Greetings, and welcome to the flax guide. Here you will find instructions for an efficient method of growing flax, which is both relatively quick and does not lose any seeds. It will produce 10 flax every time, which is the maximum that may be used on a Hackling Rake at any one time anyway.
First of all, grab yourself 10 Green Nile flax seeds, and at least 5 jugs of water. Then find yourself and nice grassy area that is relatively near a water source. Click on your avatar, select "Plant", and then choose the seed. A bed of mud will immediately appear on the ground, with you standing in the middle of it. You have no oppertunity to move the bed once placed, so make sure you are standing exactly where you want it. Now click an area of grass right next to the bed you just placed to move there. Plant another bed. Repeat this three more times so that you have a nice row of 5 flax beds. These are the seed producing group, so do not water or weed them at all.
For anyone that likes things to look nice, if you click on the grass right next to a previous bed and then plant, the beds will overlap. If done correctly, the overlap cannot be seen and it makes multiple plants look like one large bed. Lovely.
Now walk to an area just in front of the first bed you placed. Plant another seed here. Repeat four times until you have a row of 5 just in front of your previous row. This is the flax producing group. Now you just stand in between your two rows of flax and wait.
As soon as you see yellow flowers appearing on your flax producing group, click the plants and select "Water and weed this flax plant". The yellow flowers will disappear, and the flax will continue growing. Thats what the water jugs are for. Wait a bit longer, and yellow flowers will again appear. Click the plants and choose "Weed this flax bed". The yellow flowers will again disappear. Note that it only says "Weed" the second time and not "Water"... you only have to water each flax bed once.
As soon as you have weeded the flax producing beds for the second time, go to your seed producing group. Click the beds and select "Harvest seeds". You will receive one seed per bed, and the beds will remain in place and start producing more seeds. By the time you have done that, the flax producing beds should be ready for harvest, so click them and select "Harvest flax". You will receive 2 flax per plant, for a total of 10. These beds will disappear when harvested.
Normal un-processed flax isn't all that useful day-to-day, so you are probably wanting rotten flax. Go to the nearest water source, click your avatar, then "Special", then "Rot flax in water". A bundle will appear on the water with a red flag. When that flag turns white, the flax is rotten and ready for collecting. That takes around 15 minutes though, so dont wait around for it. Instead, while you are at the water, click the water bucket icon in the top-right of your screen to refill your jugs. Head back to your flax beds, and plant another row of flax producing plants in front of your seed group, using the seeds harvested. Repeat the growing instructions above as many times as required.
And thats all there is to it. As mentioned, you get 10 flax every time you do this, and will not lose any seeds. The seed producing beds will provide up to 5 seeds before they disappear. When they do, simply replant them. This whole process only takes a few minutes, and thanks to the higher yield of Green Nile flax seeds, you can aquire a large amount of flax in a short period. The only problem then is waiting for it to rot, and then processing it... but theres not much you can do to speed that process up unless you work with other people.