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The Omni Plant is arguably the best plant you can grow in The Sims 3. (Some might say that this honor belongs to the Money Tree - which is pretty awesome, and easier to get. I understand this point of view, but the Omni Plant is still pretty darned cool.)

Unfortunately, the Omni Plant is also virtually impossible to obtain. This makes it one of the most frustrating challenges in The Sims 3, which is perhaps only fitting.

What is an Omni Plant?

The Omni Plant is an upright vine (like tomatoes and bell peppers). What does an Omni Plant grow? Put simply: it grows whatever you feed it.

Once you have an Omni Plant or two, you click on the plant and choose "Feed." This pops up a window of your inventory items, filtered for the items which the Omni Plant will accept. You can feed it books (but not recipes), other fruits, fish, and some oddball fun items like rubber duckies. After a few days, the Omni Plant will sprout more of whatever you fed it. You can harvest these items and use or sell them.

How do you get an Omni Plant?

The Omni Plant is only obtainable through a long chain of incredibly aggravating opportunities.

First, you have to get your Gardening skill to level 8 or above.

Then you will get an Opportunity to grow 20 "Excellent" quality fruits or vegetables for a restaurant. When you complete this opportunity, you will have the ability to plant cheese.

Next you will get an Opportunity to grow 10 "Excellent" quality cheeses for a restaurant. Completing this opportunity gives you the ability to plant steak.

Finally you get an Opportunity to grow 10 "Outstanding" or "Perfect" quality steaks for the restaurant. Completing this Opportunity leaves your Sim with 3 Omni Plant seeds in their inventory. Hooray!

Harvesting the Wild Omni Plant

If you don't want to go to all the trouble, there is also a wild Omni Plant hidden in Riverview and Sunset Valley. (I haven't checked for one in Bridgeport yet.) In Riverview, the plant is tucked around the corner of the Science Center. In Sunset Valley, the plant is in a fenced garden area behind the Science Center.

You can feed this Omni Plant and harvest its produce. But you cannot take the plant home, and it will never be better than "Normal" quality.

Tending the Omni Plant

The Omni Plant needs care just like your other garden plants. Fertilizing the Omni Plant will improve the quality of the plant, which will then improve the quality of the produce you get from it.

The copies which the Omni Plant produces are not worth as much as the original. However, it grows enough copies that this depreciation isn't a big problem.

For example, I fed an Omni Plant a copy of the book on catching Death Fish. The book cost $2,000 new at the store. The Omni Plant  then grew 8 copies, each of which were worth only $1,700. I lost $300 off the cover price for each copy, but that still left me with a total harvest worth of $11,600 (the total sales minus the cost of the initial book).