Once you have leveled your farm to Level 7 the Crop Mastery System is unlocked, which allows you to earn a tiered series of mastery ribbons for each of three levels of Mastery: Yellow Ribbon, Red Ribbon, and Blue Ribbon.
There are basic elements - or rules - to this process that you need to be aware of:
(1) When you plant a crop and do not fertilize it, each time you harvest that crop you will receive a fixed amount of Mastery XP for that specific crop.
(2) The higher level of Mastery you have for each crop the better the results you receive for harvesting it, including Mastery XP, Coins, and the chance for that harvested unit to be a Prized Crop (which pays additional Coins and Mastery XP).
(3) During the special period each year when the County Farm event is active, planting and harvesting crops you have Mastery of will lead to better results and higher County Fair scores.
(4) Mastery of a crop tends to lead to better yields, which is good for Crafting purposes.
(5) There are no negative aspects to Crop Mastery.
Once Crop Mastery is active on your farm the process is automatically tallied up with each crop unit you harvest. An example of the process - which is measured in Mastery Points - is as follows, using the Tomato, which has relatively low requirements, as our example:
Tomato
Each stage is counted separately, so for example harvesting a total of 100 Tomato would gain you the Yellow and the Red Ribbons, but not the Blue, which requires you to harvest an additional 100 units of Tomato Crop.
When you unlock the first Mastery Ribbon (the Yellow Ribbon) you are awarded with a decoration for your farm in the form of a Crop Mastery Sign for that specific crop type, that indicates that you have obtained the first level of Mastery.
With each additional level of Mastery you obtain for that crop, the sign is changed, growing larger and adding the next Ribbon you unlocked.
Because Crop Mastery is viewed - literally - as a badge of honor by many farmers, they make it a point to display every Mastery Sign that they have earned. Due to space limits (once you have a large collection of these) many farmers will only display the Mastery Signs for crops that they have at least attained Red Ribbons for, while others will only display Mastery signs for those that they have obtained FULL Mastery for (meaning the Blue Ribbon).
It is possible to fail to master a plant because a large segment of the crops that appear in the game are temporary ones - which is to say time-limited - so should you fail to completely Master them during the time that they are available, that is viewed as a failure by a lot of players.
On the other hand, since full Mastery is thought to be a badge of honor and something to celebrate, many farmers make sure you can see which crops it is that they have fully completed Mastery for, often considering that more important in terms of status than the level of their farm!
If you are interested in Crop Mastery, the following Regular Crop Mastery list will help guide you in what is required for each stage:
Crop Name | Yellow Ribbon | Red Ribbon | Blue Ribbon |
Asparagus | 357 | 1306 | 4039 |
Barley | 892 | 3266 | 10098 |
Blackberry | 1875 | 6875 | 21250 |
Blueberry | 12 | 118 | 270 |
Broccoli | 198 | 727 | 2250 |
Cabbage | 316 | ? | ? |
Carrot | 198 | 727 | 2250 |
Corn | 750 | 2750 | 8500 |
Cucumber | 297 | 1075 | 3375 |
Eggplant | 149 | 546 | 1688 |
Lavender | 396 | 1452 | 4565 |
Onion | 99 | 363 | 1125 |
Potato | 198 | 727 | 2250 |
Pumpkin | 50 | 181 | 546 |
Quinoa | 1180 | 4356 | ? |
Radish | 1125 | 4125 | 12750 |
Raspberry | 436 | 1597 | 4937 |
Red Pepper | 357 | 1306 | 4039 |
Rye | 2625 | 9625 | 29750 |
Soybean | 495 | 1815 | 5620 |
Spinach | 297 | 1075 | 3375 |
Squash | 792 | 2904 | 8976 |
Strawberry | 50 | 181 | 546 |
Sunflower | 99 | 363 | 1125 |
Sweet Potato | 297 | 1075 | 3375 |
Tomato | 10 | 90 | 100 |
Wheat | 11 | 109 | 180 |
To sum it up, Mastery gets you better yields and more profit, fertilizing gets you Prize Crops, which gets you better Mastery XP, Farm XP, and profit.
Fertilizing your crops is obviously an important element in maximizing your farming results, which means placing a priority on obtaining Fertilizer should be high on your list of activities. You can obtain Fertilizer from the following sources:
Composting will provide a constant source of FRU's;
Farm Helper Actions result in the drop of a FRU;
Feeding Animals can spawn Fertilizer;
Feed Postings contain Fertilizer;
Fertilizer can be purchased from the General Store.
Watching commercials (when offered them) can give you Fertilizer.
Who would have thought that Animal poo could be so desirable and valuable?
What is an FRU?
You select the crops you want to fertilize and use the fertilizer on them. Simple as that.
i have a quest that asks me to fertilize 5 crops how do i do that i have plenty of fertilizer!!!!!
There are some known issues with specific crops - but these should be fixed in the next patch.
i am not getting the mastery points i should be getting with some master crops. i am only receiving 1 x the xp points when i have a red or blue ribbon? anybody had the same problem or know how to fix this??
i am not getting the mastery points i should be getting with some master crops. i am only receiving 1 x the xp points when i have a red or blue ribbon? anybody had the same problem or know how to fix this??
Do you have to have the signs out for them to work or can I store them in storage?
Jester_69: Look in your inventory
I've gotten the first level of mastery for tomatos but i chose not to place the sign (accidently) is there anyway to get it back? will i get a chance to place it next time i level that crop up?
I want to thank you for this. This has helped me tremendously!