (or shorter period-- probably each Egyptian day, but unsure) has a (maybe random?) chance to earn a new seed via multiple "die rolls" made on the first plant. Each "win" in this lottery decreases the yield by some amount as well as increases the chance of a new seed by some amount which is <100%. One "win" might increase the seed production to, e.g., 1.5, but we would not receive a "half seed" so we get only the one we planted. Multiple "wins" may decrease the yield beyond a threshold (0?), and then the chance for seeding may increase until it is >=100% (thus +1 seed), and we get a new seed. --Axhakumu

I think it might be a simple 24h or 48h timer. I got a seed the first time i planted (0 onions, 2 seeds). After not planting anything for about 12h i tried a spot and got 3:1, which was lower than anything else before BUT the second harvest. To test my theory i planted another seed on the exact same spot and got a 6:1 ratio. -- entux

I also had 2 seeds, 0 onions on first planting - one seed only planted, about 5:15 am Egypt time. All subsequent plantings yielded 4 onions and 1 seed. Watering patterns (double watering each time for one planting, letting it die back and then watering again for another) didn't affect the yield either way on subsequent plantings. I was the only one in the area and hadn't done anything unusual since logging in though I did have two beetles (picked up >24 hours ago) in inventory as well as some dried flax. No other avatars were visible and I hadn't left the campsite or spoken in Main since logging in (though I had chatted in guild and private chats). I had built buildings (flax hammock, brick racks and flax comb), gathered things (wood, mud, sand, thorns, slate, water), made boards, stone blades and bricks, made canvas, rope and twine, restrung the loom and repaired the plane, and grown, rotted and dried flax. Most of that seems too common to be the only trigger for seeds. I don't yet know Arthropodology so it can't have been insect related and I have never fished or dowsed. Possibly a time of day or once per real life/Teppy day thing, or a waveform like carrots from tale 5? --Ahnati

I've never had any extra seeds, I've planted at different times of the day. I've gotten mushrooms, herbs, fished, insects, FEMALE beetles. I've built a CP, Sheep pen, made jugs, gathered limestone and been on a dig. I haven't gotten a single palm frond. I've also grown all other types of vegetable except Carrots. --Pauven (After further testing, beetles and growing other vegetables seems to have no effects on onions. I have also tested empty inventory, dropping beetles, near different stages and types of flax, after ripping flax, after harvesting flax, after harvesting seeds).

Having planted once and got a seed, I ran around gathering wood from trees. No specific loop, just roaming around gathering. After 271 wood (dropping 2 due to weight capacity) returned and planted at the same place and got another seed. Theories: either related to quantity of wood gathered or related to gathering from specific tree types. I performed no game actions (other than talking on channels, but not Main) between the plantings other than gathering wood. I did get some insects but since people have said they didn't have that trained we can probably write that off. -- yllamana

Adding: I repeated the whole thing, just gathering wood, and planted in a different location and got seeds again. -- yllamana

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• I got my first seed after planting normally, harvesting 78 unique trees without repeating any of them, and planting again.
• Immediately afterwards I did another run of 78 trees with about 50% overlap with that first run and got a half-harvest but no seed.
• Following that, I harvested a run covering my first trial (with a little extra) and got another seed. I've put the trees on that run at Talk:Onions

--LehmanHotep 22:34, 8 December 2011 (EST)

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I just found a single tree that makes my next harvest produce a seed. It's a Towering Palm at 1167,7222. I do not have to harvest any other trees to get this effect, just this one. -- yllamana

My magic tree at 781, -1044 (Seven Lakes) is the Giant Cricklewood. --Fazzfab

See also

The general vegetables page, as well as Cabbage, Carrots, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Garlic, Leeks, Peppers.

Required By

Cooking, Epreuve des Festivals, Grilled Food, Sheep, Test of Festivals, Test of Towers