Growing Berries

Berries are a vital part of Pokémon, both inside and outside of battle. Some boost stats, some take EVs and some lower damage received. However, these are all one use and gone and they're gone and some are even found in only one place. So whats the solution to this? Thats easy, by growing the berries

Dotted around Sinnoh, there are a number of areas with specific parts that allow you to grow berries, called Soil, as seen in the picture above. Many of them will have berry trees on them from the get-go, however some will not. Each has space for two or four different berry trees within it. The berry trees will stay for a couple of days. If they go unpicked, then the berry may fall and cause another tree to grow.

To grow the berries, there are a number of factors that you have to fulfill and pay attention to. Firstly, each berry has its own specific growth time, check the BerryDex for the stats for each berry. This time is in hours and specifies how long it takes for the berry to go from planted to being able to be picked, with several different growth stages therein. As this can take up to several days, you may end up forgetting about a Berry or its location. Luckily, there is an application for the Pokétch that helps you keep track of them as soon as they are ready to be picked. Here are the locations in Sinnoh of all the Soil, all giving you enough to grow each Berry at least once at the same time;

When you go up to an empty bit of Soil, you get the choice to plant a berry. After you have planted it, you will have to check up on it in order to keep the soil from drying. This can be done using the Psyduck Pail (4th gen), orWailmer Pail (3rd gen). Just go up to the soil where the berry is planted and select the Pail to use. This will water the soil and prevent it from drying out. If the soil has dried out, then the berry may not grow and will not give the highest amount of berries, only giving the minimum, which is usually one. So if you want a good harvest of berries, you will have to water the plant whenever it needs it. Each Berry has their own growth cycle and each stage is after a set amount of hours, its always best to water it whenever it reaches these stages. Again, each berry has their own specific harvest amount so check the BerryDex for that.

As said, the berry yield is entirely deteminate on the amount you take care of the berry plant as its growing. The yeild of some berries can be very high and so this is the only way in order for you not to lose a berry forever. So if you get a very rare berry, plant it and take care of it so you can get as many as possible.

There are however, ways to augment the growth of berries. This is through the items known as Mulch. These are sold for 200 PokeDollars a piece in the Berry Master's house. Mulch's are essentially fertilisers that have multiple effects. There are four different kinds of Mulch with varying effects. They are as follows;

Picture	Name	Effect
	Damp Mulch	Slows Berry growth to 125% of normal growth Ttme Causes Soil to dry slower
	Gooey Mulch	Increases amount of times un-picked berries can regrow
	Growth Mulch	Speeds up Berry growth to 75% of normal growth time Causes Soil to dry quicker
	Stable Mulch	Extends the time each Berry stays on the tree without falling off

If you follow all of these instructions, then your Berry growing should continue to be fruitful and you can use them to win at battles and to become a Contest Master.