FFXIV Thavnairian Onion Guide Growing Obtaining Chocobo Companion Tips

Looking to push your chocobo beyond its limits in FFXIV? Thavnairian Onions are the key to unlocking your feathered companion’s true potential-but these rare veggies are notoriously tricky to get. Whether you’re a gardener ready to crossbreed, a quester chasing elusive rewards, or just hoping to avoid spending a fortune on the marketboard, here’s how you can finally get your hands on these prized onions and level your chocobo past 10.

While the process can seem daunting, it’s actually not so bad, as long as you have reliable access to a garden and can consistently tend to your crops.

Below, we list all the ways to get a Thavnairian Onion in FFXIV, whether it’s from a quest or from gardening.

Where to get Thavnairian Onions

Thavnairian Onions in FFXIV can be obtained through several methods, each with its own requirements and challenges. The most common way is through gardening, which involves cross-breeding specific seeds-such as Royal Kukuru and Curiel Root-to produce Thavnairian Onion Seeds, which can then be grown into onions using a Deluxe Garden Patch in a player- or Free Company-owned house. This process requires access to housing and a good understanding of crossbreeding mechanics. For those without gardening access, Thavnairian Onions can also be purchased from the marketboard, though they are often very expensive due to their rarity and demand. Additionally, two quests-“Landing a Stable Job” (level 50, Mathye in The Pillars) and “A Hunter’s True Nature” (level 57, Hervoix in The Dravanian Forelands)-each reward one Thavnairian Onion upon completion, providing a limited but straightforward way to obtain them.

There isn’t really a steady place to get Thavnairian Onions from if you’re not growing them.

You can either pay for them on the marketboard (they’re about 170,000 gil on my server in Primal, as of this writing) or you can score two of them by doing two Heavensward side quests: “Landing a Stable Job” and “A Hunter’s True Nature.”

If you’ve already gotten those two and you don’t want to cough up the gil, then you’ll have to resort to growing them.

How to grow Thavnairian Onions

Growing Thavnairian Onions in FFXIV requires a bit of preparation and patience. First, you need access to a house with a Deluxe Garden Patch, as crossbreeding (necessary for onion seeds) cannot be done in apartments or indoor flowerpots. Begin by crossbreeding specific seeds-such as Curiel Root and Royal Kukuru-using Grade 3 Thanalan Topsoil to maximize your chances of producing Thavnairian Onion Seeds. Once you obtain these seeds, plant them in your garden or a flowerpot, water them every 24 hours, and tend to them regularly to prevent withering. Each Thavnairian Onion takes about 10 days to grow, and yields one onion per seed, so plan your gardening space and schedule accordingly.

To grow Thavnairian Onions Seeds, you need a house. It can be your Free Company’s house or a house that your buddy has given you partial ownership of, but it needs to be a house and not an apartment, since you can only cross-breed plants in the Deluxe Garden Patch that you can only place outside of houses. You can buy these garden patches from any of the housing merchants inside the housing wards.

Once you have your Deluxe Garden Patch, it’s time to get planting. There’s a few ways to crossbreed Thavnairian Onion Seeds, but this was the easiest way to do it for us. Here’s what you need to start:

• A Deluxe Garden Patch in the yard of a house (as previously mentioned)
• 4 Curiel Root, Mimett Gourd, Pahsana Fruit, Sylkis Bud, or Tantalplant Seeds. It’s up to you which one you pick, and they don’t all have the be the same seed. Just grab four of whatever is cheapest on your server. These seeds are the most expensive part of this process, but you will only ever need to buy four of them until you start gardening something else. They’re all obtained from crossbreeding other crops, so if you want an onion fast, it’s best to just buy them rather than to make them yourself. (You can totally take that approach, though this guide will not get into detail about how to do so.)
• A bunch of Grade 3 Thanalan Topsoil, which you can buy from the marketboard or get in exchange for Tomestones of Poetics
• At least 4 Old World Fig Seeds, which you can purchase from the marketboard for cheap

It’s worth mentioning that after buying this stuff, you will effectively be able to create an infinite amount of Thavnairian Onion Seeds, so long as you tend to your plot. The only things you’ll need to keep getting are topsoil and fig seeds, but the other stuff is a one-time purchase. You will make the gil back from the four expensive seeds almost immediately.

Once you’ve rounded up your seeds and fertilizer, you’ll want to start cross-breeding them to get Thavnairian Onion Seeds. Follow the steps below to do so. (We learned how to do this via FFXIV Gardening!)

1. Plant your Curiel Root, Mimett Gourd, Pahsana Fruit, Sylkis Bud, or Tantalplant Seeds in the odd numbered plots with the Grade 3 Thanalan Topsoil. We’ve marked it in the above diagram with a picture of a Curiel Root, since that’s what we used.
2. Plant the Old World Fig Seeds in the even numbered plots, also with the topsoil.
3. Tend to your plants for five days until they are ready to grow. All of these crops need to be tended to at least once every 48 hours or else they will wilt.
4. Do not harvest the odd numbered plot plants (in my case, the Curiel Roots). Leave them there.
5. When they’re ready, onlyharvest the figs from the even numbered plots. You should get some Royal Kukuru Seeds from this harvest, unless you are very unlucky.
6. Plant the Royal Kukuru Seeds in the even numbered plots (where the figs used to be) with the topsoil. If you didn’t get enough Royal Kukuru Seeds, fill the remaining spots with Old World Fig Seeds (with topsoil, again).
7. Tend to your plants for another six days. Royal Kukuru Seeds need to be tended to once every 36 hours or else it will wilt.
8. Harvest the Royal Kukuru to get Thavnairian Onion Seeds and the Old World Figs for more Royal Kukuru Seeds. There’s a 50% chance to get Apricot Seeds instead.
9. Keep repeating steps 5 through 8 until you have enough Thavnairian Onion Seeds to suit your fancy.

After this process, you can plant the Thavnairian Onion Seeds in another garden plot to get your Thavnairian Onions. Once you have the seeds, you can plant them inside of a flower pot indoors (if you’re like me with a paltry small house that can only fit one garden plot outside). You will need to water the onion crops for 10 days before they provide an onion.

Note that it’s entirely possible to get really unlucky with your crops. It took us three weeks of Royal Kukuru planting before we got any Thavnairian Onion seeds. Out of the 12 we planted, we only got two onion seeds, but a whopping seven apricot seeds. RNG just be like that, sometimes.

If you’re just starting out in the massive world of Final Fantasy 14, we have tons of guides to help you. We have a beginner’s guide to get you started, along with guides detailing when you’ll get your mount and which Grand Company you should join.

What secret gardening tricks help grow Thavnairian Onions faster in FFXIV

Secret Gardening Tricks to Grow Thavnairian Onions Faster in FFXIV

Fertilize Frequently with Fishmeal

• Use Fishmeal fertilizer on your Thavnairian Onion plants as often as possible-ideally once every Earth hour. This can significantly reduce the total grow time, especially if applied early in the growth cycle.

Choose the Right Soil

• For crossbreeding to obtain Thavnairian Onion seeds, use Grade 3 Thanalan Topsoil to maximize your chances and yield during the seed production phase.

• When actually growing Thavnairian Onion seeds into onions, use Potting Soil, as Shroud Soil does not affect yield for onions, and Thanalan Soil is only beneficial during crossbreeding.

Optimize Your Gardening Setup

• Use a Deluxe Garden Patch for crossbreeding, as this allows for the necessary seed combinations to produce Thavnairian Onion seeds.

• If you want to grow multiple onions simultaneously, use several flowerpots indoors or multiple garden beds outdoors.

Tend to Your Plants Regularly

• Water and tend to your plants at least once every 36-48 hours to prevent wilting and ensure healthy growth.

• Use keyboard shortcuts (such as right-clicking and pressing 0 2 0 on the numpad) to speed up regular tending tasks.

Leverage Free Company Resources

• If you’re in a Free Company with a house, coordinate with other members to share gardening duties or check the Company Chest for surplus onions.

Summary Table

Applying these tricks will help you grow Thavnairian Onions faster and more efficiently, letting you upgrade your chocobo without waiting the full ten days per onion.

How does using Fishmeal speed up Thavnairian Onion growth in FFXIV

Using Fishmeal as fertilizer in FFXIV speeds up the growth of Thavnairian Onions by reducing their total grow time each time it is applied. Specifically, every application of Fishmeal reduces the remaining grow time of the plant by about 1%, with the effect being most significant when used earlier in the growth cycle. For example, the first Fishmeal applied can cut over two hours from a ten-day grow time, but the amount of time reduced with each subsequent application decreases as the plant gets closer to maturity. You can fertilize each plant once every real-world hour, and there is no strict cap on the number of times you can apply Fishmeal, making frequent fertilization a key strategy for faster onion harvests.