Flax

In general, the information below is accurate for Tale 9, with the following additions:

• In Passage to Egypt, if a player runs out of flax seeds, they can "search the grass for seeds" by clicking themselves, then "Plant..."
• In mainland Egypt, if a player runs out of flax seeds, more can be picked up from their Cart or by visiting any School of Art and Music

Flax
(Item)

Flax is a vital crop used in the production of textiles.

Sources

Flax is grown by players from Flax Seeds. Once harvested, it must be soaked in water to make Rotten Flax in order to be processed further. Further processing breaks Rotten Flax into straw, tow and lint, which can then be processed into canvas, linen, and rope, all goods fundamental to the Egyptian lifestyle. Rotten flax can also be dried into Dried Flax, which can be used in construction.

Requires

• Flax Seeds

Cultivation

To grow flax, plant a bed of flax plants using the "Plant" menu, on grass (flax will not grow on sand). After a short while, green flax shoots with blue flowers will appear in the bed. Shortly afterward, yellow weeds will appear, and you will need to weed the flax bed. Depending on the variety of Flax Seeds being used, you may need to water the flax when you weed it (using one container of Water), and you may need to weed or water the bed several times. Eventually, more flax shoots and flowers will grow in the bed, meaning the flax is fully grown and ready to be harvested. It might be hard to see this, but you can click on the flax to tell for sure. Depending on the variety of flax, you may obtain one or more deben of Flax or Rotten Flax on each harvest.

Flax grown in the above manner will not produce any seeds. To grow Flax Seeds, plant a bed of flax but do not weed it. Shortly after weeds appear in the bed, you will see more of the yellow weeds appear, indicating that the flax bed has gone to seed. You may then harvest seeds from the flax up to 5 times before it finally dies. When the plant dies, it will leave more seeds on the ground. It takes 1 TeppyMinute (about 1m 07s real time) for the Harvest option to reappear after harvesting a seed.

Take care to not use up all your flax seeds when growing flax; you should always keep at least a few in reserve to grow more seeds. If you do run out, you can go back to a School of Art to get a few more seeds.

See also: Guides/Growing Flax

Timing

NOTE : Timings need to be verified for T8

Interval	Time (Real, Approx)
Planting -> Weeds	36s
Planting -> Seeds	59s
Weeds -> Seeds	17s
Weeding -> Next Weeds	?
Harvest Seeds -> Next Seeds	1m 10s
Last Weeding -> Harvest	19s
Last Watering -> Harvest Flax	?

Hotkeys

Under [Self->Options->One-Click and Related], there is an option to enable hotkeys on flax, after you leave Welcoming Island. With this option enabled, you can use [W] to weed/water and harvest flax, and [H] to harvest seeds. Starting in tale 7, you physically move to the bed and will have animation time.

Varieties

Flax is a complex item, and comes in many varieties, the most basic, Old Egypt, is given to all players on Welcome Island. On the mainland, a variety of seeds are given out randomly from the School of Art and Music. Some require watering, some have pollution/soil quality issues. Through Cross-Breeding, it is possible to design even more potent flax strains.

(Visit Flax Seeds to edit this table)

T7 note which may be true in T8

• "Pollution signs" is not an adequate term to describe all the effects the various pollution conditions have on flax output. High and Low nitrogen levels affect different flax strains in different ways. Elevated phosphorus levels can reduce flax output to below normal values or it may result in no output based on the flax strain and the phosphorus level. Elevated acidity does not appear to modify flax production. See Pollution. (QonQuiHotep - 13 Apr 2016)

Pollution / Soil Quality

Most seeds will have some kind of pollution and/or soil quality around the ground where it is grown. Please see the discussion page for discussions about this aspect of Flax growing. See also Pollution

Required By

Basic Tub, Compound, Rotten Flax, Seed Registry, Skill/Ecology/0, Test of Festivals

ByProducts

The following is TBC for T9

Depending on your Arthropodology skill level, harvesting Flax can sometimes produce Fruit Maggots, Rose Swallowtails, Spittlebugs, Orchid Hoppers, Dew Flies, Snowberry Butterflies, Ruby Hornborrers, Corn Maggots, Raspberry Moths, Nightwings, Woodmoths, Leafhoppers, Leaf Snappers, and Clearwings.