I was recently asked about pipe-weed farming and cross-breeding in LOTRO and I promised to look into it. My farmer has never grown pipe-weed (until now) because she focused on crops used for cooking and dye-making, but she's decided she's willing to support the smokers and drinkers in Bree with pipe-weed and strong drinks.
Once she got started growing the pipe-weed, she found it very interesting. There's the descriptions of the pipe-weed, the celebration of harvesting a cross-breed seed and she even found the different smoke-ring patterns intriguing (after she got over her coughing fit from accidentally inhaling the smoke).
Pipe-weed Descriptions:
- Longbottom Leaf: "A sturdy variety of pipe-weed, long grown in Southfarthing."
- Rushlight: "A poor sort of pipe-weed, usually grown in the Shire."
- Southlinch: "A poor sort of pipe-weed, usually grown in Bree."
- Sweet Lobelia: "A novelty variety of pipe-weed, which many find distasteful."
- Muddy Foot: "A variety of pipe-weed with an earthy flavour."
- Tighfield Choice: "A decent sort of pipe-weed, traditionally grown in Tighfield."
- Hornblower: "Named in honour of the first hobbit to grow pipe-weed in the shire, Tobold Hornblower."
- Southern Star: "A variety of pipe-weed usually grown in the Southfarthing."
- Old Toby: "A fine grade of pipe-weed, named after Tobold Hornblower."
- Shire Sweet-leaf: "A fragrant variety of pipe-weed, prized by Lore-masters."
- Sweet Galenas: "A variety of pipe-weed believed to be a favourite of the ancient King."
- Roper's Twist: "An early variety of pipe-weed grown in Gamwich."
- Dragon's Breath: "A variety of pipe-weed said to glow with an eerie fire when smoked."
- Eagle's Nest: "Some of the finest pipe-weed to come out of the Southfarthing."
- Gamwich Braid: "The greatest variety of pipe-weed ever grown in Gamwich."
- Wizard's Fire: "A pipe-weed representing the best of all leaf known to hobbits."
- Fungo's Fuzzy-leaf: "A variety of pipe-weed that has distinctive hairy leaves."
- Gold-fire: "A tasty variation of pipe-weed that combines the best of both Wizard's Fire and Fungo's Fuzzy-leaf."
Pipe-weed Farming Results:
No special soil was used in growing these crops. Crop yields were rounded to the nearest 0.1, or for yields of less than 0.05, rounded up to 0.1 rather than down to 0.0 (since if the yield was zero there would be no reason to include it in the table).
I received 1-10 leaf crops per field plus the occasional cross-breed seed of the same or next tier (e.g. planting apprentice pipe-weed granted me a few journeyman cross-breed seeds).
It was actually profitable to vendor the pouches. For example, it cost 14 silver to plant 50 fields of Longbottom Leaf and vendoring the 856 pouches of pipe-weed earned 25 silver. Tool repairs reduce profits slightly. It may be even more profitable to sell pipe-weed or cross-breed seeds on auction house or via trade, but when I looked at the auction house on my server there was very little on offer.
The higher tiers of seeds are harder to get. You need to grow a lot of the common tier 3 seeds to get enough tier 4 cross-breed seeds and hope that those cross-breed seeds generate enough tier 5 seeds (Wizard's Fire) to get some tier 6 seeds (Fungo's Fuzzy-leaf and Gold-fire). I tried using special soil to see if that would increase the seeds yield, but although I got more crops (6.5 crops/field) and more seeds of the same tier (0.5 seeds/field), it didn't increase the number of seeds of the next tier (0.1 seeds/field).
At tier 7 (Westfold), you need reputation with Theodréd's Riders to buy the Wild Pipe-weed Field recipe. You can buy wild pipe-weed seeds from vendors. Unfortunately, my farmer isn't high enough level to get reputation, so I can't experiment with this just yet.
| Pipe-weed (Tier) | Fields | Crops | Crop Yield | Smoke-ring |
|---|
| Longbottom Leaf (T1) | 85 | 320 Longbottom Leaf
4 Muddy Foot Seed
5 Tighfield Choice Seed | 3.7
0.1
0.1 | One Ring |
| Rushlight (T1) | 30 | 79 Rushlight
2 Muddy Foot Seed | 2.6
0.1 | One Ring |
| Southlinch (T1) | 30 | 117 Southlinch
2 Muddy Foot Seed
1 Tighfield Choice Seed | 3.9
0.1
0.1 | Puff of Smoke |
| Sweet Lobelia (T1) | 30 | 116 Sweet Lobelia
1 Muddy Foot Seed
1 Tighfield Choice Seed | 3.9
0.1
0.1 | Two Rings |
| Hornblower (T2) | 30 | 97 Hornblower
4 Muddy Foot Seed
4 Tighfield Choice Seed
1 Dragon's Breath Seed | 3.2
0.1
0.1
0.1 | Double Ring |
| Southern Star (T2) | 80 | 273 Southern Star
11 Muddy Foot Seed
4 Tighfield Choice
5 Roper's Twist Seed
8 Dragon's Breath Seed | 3.4
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1 | Double Ring |
| Muddy Foot * (T2) | 21 | 79 Muddy Foot
1 Muddy Foot Seed
2 Tighfield Choice Seed
3 Dragon's Breath Seed | 3.8
0.1
0.1
0.1 | Triple Ring |
| Tighfield Choice * (T2) | 16 | 62 Tighfield Choice
2 Muddy Foot Seed
2 Tighfield Choice Seed | 3.9
0.1
0.1 | Double Ring |
| Old Toby (T3) | 80 | 297 Old Toby
7 Dragon's Breath Seed
13 Roper's Twist Seed
4 Eagle's Nest Seed
2 Gamwich Braid Seed | 3.7
0.1
0.2
0.1
0.1 | Heart around Ring |
| Shire Sweet-leaf (T3) | 30 | 99 Shire Sweet-leaf
3 Dragon's Breath Seed
4 Roper's Twist Seed
2 Eagle's Nest Seed
2 Gamwich Braid Seed | 3.3
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1 | 3 Butterflies |
| Sweet Galenas (T3) | 65 | 215 Sweet Galenas
11 Dragon's Breath Seed
7 Roper's Twist Seed
2 Eagle's Nest Seed
6 Gamwich Braid Seed | 3.3
0.2
0.1
0.1
0.1 | Ship |
| Roper's Twist * (T3) | 54 | 197 Roper's Twist
4 Roper's Twist Seed
3 Dragon's Breath Seed
2 Eagle's Nest Seed
4 Gamwich Braid Seed | 3.6
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1 | Spiral |
| Dragon's Breath * (T3) | 50 | 193 Dragon's Breath
7 Roper's Twist Seed
9 Dragon's Breath Seed
3 Eagle's Nest Seed
4 Gamwich Braid Seed | 3.9
0.1
0.2
0.1
0.1 | Dragon |
| Eagle's Nest * (T4) | 21 | 65 Eagle's Nest
1 Eagle's Nest Seed
4 Gamwich Braid Seed | 3.1
0.1
0.2 | Eagle |
| Gamwich Braid * (T4) | 28 | 88 Gamwich Braid
2 Eagle's Nest Seed
3 Wizard's Fire Seed | 3.1
0.1
0.1 | Fish |
| Wizard's Fire * (T5) | 3 | 12 Wizard's Fire
1 Gold-fire Seed | 4.0
0.3 | Bird |
Note: * indicates the pipe-weed is a cross-breed variety.
Longbottom Leaf produces one ring | 
Sweet Lobelia produces two rings |
Old Toby produces a heart and ring | 
Shire Sweet-leaf produces 3 butterflies |
Dragon's Breath produces a dragon | 
Gamwich Braid produces a dark fish |
Summer Festival Special Varieties
There are three special varieties of pipeweed that are only available during Summer Festival. The recipes and seeds are sold by Pipeweed Vendors in major festival locations (i.e. Celondim and Thorin's Hall in Ered Luin, Bree Festival Grounds in Bree-land, and The Party Tree in The Shire).
| Pipe-weed (Tier) | Fields | Crops | Crop Yield | Smoke-ring |
|---|
| Stonecrop Leaf (T1) | 30 | 116 Stonecrop Leaf | 3.9 | Stampeding Beast? |
| Lengalenas (T3) | 30 | 96 Lengalenas | 3.2 | Crossed Swords |
| Summer Green-weed (T5) | 30 | 102 Summer Green-weed | 3.4 | Pipe |
The Stonecrop Leaf smoke pattern seems rather hard to distinguish. At first I thought it a row-boat, then I thought it might be a galloping steed, but then it seems to have a huge jaw or horns or tusks ... or maybe it's just a puff of smoke and she's imagining things! If anyone has a better suggestion, I'd love to hear it!
|
Stonecrop Leaf produces confusion |
Lengalenas produces crossed swords |
Summer green-weed produces a pipe |
