Those darn dead spots!

[ChaosKitten]

Hey guys, I've potentially come across something I think is awesome. :3

I had a dead spot where no trees and no bushes would grow, right in my row of hedges. Needless to say I was a bit heartbroken because my plans were ruined. So I just decided to put a lamp in that spot. Turns out it was too close to the cliff for the lamp. So I put it diagonally from the dead spot, see the following

o o o o
o o L o
o D o o
o o o o

L = Lamp
D = Dead Spot
o = empty space

I then decided I don't want the lamp and I'll just continue my row of hedges, but slightly different. I'm stubborn. I decided to try just one more time to do my original plans and planted a native fruit tree to test, right in the dead spot. IT GREW!!! I then chopped it down when it was fully grown and planted a bush right into the hole. It's growing right now!!!!

So my conclusion is that the nearby project "reset" the nearby squares and turned the dead spot into a non-dead spot OR dead spots just have a real small chance to grow stuff, but a far greater chance to kill things.

If anyone wants to test this out, I'd love to hear the results. ^_^ I know it's annoying because the project takes up a whole day, but if it can fix your perfect plans, why not give it a try?

And if this is already know, well I'm a derp and you can take your net to me, lol.

 

[CharmingBerry]

I thought the dead spots were related to tree density ie you can only have 8 trees/shrubs in a 3x3 space

 

[ChaosKitten]

I've done nothing in the area except the project and suddenly the bush is growing. o.o; I dunno, I just thought I'd tell my story in case anyone else wants to test it.

Also, 3x3 you mean 3 tiles, right? So in a 9 tile square, you can only have 8 trees/bushes? I've never had more than 3 things growing in this space when planting the tree/bush and it always died.

 

[Superpenguin]

I thought the dead spots were related to tree density ie you can only have 8 trees/shrubs in a 3x3 space

They aren't related. A dead spot Will not allow anything to grow regardless of total tree count.
This is an interesting theory. I'd try it out, but I have yet to discover a dead spot that interferes with my plans.

 

[esprit]

This page says you can't have 12 trees/bushes in a chain. Basically, so you can't trap a villager or character in their house. Maybe that's your problem? I just started planting bushes so I've been doing some reading on it and found it interesting.

http://animalcrossing.wikia.com/wiki/Bush

Edit: Er, perhaps not if you've managed to get it growing. :/

 

[ChaosKitten]

That couldn't have been the problem. I have 11 bushes in a chain, and then 2 in a bump-out and then another 3 following the same path as the first 11. So I've never gone past 12 growing right next to each other. One of the bushes in the bump-out was in a dead spot.

 

[Britty the Kitty]

I've been looking into this. From what I was told(and seems to be true)
- You can only have 12 in a row of bushes touching. If you throw trees in the mix (TBTBTB), that also counts for the 12 in the row. Stumps will also count for this.
- You can only have 15 trees/bushes in a 7 x 7 area. I had a seemingly random dead spot for my bushes. The moment I chopped down a few nearby trees, the bush was able to grow.
- You can only have a maximum of 8 trees in a 7 x 7 area. (I haven't looked into proving this one, but it was mentioned along with the other true stuff)
- It needs to be one block away from any public works project, buildings, or rocks.

So your original theory is correct.

That couldn't have been the problem. I have 11 bushes in a chain, and then 2 in a bump-out and then another 3 following the same path as the first 11. So I've never gone past 12 growing right next to each other. One of the bushes in the bump-out was in a dead spot.

Do you have a pictures of your bush area? I have a bad ability to visualize this, so I want to see if I can figure out why it's dying.

 

[Scribbler397]

This is a very interesting theory. So far the dead spots haven't interfered with any of my plans, but I will be sure to try this when they do!