Ok so this is totally going to be weird but I want to make a wild forest area on my island. A LOT of weeds are required for this. My idea was densely planted pine trees, mushroom furniture and mushrooms scattered about, and of course weeds everywhere. At first I thought "hey no problem I will just plant a bunch of weeds!" but then I noticed they aren't growing, they are the same two kinds of weeds that are super tame looking. When I first started the game the weeds had more variety in their looks, like they were bushier and taller. I assumed that by planting weeds and waiting those weeds would grow into the more wild looking ones but they haven't at all! So if you understand what I am saying please tell me how I can get these wilder weeds to grow in my forest area!

I suggest raiding mystery islands using Nook  Miles Tickets. Not sure about grwqing them, though

i have a forest area with a similar vibe to yours and for me they just grew - took a while though like maybe a week or two. just don't move them as as soon as you pick them up and place them down they look small again - just plant loads and leave them be. they grow tall when surrounded by other weeds and left alone.

there are some that have said they can be watered and grow/reproduce like normal flowers but I'm not too sure on a source for this!

Ok, I will try that but tkme travel because I don't feel like waiting two irl weeks to see if it works. Thanks!

okay I've been super interested in this and it turns out weeds are actually super complicated!

here's the short version I've found based on mine and other people's research and what the guidebook says:

-if you have more than 100 of the smallest sized weeds, none of your weeds will grow at all

-if you have more than 150 weeds total, new ones will not spawn randomly (I think existing weeds can still spread to tiles next to them though, but not 100% sure on that)

-small weeds have a 20% chance of growing without water, and a 50% chance of growing with water

-medium weeds have a 5% chance of growing without water, and a 10% chance of growing with water

-rain and snow both count as water. the guide says your watering can counts too, but I haven't had a sunny day to test that yet

-you can only have 85 of the biggest weeds, so focus on the areas where you want the biggest weeds first, so they have more opportunity to grow big and tall

I can't guarantee that all of this is 100% accurate because I'm still experimenting, but it should at least give you a good starting point

here is a link to scans from the guidebook about weeds

Oh wow! That is actually really interesting. I guess I need to pick up the weeds I used for my oaths around town because I want those to be small and no doubt they bumped me over the limit!

got fed up because all the information I was finding was a little bit off, so I made a throwaway town on my old switch and I discovered the 100% accurate and true method to growing big weeds!

if you have 149 weeds or less, your weeds will continue to grow
if you have 150 weeds or more, your weeds will not grow no matter what

that's it, it's that simple

also, as long as you have 149 weeds or less, new weeds will spawn daily until you hit 150, then all weed activity stops. the best way to maximize your weed growth is to plant 149 weeds, then pluck one small weed a day (doesn't necessarily have to be the new one that spawned) until all 149 of your weeds are medium or large. at that point, you can put down as many small weeds as you want

also I can confirm that rain, snow and your watering can all increase the chance of your weeds growing as long as you stay under that 150 limit

Am I wrong or am I seeing different weeds in videos with different seasons? It totally looked like summer and fall had different things growing, like they changed due to the seasons being different... maybe it was something else.

^weeds do change with the seasons. one thing I learned while doing my tests is that the weeds that we currently have in the northern hemisphere started looking that way on march 20th. on march 19th they looked more like dandelions. I didn't test to see when all the other types change, I just happened to go past that date while testing

Ah I thought so. Lol didn't know it started the day we got the game though.
I kind of did think about the crazy weeds being used as decoration but the seasons made that option slightly pointless.