OSRS Farming Guide 1-99 (2026): Tree Runs, Costs and Tithe Farm

Quick summary

• Quest to 38 first. Seven quests give 32,500 Farming XP, enough for level 38 (OSRS Wiki).
• Tree runs are the main method from 15 to 99. Plant regular trees, fruit trees, hardwoods and special trees, pay the farmer to protect them, then come back to check health for most of the XP.
• The best run is big. The wiki's example run (6 magic, 6 dragonfruit, 1 calquat, 1 celastrus) gives 215,761.3 XP in about 5 minutes 20 seconds.
• Expect roughly 75-80 daily runs from 38 to 99 on the best regular and fruit trees, by our arithmetic. Hardwoods, extra calquats and redwood cut that down. Theoatrix puts the best-tree route at 59 days and a budget run at 122 runs.
• Tithe Farm is the fastest in real time. It's active play at about 90,000-100,000 XP/h from 74, and Theoatrix calls it about 5 days nonstop to 99.

This OSRS Farming guide covers members' Farming from 1 to 99, including the Varlamore and Sailing-era patches. XP, costs and the run route come from the OSRS Wiki's Farming training page and Tithe Farm page, checked on October 28, 2026. It's about Old School RuneScape, not RuneScape 3. 99 needs 13,034,431 XP; run counts, hours and costs below are our arithmetic on the wiki's figures, not wiki numbers.

Pick your route

Route	Levels	What you do	Time to 99 (our arithmetic)	Best for
Best trees	15-99	Daily runs with the highest tree, fruit tree, hardwood and special trees you can plant	About 75-80 runs after the quest skip, fewer with hardwoods	Mains with gold to spend
Budget trees	15-99	Maples, papayas, calquats, celastrus, then redwood	About 122 runs (Theoatrix)	Players who want low cost
Tithe Farm	34-99	Active minigame with free seeds	About 120-133 hours from 74 at 90,000-100,000 XP/h	Fast real-time 99, ironmen early
Herb runs + trees	32+	Herb runs every 80 minutes between tree runs	Slower XP, but profit offsets tree costs	Players funding the best trees

The trade-off is simple. Tree runs give a huge amount of XP for a few minutes of play, but you wait for the trees to grow. Tithe Farm gives you XP right now, but you play for every point of it.

Step 1: The quest skip (1-38)

The training page lists seven quests that together give 32,500 Farming XP. Level 38 needs 30,408 XP, so you land at 38 with a little left over.

Quest	Farming XP	Farming level needed
Recipe for Disaster: Goblin generals subquest	1,000	None
Fairytale I - Growing Pains	3,500	None
Enlightened Journey	3,000	30
Forgettable Tale...	5,000	17
Garden of Tranquillity	5,000	25
My Arm's Big Adventure	5,000	29
The Garden of Death	10,000	20
Total	32,500

Order matters because of the level requirements. Do Goblin generals and Fairytale I first: 4,500 XP takes you to level 20 (our arithmetic from the XP table). That covers Forgettable Tale (17) and The Garden of Death (20), which take you to 33. Garden of Tranquillity (25), My Arm's Big Adventure (29) and Enlightened Journey (30) are then all open, and you finish at 38. No planting is needed in between.

Later quests also give Farming XP: Rum Deal (7,000, needs 40), Grim Tales (10,000, needs 45), While Guthix Sleeps (75,000, needs 65) and Song of the Elves (40,000, needs 70), per the wiki's quest reward list. Save these for when you meet the requirement.

If you can't quest yet: 1-15

The wiki lists these options to reach 15, the level for oak trees:

• Bagged plants in your house. Buy them and plant them in your house's garden. Phials, in Rimmington, can unnote them.
• Making compost. Supercompost gives 8.5 XP and ultracompost 10 XP each.
• Allotments. Potatoes, onions and cabbages in the free allotment patches.
• Sorceress's Garden. Sq'irks give 30, 40, 50 or 60 Farming XP depending on the garden, and you get Thieving XP too.

Step 2: Unlock patches before you need them

XP per run depends on how many patches you have. These are the counts on the training page.

Patch type	Count	First level	Unlock notes
Tree	7	15	Falador, Taverley, Lumbridge, Varrock, Gnome Stronghold, Nemus Retreat (Varlamore), Farming Guild (65 Farming)
Fruit tree	7	27	Gnome Stronghold, Tree Gnome Village, Catherby, Brimhaven, Kastori (Varlamore), Lletya (Mourning's End Part I started), Farming Guild (85 Farming)
Hardwood	5	35	3 on Fossil Island (Bone Voyage), Locus Oasis (Varlamore), Anglers' Retreat (51 Sailing)
Calquat	3	72	Tai Bwo Wannai (Tai Bwo Wannai Trio), Kastori, The Summer Shore (Troubled Tortugans)
Crystal	1	74	Prifddinas (Song of the Elves)
Celastrus	1	85	Farming Guild
Redwood	1	90	Farming Guild

The wiki's recommended unlocks for faster runs:

• Tree Gnome Village and The Grand Tree for spirit trees and Gnome Stronghold access.
• Bone Voyage for Fossil Island hardwoods.
• The Ribbiting Tale of a Lily Pad Labour Dispute, which the wiki lists as recommended for runs.
• Plague City for Ardougne teleports.
• Tai Bwo Wannai Trio for the Tai Bwo Wannai calquat patch.
• Fairytale II started for fairy rings.
• Mourning's End Part I started for the Lletya fruit tree.
• Children of the Sun and Twilight's Promise for Varlamore travel.
• Song of the Elves for the crystal tree.
• 40 Construction for a house in Brimhaven, and 40 Magic for teleports.

Step 3: Pick your trees by level

Every tree gives a small amount of XP when you plant it and most of its XP when you check its health once it's grown. The "Total XP" column is the whole cycle as listed on the wiki. Pay the listed item to the nearby farmer and the tree can't die.

Regular trees

Tree	Level	Payment	Growth time	Total XP
Oak	15	1 basket of tomatoes	3h 20m	481.3
Willow	30	1 basket of apples	4h	1,481.5
Maple	45	1 basket of oranges	5h 20m	3,448.4
Yew	60	10 cactus spines	6h 40m	7,150.9
Magic	75	25 coconuts	8h	13,913.8

Fruit trees (all take 16 hours)

Tree	Level	Payment	Total XP
Apple	27	9 sweetcorn	1,272.5
Banana	33	4 baskets of apples	1,841.5
Orange	39	3 baskets of strawberries	2,586.7
Curry	42	5 baskets of bananas	3,036.9
Pineapple	51	10 watermelons	4,791.7
Papaya	57	10 pineapples	6,380.4
Palm	68	15 papaya fruit	10,509.6
Dragonfruit	81	15 coconuts	17,825

Hardwood trees

Tree	Level	Payment	Growth time	Total XP
Teak	35	15 limpwurt roots	74h 40m	7,325
Mahogany	55	25 yanillian hops	85h 20m	15,783
Camphor	66	10 white berries	85h 20m	17,928
Ironwood	80	10 curry leaves	85h 20m	20,525
Rosewood	92	8 dragonfruit	106h 40m	23,352

Special trees

Tree	Level	Payment	Growth time	Total XP
Calquat	72	8 poison ivy berries	21h 20m	12,516.5
Crystal	74	None needed	8h	13,366
Celastrus	85	8 potato cactus	13h 20m	14,404.5
Redwood	90	6 dragonfruit	106h 40m	22,680

Two tips from the wiki: pay the farmer to chop the tree down so you don't have to, and finishing the elite Falador diary means trees in Falador Park can't get diseased. Celastrus is the exception to "let the farmer chop it": its bark is valuable, so harvest it yourself.

What tree runs cost

At Grand Exchange prices on October 28, 2026, the wiki's tables put each tree's full cost (sapling, protection and removal) at roughly:

Tree	Cost each	Coins per XP
Magic	About 84,000	6.1
Dragonfruit	About 127,000-131,000	7.1-7.5
Palm	About 26,000-32,000	2.5-3.1
Papaya	Small profit if you pick the fruit	Pays for itself
Mahogany (ultracompost, no payment)	Tiny	0.09

So the top run (6 magics and 6 dragonfruit) costs about 1.3 million coins before the calquat and celastrus, our arithmetic on the wiki's figures. The wiki itself suggests palms over dragonfruit if you're not in a hurry, and hardwoods are the cheapest XP of all. Prices move, so check the Grand Exchange before you buy saplings in bulk; our money making guide has ways to fund it.

Step 4: XP per run and how many runs you need

These are our sums from the wiki's Total XP figures. They assume 6 tree patches and 5 or 6 fruit patches, and leave out hardwoods unless stated.

Your level	Example run	XP per run (our arithmetic)	Runs to the next milestone
38-45	6 willows + 5 oranges	21,822.5	About 1.4 runs to 45
45-51	6 maples + 5 curry trees	35,874.9	About 1.4 runs to 51
51-57	6 maples + 5 pineapples	44,648.9	About 2.0 runs to 57
57-60	6 maples + 5 papayas	52,592.4	About 1.3 runs to 60
60-75	6 yews + 5 papayas	74,807.4	About 12.5 runs to 75
75-85	6 magics + 6 palms + 1 calquat	159,056.9	About 12.9 runs to 85
85-99	6 magics + 6 dragonfruit + 1 calquat + 1 celastrus (wiki example)	215,761.3	About 45.3 runs to 99

That totals about 77 runs from 38 to 99. Because fruit trees take 16 hours, one full run per day is the realistic pace, so plan on about two and a half months.

Things that shorten it:

• Hardwoods. Five mahoganies at 55 are 78,915 XP (our arithmetic) every three and a half days or so.
• Extra patches. The Farming Guild tree patch from 65, two more calquat patches, the crystal tree at 74 and redwood at 90 all add XP. The Anglers' Retreat hardwood needs 51 Sailing (our Sailing guide), and the Brimhaven house needs 40 Construction (our Construction guide).
• A second regular-tree run. Magics grow in 8 hours, so you can plant regular trees twice a day.
• Quests. While Guthix Sleeps and Song of the Elves together give 115,000 XP.

Speed in active time is very high. The wiki puts the top run at about 2.4M XP per active hour, so 85-99 is roughly 4 hours of actual playing spread over weeks (our arithmetic).

The budget version

Theoatrix's cheapest fast run uses maple trees, papaya fruit trees, calquats and celastrus, then redwood from 90. He puts it at 122 runs to 99, about 4 months at one run a day, and about one-twentieth of the gold of the best-tree route (his estimate). Papayas also give you fruit to pick, which helps pay for the run.

Step 5: Run the route in order

This is the wiki's 18-step route, shortened. Skip any patch you haven't unlocked.

Bring: coins or noted payments, a spade, a stamina potion, saplings, a ring of wealth, Lumbridge, Varrock and Catherby teleports, a slayer ring, house tablets with Taverley and Brimhaven redirection scrolls, a digsite pendant, a pendant of ates, a rune pouch and an axe. Store your rake at a tool leprechaun.

1. Falador Park tree (ring of wealth).
2. Taverley tree (house portal or run north from Falador).
3. Lumbridge tree, west of the castle.
4. Varrock tree, north-east of the square.
5. Gnome Stronghold tree (slayer ring to the Stronghold Cave, or spirit tree).
6. Gnome Stronghold fruit tree, east by the spirit tree.
7. Tree Gnome Village fruit tree (spirit tree, then follow Elkoy through the maze).
8. Farming Guild tree (65) and fruit tree (85) with a skills necklace.
9. Nemus Retreat tree (pendant of ates).
10. Kastori fruit tree and calquat (pendant of ates or quetzal).
11. Locus Oasis hardwood (quetzal to Colossal Wyrm Remains, or fairy ring AJP).
12. The Summer Shore calquat (fairy ring CJQ with 50 Agility, or a sailors' amulet to Deepfin Point with 67 Sailing and a charter ship).
13. Catherby fruit tree. Bank here to restock hardwood saplings and ultracompost.
14. Brimhaven fruit tree (house teleport or charter ship).
15. Anglers' Retreat hardwood (charter to Corsair Cove, then the rowboat with 51 Sailing).
16. Tai Bwo Wannai calquat (teleport scroll or fairy ring CKR).
17. Fossil Island three hardwoods (digsite pendant and the barge).
18. Lletya fruit tree (teleport crystal).

You only need the hardwood and calquat stops on days when those trees are ready.

Herb runs and allotments

Herb runs are mainly for money, not speed. Herbs grow in 80 minutes. The wiki recommends ultracompost on every herb patch: it lowers the disease chance and with magic secateurs, guarantees at least 6 herbs per seed.

Three herb patches are open by default (Falador, Catherby, Ardougne). The other seven need:

Patch	Requirement
Morytania	Priest in Peril
Harmony Island	Elite Morytania diary
Hosidius	Visit Kourend once
Farming Guild	65 Farming
Troll Stronghold	My Arm's Big Adventure
Weiss	Making Friends with My Arm, plus building the Fire of Nourishment
Civitas illa Fortis	Children of the Sun

From 47 you can grow watermelons in the allotments next to herb patches, at 54.5 XP per watermelon. Plant nasturtiums in the flower patch to protect them. From 61, switch to snape grass (82 XP each) and white lilies, which protect all allotments from disease (OSRS Wiki).

Theoatrix's point is that herb runs pay for better trees. A few herb runs a day can cover the cost of magic and dragonfruit trees, but herbs alone are a slow route to 99. The herbs also feed Herblore: our Herblore guide shows which ones are worth keeping.

Tithe Farm

Tithe Farm, in Hosidius, needs 34 Farming. You take free seeds from a table, plant them, water each one three times, harvest after 3 minutes, and deposit the fruit in sacks.

Seed	Level
Golovanova	34
Bologano	54
Logavano	74

How to get the most out of it:

• Bring a seed dibber and 6-8 watering cans until you can buy the gricoller's can, which is refilled for free at the shop.
• Deposit in batches of 100. You get a bonus when you deposit your 75th fruit, and double XP for fruit 75 to 100.
• Boosts work, but you must boost before taking seeds and before planting.
• Leaving the farm resets your score. It also removes your seeds and fruit. Logging out keeps them.

You earn 1 point per 3 fruit deposited, up to 16,000 points. The farmer's outfit costs 400 points, the seed box 250, and everything untradeable 1,150. The wiki estimates the 25x4 method needs about 10.5 hours for all the untradeable rewards.

The rates: from 74, the wiki says 90,000-100,000 XP/h. Theoatrix says up to 110,000 with the farmer's outfit and about 105,000 without. From 74 to 99 that's about 120-133 hours at the wiki's rates (our arithmetic). Theoatrix calls the whole 1-99 about 5 days of nonstop play.

Farming contracts and Hespori

Farming contracts come from Guildmaster Jane in the Farming Guild. She tells you what to grow, and you get a seed pack for each one you finish. Asking "Do you have anything easier?" swaps a contract for a lower-tier one; easy contracts can't be swapped. If you get a contract for a tree you already have growing in the guild, you can check its health and hand it in straight away (OSRS Wiki).

Theoatrix's view is that contracts mostly matter for ironmen, as a steady seed supply.

Hespori. Hespori seeds from contracts grow in the Farming Guild's cave (65 Farming). When grown, digging it up wakes the Hespori; kill it, then harvest the patch for 12,600 Farming XP (12,915 with the full farmer's outfit) and a pack of seeds, including the chance of rare flower seeds (OSRS Wiki).

Ironman and returning players

Ironmen. Seeds are the hard part. Chop your grown trees yourself instead of paying the farmer, and the yew, magic and mahogany logs feed Fletching and Construction (our Fletching guide). Start Tithe Farm at 34 for free XP and the farmer's outfit and seed box, do contracts every run, and grow your own payments: tomatoes, apples, oranges and coconuts. Prioritize Fossil Island and Varlamore hardwood patches early, since hardwood seeds come from contracts and drops.

Returning players. Recheck your patch list. Varlamore added the Nemus Retreat tree, Kastori fruit tree and calquat, and the Locus Oasis hardwood. Sailing added the Anglers' Retreat hardwood (51 Sailing) and The Summer Shore calquat (Troubled Tortugans). Older guides that say "only one calquat patch" are out of date.

Tree runs fit around everything else you play; the OSRS hub has guides for the rest.

Want a hand with this?

If you would rather not grind this part yourself, OSRS skill-leveling services are listed on FullBoosts. Read Jagex's Rules of Old School RuneScape before you buy any service from anyone, FullBoosts included — a marketplace listing isn't publisher permission.

FAQ

What is the fastest way to get 99 Farming in OSRS? In days, it's tree runs with the best trees at every patch: about 75-80 daily runs after the quest skip by our arithmetic, or 59 days per Theoatrix. In real time, Tithe Farm is faster at about 5 days of nonstop play.

How much XP does a tree run give? The wiki's example high-level run (6 magic, 6 dragonfruit, 1 calquat, 1 celastrus) gives 215,761.3 XP. At 60-75 with yews and papayas it's about 74,800 (our arithmetic).

How much does a tree run cost? About 1.3 million coins for 6 magics and 6 dragonfruit at late-October 2026 prices, by our arithmetic on the wiki's cost tables. Palms, papayas and hardwoods are far cheaper per XP.

Which quests give Farming XP? The seven-quest skip gives 32,500 XP to reach 38. Later, Rum Deal, Grim Tales, While Guthix Sleeps and Song of the Elves add 132,000 XP more.

Is Tithe Farm worth doing? Yes, for the farmer's outfit (400 points) and seed box (250 points), and if you want a fast real-time 99. It's also free, since the seeds are provided.

How often should I do tree runs? Once a day for fruit trees (16 hours to grow), and up to twice for regular trees (magic takes 8 hours). Hardwoods take three to four and a half days.

Related guides

• OSRS hub
• OSRS Sailing guide 1-99
• OSRS money-making guide
• OSRS Herblore guide 1-99
• OSRS Woodcutting guide 1-99
• OSRS Hunter guide 1-99
• OSRS Construction guide 1-99
• OSRS Fletching guide 1-99