There is a whole lot of commentary, and all of it contains errors. The 'yield per seed' crowd do not understand the 'profits per hour' argument. Meanwhile the 'profit per hour' crowd have not considered supply and demand.
Regarding 'yield per seed'. There is no debate that x number of seeds planted 1 at a time will result in more herbs than x number of seeds planted 10 at a time. The argument being made is that at any given time 10x seeds will generate 3x more herbs than 1x seeds and thus be generating a greater profit per hour. It does not matter how far out into time you go, 10x seeds will always generate 3x herbs per run. When you run out of seeds, go to the Grand Exchange and just buy more.
But, that argument ignores that resources are not - in practice - infinite. It assumes a static price of herbs and of seeds. Flooding the market with herbs, whilst draining the stockpile of seeds will result in herb prices falling and seed prices climbing. New items are generated in-game (through drops, pickpocketing, etc), so there is not a set limit on the number of seeds that can - I repeat can - exist. But, crucially, if the number of seeds being generated per hour is less than the number of seeds being expended per hour, then the seed stockpile will inevitably shrink. Rarer seeds suffer this issue worse than more common ones. A seed shortage would force its price up. In dire enough circumstances, the monetary investment into seeds will not be recoverable through returns generated by herbs.
That being said, I would hope and expect that Jagex took this into account. If so, then whilst prices will fluctuate in the short-term, they will reach an equilibrium. The 'profits per hour' math will then need reassessment.
Note, if you are an ironman, then economic considerations are irrelevant. It will always be more beneficial to plant 1 seed per patch because you have a severely diminished resource pool.
It's quite difficult to condense the economy down to 2000 characters.
14-Nov-2022 21:09:51
