Farmville Orchards and Tree Mastery Guide: How it All Works

The ever-evolving and enormously popular Facebook application Farmville just got a little more interesting with the introduction of Farmville Orchards and Tree Mastery, according to a post on the Zynga Farmville forum. Wondering how you can get an orchard for your own farm, how tree mastery works and what exactly they each are? Read on for the details about maker Zynga's newest game features, including a preliminary tree mastery guide.

Farmville Orchards: How to Get Started

To get started, simply access your Farmville game, either via Facebook or the Farmville.com website. You will be prompted to place your brand new Farmville Orchard structure somewhere on your existing farm. After clicking the green Place Now button, choose an empty spot on your farm and click to position. The Farmville Orchard structure takes roughly four plots of land once it's been fully expanded, so it's an excellent use of space.

Since this is Farmville, however, you know you'll need to appeal to friends in order to successfully construct your orchard. After you've placed your orchard foundation, you'll be prompted to ask friends for building supplies. Creating your Farmville orchard requires that you collect 30 total 'usual suspect' parts, including 10 bricks, 10 nails and 10 wooden boards. If you're lucky, you've already collected extras of some of these in your gift box that can be applied toward building your orchard. If not, no worries: You're sure to gather the parts soon enough via free gifting and the usual notices that friends can post to their streams when they've gathered enough of each item, reached the halfway point or finished entirely.

Can I Have More than One?

Yes, you can have more than one Farmville Orchard on your farm, and it's completely legit. After you've finished constructing your first, simply visit the marketplace and buy another foundation for 1,000 coins. It's well-worth the small pricetag, especially if you have more than a few 3, 4 and 5-day maturation trees.

I've Built My Orchard; Now What?

Good job! You can store up to 20 trees inside your Farmville Orchard, so again, it represents a good use of valuable game space. Better yet, just click once on your grove of trees to harvest them once every 48 hours. If you're lucky, you'll wind up with a mystery seedling that can be planted and watered -- using watering cans either purchased from the marketplace for one Farm Cash each (not such a great idea) or received from friends via the gifting menu (the much more economical choice). What kind of tree will your seedling grow up to be? You'll have to wait and see; water it 10 times and it'll grow up into a mature and identifiable tree.

So which trees should be placed inside your Farmville Orchards in order to maximize productivity? Go with trees that have either 3, 4 or 5 day maturation times. That way, you can cut your wait time for those trees substantially. Just be careful, and note that it seems as if the last tree added will determine how long you'll have to wait to harvest.

With Orchards Come... Farmville Tree Mastery and Guide

Once you've gotten into the swing of things with your Farmville Orchard, take a gander at the newly fluffed up Mastery Menu, located under the same tab as Collections. There you'll find not only a new display for seed mastery, but a tab representing Tree Mastery as well. As with seed mastery, Tree Mastery allows the player to gain XP and bonus coins for successfully harvesting a given number of each type of tree found on the user's Farmville farm. There are currently nine pages of trees listed under the Farmville Tree Mastery tab, including both level one and level two varieties. Each will garner rewards when fully mastered. Here's a preliminary Farmville Tree Mastery Guide; check back often for updates related to two and three star mastery requirements.

One Star Mastery, Tree Type and Number of Harvests Required. The first number following each tree type represents the level one mastery goal number, the second number represents level two, and the third, level three. Note that you do NOT need to master the level one trees in order to master their level two counterparts. Check back for updates often:

Acai 75
Peach Palm 75
Almond 75, 150
Dwarf Almond 50, 150
Apple 75, 150
Granny Smith Apple 113, , 339
Apricot 57
Golden Apricot 57, 114

Arjuna 75
Indian Laurel 75
Asian Pear 113
Shinko Pear 113
Avocado 75, , 225
Hass Avocado 75
Banana 113
Cuban Banana 113
Breadfruit 75, 150
Breadnut 75
Bubble Gum 75

Cashew 75
Wild Cashew 75
Cherry 113, 226, 339
Rainier Cherry 113, 226

Date 113
Bahri Date 113, 226
Durian 57
Chanee Durian 57
Chestnut 75
Hazelnut 75
Coconut 50, 100
Golden Malayan Coconut 50, 100
Confetti 75
Disco Ball 75
Fig 75, 150
Alma Fig 75
Ginkgo 113, 226
Autumn Ginkgo 113
Grapefruit 113
Star Ruby Grapefruit 113
Guava 113, 226, 339
Ruby Guava 113

Gulhmohar 75, , 225
Mountain Ebony 75, 150
Heirloom Apple 113
Granny Smith Apple 113, 226, 339
Holiday Tree 75
Ornament Tree II 113
Jackfruit 75, 150
Singapore Jackfruit 75
Lemon 75, , 225
Ponderosa Lemon 75
Lime 45, 90
Key Lime 45, 90

Mango 85, 170
Manila Mango 85, 170
Mint Candy 75
Mistletoe 75
Ornament Tree 75
Olive 85, , 255
Mission Olive 85, 170
Orange 57, 114
Blood Orange 57
Ornament Tree I 113
Passion Fruit 68
Yellow Passion Fruit 68

Peach 57, 114
Elberta Peach 57
Pine 113
White Pine 113
Plum 75, , 225
Golden Plum 75
Pomegranate 68, 136
Angel Red Pomegranate 68, , 204
Rainbow Apple 75, 150

Red Maple 113, 226, 339
Silver Maple 113, 226
Sitka Spruce 75
Red Alder 75
Starfruit 57, 114
Golden Starfruit 57
Tamarind 113
Amherstia 113
Walnut 113
White Walnut 113

Wax Apple 75, 150
White Apple 113
Yellow Maple 113, 226, 339

So what are you waiting for? Head on over to Farmville and start building your Orchard and satisfying the Tree Mastery guide requirements right now. Happy clicking.