Game version: 2.0106

IMPORTANT: I do not believe that it’s necessary any anymore to view the document as a published document (found here).  I think as many people as want to can view this document at the same time, it’s just that only 100 will have the ability to leave comments. Thank you!

All of the following information is taken directly from the source code for the version listed above.  I don’t think I misread anything in the code but if I did please let me know!

Garden Basics/Unlocking the Garden Minigame

In order to unlock the garden minigame, you must spend one sugar lump to upgrade your farms to level one:

Sugar lumps are obtained when you reach 1 billion cookies baked all-time.  Leveling up your farms further increases the size of your garden, up to level 9 which will give you a 6x6 garden.  Initially, only the Baker’s Wheat seed will be unlocked, but the rest of the 34 total seeds in the game can be unlocked via crossbreeding, as described in the sections below.

Breeding Your First new Plant

As an example, I will describe here how to obtain the first new seed, Thumbcorn.

1. First, while the game was just sitting around, some weeds may have started to grow in your garden while your game was just sitting there, but we want to start with a completely clear garden, so click the ‘Harvest All’ tool on the left side of your garden to clear all plants.  When you do this, there is a chance that some of the weeds might leave “Brown Mold” or “Crumbspore” in their place.  For now, just click on those to get rid of them as well.  You’ll want them later but ignore them for now.  
2. For now, just plant your Baker’s Wheat in rows across your garden, leaving one blank row in between each row of Baker’s Wheat (shown in picture below).  This is not the most efficient way to plant but it is just fine for now.  More efficient setups can be found later in this doc.  

1. The requirement to generate Thumbcorn is an empty plot with at least 2 mature baker’s wheat plants in the 8 plots surrounding it.  Other combinations for other plants are given in the list or recipes below.

3. If you don’t fill your entire garden (because you don’t have enough cookies or something), you just want to make sure that there are no plots which are empty and are surrounded by all empty plots.  This is a space where a weed could possibly grow.  If you don’t have enough cookies to plant enough plants to prevent this, you’ll just want to check your garden every few minutes and remove any weeds which may have grown.
4. Once you have all of your Baker’s Wheat planted, you’ll want to change your soil to fertilizer, because this makes the plants grow faster, and plants need to be mature to generate new mutations (like Thumbcorn).  Fertilizer also makes weeds more likely to grow though so watch out for those and remove them if they start to grow.
5. Once your Baker’s Wheat is all mature, change your soil to wood chips if you have it unlocked (you need 300 farms to use wood chips). If you don’t have wood chips unlocked, just leave your soil on fertilizer or switch to dirt if you don’t want to worry about weeds.  Wood chips make plants grow at an average speed, but also make mutations 3x more likely.
6. Now just wait for Thumbcorn to appear in the empty slots!  Each tick (shown by the timer above the soils), each empty plot which has at least 2 mature Baker’s Wheat plants in its 8 neighbors has a chance to spawn a Thumbcorn plant.
7. If a Thumbcorn plant spawns, great!  But don’t uproot it yet.  You will only obtain the seeds from a plant if you uproot it once it is mature.  So wait for the Thumbcorn to reach maturity (around 8-10 minutes with fertilizer), then uproot it to get the seeds.

1. Once you have the seeds for a plant, you can plant that plant whenever  you want as much as you want.

8. If a Thumbcorn plant doesn’t spawn and your Baker’s Wheats all grow too old and die, just replant your garden and try again!
9. If you follow these steps, you should have Thumbcorn unlocked in about a half hour or so.  And from there, you can use Baker’s Wheat and Thumbcorn together to breed Cronerice, and then use cronerice to breed other stuff, and that’s how the garden works!  Many more details on the exact probabilities and requirements for generating new plants can be found below.  And please visit the cookie clicker Discord here.  There are lots of knowledgeable people there who will probably be willing to help.

Recipes for Plant Mutations

Here are the crops which are obtainable in the version above and all possible combinations of neighbor crops which can produce the given new crop in an empty plot.  Neighbor crops are in the 8 plots around a plot.  The decimals listed are the probabilities for that mutation (more info below).  All quantities are assumed to refer to that number of mature crops unless otherwise specified (like when it says ‘any’).  @Johanson69 also made a nice chart which you can see here.  All of the mutations listed below as well as the probabilities are up to date with version 2.0106.

• Baker’s Wheat

• 2x Baker’s wheat (0.2)
• 2x Thumbcorn (0.05)

• Thumbcorn

• 2x Baker’s wheat (0.05)
• 2x Thumbcorn (0.1)
• 2x Cronerice (0.02)

• Cronerice

• 1x Baker’s Wheat, 1x Thumbcorn (0.01)

• Bakeberry

• 2x Baker’s Wheat (0.001)

• Gildmillet

• 1x Cronerice, 1x Thumbcorn (0.03)

• Clover

• 1x Baker’s Wheat, 1x Gildmillet (0.03)
• 2x mature Clover, less than 5x total clover (0.007)

• Golden Clover

• 1x Baker’s Wheat, 1x Gildmillet (0.0007)
• 2x mature Clover, less than 5x total clover (0.0001)
• 4x or more Clover (0.0007)

• NOTE: This means that in order to be able to only grow spawn a Golden Clover, and have no chance of spawning regular clover, you should have at least 5 clovers around each open plot with at least 4 or them being mature.  In order to have the highest mutation rate, albeit with the possibility of generating regular clover, you should have exactly 4x mature clover around each open plot.

• Shimmerlily

• 1x Clover, 1x Gildmillet (0.02)

• Elderwort

• 1x Shimmerlily, 1x Cronerice (0.01)
• 1x Wrinklegill, 1x Cronerice (0.002)

• Chocoroot

• 1x Baker’s Wheat, 1x any Brown Mold (0.1)

• White Chocoroot

• 1x Chocoroot, 1x any White Mildew (0.1)

• Brown Mold

• 1x White Mildew, 1x or less any Brown Mold (0.5)

• White Mildew

• 1x Brown Mold, 1x or less any White Mildew (0.5)

• Meddleweed

• 1x Mature Meddleweed, no more than 3x total Meddleweed (0.15)

• Nursetulip

• 2x Whiskerbloom (0.05)

• Whiskerbloom

• 1x Shimmerlily, 1x White Chocoroot (0.01)

• Chimerose

• 1x Shimmerlily, 1x Whiskerbloom (0.05)
• 2x Chimerose (0.005)

• Drowsyfern

• 1x Chocoroot, 1x Keenmoss (0.005)

• Wardlichen

• 1x Cronerice, 1x Keenmoss (0.005)
• 1x Cronerice, 1x White Mildew (0.005)

• NOTE: Since White Mildew also has a high probability of generating Brown Mold, it is usually better to use Keenmoss to obtain Wardlichen

• Exactly 1x Mature Wardlichen, 0x other Wardlichen (0.05)

• Keenmoss

• 1x Green Rot, 1x Brown Mold (0.1)
• Exactly 1x Mature Keenmoss, 0x other Keenmoss (0.05)

• Queenbeet

• 1x Bakeberry, 1x Chocoroot (0.01)

• Juicy Queenbeet

• 8x Queenbeet (0.001)

• Duketater

• 2x Queenbeet (0.001)

• Crumbspore

• 1x Mature Crumbspore, 0x other Crumbspore (0.07)
• 2x Doughshroom (0.005)

• Glovemorel

• 1x Crumbspore, 1x Thumbcorn (0.01)

• Cheapcap

• 1x Crumbspore, 1x Shimmerlily (0.03)

• Fool Bolete

• 1x Doughshroom, 1x Green Rot (0.02)

• Doughshroom

• 2x Crumbspore (0.005)
• 1x mature Doughshroom, 0x other Doughshroom (0.07)

• Wrinklegill

• 1x Crumbspore, 1x Brown Mold (0.06)

• Green Rot

• 1x White Mildew, 1x Clover (0.05)

• Shriekbulb

• 1 Wrinklegill, 1x Elderwort (0.001)
• 5x Elderwort (0.001)
• 3x Any Duketater (0.005)
• 4x Any Doughshrom (0.002)
• 5x Queenbeet (0.001)
• Exactly 1x Mature Shriekbulb, 0x other Shriekbulb (0.005)

• Tidygrass

• 1x Baker’s Wheat, 1x White Chocoroot (0.002)

• Everdaisy

• 3x Tidygrass, 3x Elderwort (0.002)

• Ichorpuff

• 1x Elderwort, 1x Crumbspore (0.002)

Generating Meddleweed, Brown Mold, and Crumbspore

You may notice that Meddleweed is only produced by itself and Brown Mold and White Mildew produce each other according to this list above.  This is because these are actually first produced via a different means:

Meddleweed has a 0.2% chance of spawning in a viable weed-spawning plot every tick.  A viable weed-spawning plot is one with no other plants in any of its 8 neighboring plots.  Note that this means that weeds can still spawn on the edge of the garden a long as all of the plots around them are still empty.  After it has spawned, it can spread, according to the list of mutations above.  Having the soil set to fertilizer will make weeds spawn much more frequently.

Brown Mold or Crumbspore can be produced upon the harvest of Meddleweed.  The older the Meddleweed was when it was harvested, the greater the chance of producing one of these.  From what I can tell, a plant expiring is not the same as harvesting and Meddleweed will not produce Brown Mold or Crumbspore if it expires.  The exact formula for the chance of spawning one of these is:

If (random value between 0 and 1) < (0.2*(age/100))

then spawn either Brown Mold or Crumbspore (50% chance for each)

White Mildew is then obtained from brown mold according to the list above.

Plant Mutation Mechanics

Here is some more info on exactly how plant spreading works:

• On every tick, possible mutations are calculated for every empty plot
• Only mature crops count for generating new mutations (for the most part, see the next bullet point). For weeds and fungi, they do not need to be mature to prevent fungi of different types from spreading, however they do need to be mature to spread themselves.
• Sometimes plants do not need to be mature to generate a mutation.  These cases are specified in the list of mutations above
• Weeds only spawn in a plot if no other plants are in any of the 8 plots surrounding it
• On each tick, each empty plot has a chance of being filled with a mutation.  Here are the steps to generate a mutation:

1. First, the list above is used to generate a list of possible mutations and a probability associated with each possible mutation (also listed above)
2. For each possible mutation that is found, a random number between 0 and 1 is generated
3. If this random number is less than the probability associated with that mutation AND EITHER the chosen mutation is not a weed OR the random number is less than the current soil’s weed multiplier (see below for weed multiplier numbers), that mutation is added to an unweighted list.  Currently the only weed in the game is Meddleweed.  White Mildew and Brown Mold are Fungi.
4. From all mutations added to that list, one is then randomly chosen and that mutation is created in the empty plot
5. For all soil types except for wood chips the grid of plots is looped through once with this process.  For wood chips the grid is looped through 3 times.

• Note that because having weeds are actually required to breed some crops and using wood chips (which boost mutation rate but decrease weed growth) exclusively is not the fastest way to go about getting them. The quickest way to obtain those crops is actually to use fertilizer and allow weeds to grow then plant the necessary crops to breed the new crops you desire and then switch to wood chips
• In order to obtain seeds for a new plant, the new plant must be harvested when mature
• Having more than the necessary amount of neighboring mature plants for a mutation does not increase the likelihood of obtaining that mutation.  Only using wood chips and having more empty plots with the appropriate neighbors helps
• It should also be noted that ‘save scumming’, that is, saving the game before a random event occurs and then reloading if the desired result is not obtained, can be used to increase your chances of obtaining a desired mutation.  You can also open multiple tabs of the game and wait for the event to happen, then continue playing in the tab that gives you the outcome you desire.  These are strategies which are in use by some, and whether or not they are cheating is left to the individual.  Play the game as is fun for you.
• Ichorpuff has the ability to extend the lifetime of plants by slowing their aging rate.  This may be useful to extend the window of maturity of plants so that their breeding window is larger.  
• Ichorpuffs are no longer able to be used to achieve a negative aging multiplier, meaning that plants can no longer age backwards.  They can, however, virtually stop plant aging if you surround a plant with enough Ichorpuffs.  With 8 mature ichorpuff neighbors and clay soil, a plant’s aging will essentially come to a halt.

Efficient Plant Arrangements for Breeding

The Japanese Cookie Clicker wiki has some very helpful images showing efficient way to arrange plants for breeding.  For mutations which require two plants of the same type, the following arrangements are useful:

The orange squares represent plants and the white squares represent viable spawning spaces.  The level above each figure is the level of farm for which that setup is most optimal.   The following arrangements are useful for mutations which require two different parent plants:

The red X’s in the picture above represent places in which unwanted mutations may spawn.  These unwanted mutations would be mutations which result from two of the same parent.  For example, in the level 9 figure, all four red X’s are plots which have two orange neighbor plots, which means that if there is a plant which is produced from two ‘orange’ parents (whichever plant is ‘orange’ in your situation simply depends on which plants you are using and which you plant in the green plots and which you plant in the orange plots).

Soil Type Data

• The effect multiplies the passive effects of plants
• The weed multiplier affects how likely weeds are to spawn in the soil
• When using clay with Ichorpuff plants, it is possible to reverse aging in plants

The different soil types are unlocked by owning a certain number of farms:

• Dirt -                0
• Fertilizer -         50
• Clay -                100
• Pebbles -         200
• Wood Chips -         300

NOTE: You do not need to actually own 300 farms at the same time to unlock wood chips (or any other soils).  You only need to have purchased 300 farms total.  This means that you could buy and sell 1 farm 300 times and you would unlock wood chips.

You can only change soil types once every 10 minutes, however you can spend a sugar lump to reset this timer and change immediately.  Spending a sugar lump to do this also makes plants spread and mutate 3x more during the next tick.

Plant Data

The table which was here previously has become outdated, and @Johanson69’s chart is nicer anyway.  Check the chart here

Plant Cost

A plant’s cost is calculated by the following formula:

Cost = MAX(costM, CpS*cost*60)

This means that over a certain threshold of CpS (differs per crop), costM no longer has any influence.

Plant Aging

On each tick, the age of each crop in the field’s age is updated.  It is increased by the following formula:

newAge = CustomRounding[oldAge+(ageTick)+(randomAgeTick)*(random number 0-1)]

NOTE:  “Custom Rounding” is defined as rounding up 70% of the time, and down 30% of the time.

Due to the implicit use of the floor function in integer operations, newAge is always an integer, meaning a round number.  This has the effect of causing some plants not to age at all during a certain tick if their age increment is less than 1.

If the age of a plant is greater than or equal to the plant’s maturity age, the plant’s maturity is set to stage4 (mature).  If it’s age is greater than or equal the the maturity age * 0.666, it is stage3 (bloom), >= maturity age * 0.333, stage2 (sprout), otherwise it is stage1 (bud).

NOTE: When a plant is close to decaying (has a possibility in the next tick) it will appear semi-transparent.

Contamination

Contamination (‘contam’ in the plant data chart above) is a mechanic that currently applies to Meddleweed, Doughshroom, and Crumbspore.  It allows for these plants to take over neighboring plots, even if there are already other plants there.  Contamination works only in the 4 cardinal directions (up, down, left, right).

Several plants are immune to contamination.  They are:

• Elderwort
• Queenbeet
• Juicy Queenbeet
• Duketater
• Crumbspore
• Doughshroom
• Shriekbulb
• Everdaisy

Note that doughshroom and crumbspore are able to contaminate other plants, but are not able to be contaminated.

The exact process by which contamination takes place is fairly complex, but the basic outline is as follows:

1. Once per tick, check each plot in the garden
2. If there is a plant in that plot and that plant is not immune to contamination, continue
3. For each plant which is capable of contamination, roll a random number 0-1
4. If that number is less than the plant’s contamination number, add that plant to a list
5. Once the list of possible contaminating plants has been formed, randomly choose one plant from that list
6. For each of the cardinal directions, it is then possible that that plant is contaminated.

I don’t fully understand this mechanic to be honest, so I don’t have much more detail than this which I can explain easily.  But know that if you have a plant which is mature and able to contaminate, other plants neighboring it in the 4 cardinal directions may be overtaken.  The relevant code for version 2.006 can be found here if anyone wants to take a look.

Plant Effects

The basic information about each plant’s effects can be found below.

Additional info about plant life spans, growth rates, etc. can be found here.

Garden Tools

There are currently 4 tools available in the game for the garden

• Garden Information

• Provides information on the current state of your garden
• Gives buff lengths, power, etc.
• Also provides a little information in the tooltip on how the garden works on a very basic level

• Harvest All

• Harvests all crops in the garden.
• This counts as a regular harvest for all harvested crops
• If you harvest a crop which has a chance to produce another crop on death, the production of that new crop is still possible when using this tool

• Freeze

• Your garden is essentially frozen in time
• No plants will grow, you will gain no benefits from buffs, nothing will die or mutate

• Sacrifice Garden (‘Convert’)

• This is only available once all plants have been unlocked
• This allows you to sacrifice your entire garden and all unlocked seeds (except for Baker’s Wheat) in exchange for 10 sugar lumps.
• Essentially you go back to the very beginning with your garden in exchange for 10 sugar lumps
• You unlock the achievement ‘Seedless to Nay’ by using this tool

Garden Related Achievements

• Botany Enthusiast

• Harvest 100 Mature Garden Plants

• Green, aching thumb

• Harvest 1000 Mature Garden Plants

• In the garden of Eden (baby)

• Fill every tile of the biggest garden plot with plants

• Keeper of the conservatory

• Unlock every garden seed

• Seedless to Nay

• Convert a complete seed log into sugar lumps by sacrificing your garden to the sugar hornets (use the ‘Convert’ tool)

Garden Related Upgrades

There are several new upgrades in the game which are obtained by harvesting specific plants.  These will only have a chance to drop if the plant is harvested when mature.  The probability listed with each upgrade is the chance that the upgrade is unlocked when that plant is harvested.  Once unlocked, these upgrades stay unlocked forever (across ascensions).

• Elderwort Biscuits

• Dropped from mature Elderwort plants (0.01)
• Cookie production multiplier +2%
• Grandma production multiplier +2%

• Bakeberry Cookies

• Dropped from Bakeberry plants (0.015)
• Cookie production multiplier +2%

• Fern tea

• Dropped from Drowsyfern (0.01)
• You gain +3% of your regular CpS while the game is closed

• Duketater Cookies

• Dropped from Duketaters (0.005)
• Cookie production multiplier +10%

• Green yeast digestives

• Dropped from Green Rot (0.005)
• Golden cookie gains and effect duration +1%
• Golden cookie frequency +1%
• +3% Random Drops

• Ichor Syrup

• Dropped from Ichorpuff plants (0.005)
• You gain +7% of your regular CpS while the game is closed
• Sugar lumps mature 7 minutes sooner

• Wheat Slims

• Dropped from Baker’s Wheat plants (0.001)
• Cookie Production Multiplier +1%