Tiny Eden: greenhouse crops and the sun icons

Reading the Plant conditions panel

The panel lists a planter type, a temperature range, sunlight, profit and water, each on its own icon row. The one in the screenshot, with parsley seeds in hand, reads 2x2 Shallow and 5-35 °C.

The official FAQ keeps the rule short: light depends on where you place the plant, and you can use shading nets or grow lights. What the icons mean is harder to find, and a player asking about them wrote on 19 September that the developers need to explain it. The two long-form pages on that rule are not enough sunlight and grow lights and shading nets.

Update #10 on 21 September made environmental tooltips, weather forecasts and plant requirements show temperatures in Celsius or Fahrenheit, following the unit chosen in Settings, so the temperature ranges in the table below may read differently on your screen. The same update fixed the Greenhouse Steam achievement.

What the community sheet says each crop needs

The developers linked an unofficial spreadsheet in one of their Steam replies, and its Plant Info tab records a temperature preference and a sunlight rating for most crops. Sunlight is shown as Any, one sun, two suns or None. The sheet is still being filled in, and potato, lettuce and broccoli were incomplete when it was read on 21 September.

Zucchini and parsley: when the panel says sun and the room disagrees

A player who could finally plant zucchini found it warned about light no matter how many lamps they put around it or which balcony it sat on, and the largest table in the apartment was too small for the planter. Another player first thought it was a bug, then reported it started working once the plant reached the adult stage.

The same player found that in daylight a zucchini in a room rated one sun seems to need at least one lamp. Someone else guessed that zucchini can only be grown on the roof in a greenhouse, and notes the in-game compendium says only that it needs full sun and a lot of nutrients.

Parsley and onions give the opposite complaint. One player found they lacked light on the first balcony but had too much with a lamp, and got them to settle on a shelf with no lamp. Carrots were the pickiest of their crops and did not like the balcony at all.

Onions are the other light-hungry crop in the sheet, and have their own page: why onions are hard to grow. Soil is set per planter and is on the soil page.

• "During daylight (pot placed in 1 Star Sun room) Zuchini seems to need at least 1 lamp."
• "The light is increasing the grow rate to 100-125%, but the plants are also growing without light (60-75% of the normal grow rate)"

Greenhouse crops: what the developers and players say

A player who could not grow broccoli, tomatoes or cabbage in a greenhouse asked whether it was bugged, adding that they could not place fans or heaters there. The developers asked which plants they had tried, said it was working for them and other players, and suggested the wrong type of plant.

Other players ran into the same wall: one planted basil in the greenhouse and found it too bright, and wished they could shade it. Basil did better for another player on a balcony rated two suns.

The lights turn off every day

One complaint outside the crops themselves is that lamps have to be switched on at the start of every day. A player asked why, because they should not turn off at night, and a reply suggested it is because you also pay electricity bills.

The requests that followed were for a toggle or a master switch. One player uses lamps as grow lights indoors and is tired of turning them on each morning, and another asked why the TV switches on when the light switch is flipped.

By 21 September the thread had no developer reply. Update #10 that day made lamp and grow light information cards show whether the device is switched on and whether it uses or makes power, which helps you see which lamps are off; the notes list no keep-on setting.

Where the two community sheets disagree

The developers have linked more than one unofficial sheet on Steam, and they do not agree on sunlight. The sheet used above rates cauliflower at two suns and tomato at one; a larger sheet linked on 21 September, with a Plant Data tab for 38 plants, gives cauliflower as one or two suns and tomato as two or three. Of the plants both sheets rate, about a dozen have a different sun rating, and in nearly all of them the newer sheet's rating is higher.

Neither sheet says how its icons were read, and one of the larger sheet's tabs is an icon guide that mentions a seed packet sun diagram, which may mean the two record different things. Until the developers explain the icons, the Plant conditions panel in your own game is the check that counts. The larger sheet's full soil, water and sun table is on the soil recipes page.

Frequently asked

What do the sun icons mean in Tiny Eden?

The developers have not explained them. A community sheet lists each crop as Any, one sun, two suns or None, and one player says parsley and zucchini need a lamp in a room with little sun.

Why won't anything grow in my greenhouse?

The developers say it works and suggest checking the plant types. One player's picks for it are onions, parsley, tomatoes, paprika and basil.

Do zucchini need lamps?

One player found zucchini in a room rated one sun needs at least one lamp in daylight, after the plant reaches the adult stage.