how long does it takes for the tree to be able to grow fruit after there's nothing to harvest?

About 3-4 game years, has been my experience.

It takes four game years for a tree to mature. I can't answer the question about "after there's nothing to harvest" since that depends on how long before you run out of honey. Even if you do, the kids can always find mushrooms.

GRRRR The fog came and took away most of my food, there is not enough to harvest in the orchard or the bee hive, what do I do, I had over 1200 units yesterday now I have under 100 HELP please

That happened to me also. What I did was to create some magic food, pause for 24 hours and do it again until there's enough to continue. Until that time. I started another tribe and worked on that mainly.

Thank you I am trying that, my chief won't help until about 6 tonight, It is so frustrating though.

you know you don´t have to wait that long! If you´re impatient like me...PAUSE YOUR GAME FIRST, advance you computer clock to the wanted hour...and presto! it´s a little cheating, but I´m not a big fan of waiting

NOT a good idea! Time travelling, apart from being a form of cheating, can have unexpected effects both to the game and other programs on your computer. Even if it works without problems, you are likely to have problems when you want to reset the clock again.

I agree with that arnie. I used to do that on VV1 until all of my tribes got killed when I wanted to set the clock back! I recommend just pausing and waiting.

Thank you for all your help everyone, I waited awhile then unpause, low and behold it rained so I used the lift and got a piece of fruit. I checked the orchard and hooray fruit was ready. My chief just created more so hopefully I will be set for now. I need about 17,000 to get the pitcher plant and I can get rid of the sharks. I know I am probley way behaind all of you, but I wouldn't have you to help me otherwise. THANKS YOU ALL AGAIN!!!:)

One thing...fog and rain seem to bring out mushrooms, so grab a child and scan during both of those.

I'm not sure if I should start a new topic, this one seems appropriate to my problem with food.

I have all my trees grown in the orchard, but the last 2 that you get from the lift have never had more than 9 fruit on them. My first tree doesn't seem to replenish as my villagers are constantly going to it for food.

I went for 47 Isola years and not once did those trees grow fruit, help!
I'd rather not use any of the pause for 24 hours for magic food 'hints' as it just doesn't seem like much fun.

I've already tried creating a new tribe in case there was a food glitch, I've tried going to the "easy" setting.

HELP!!

I went through that, when my tribe began. They were low on food for awhile, and the kids were kept busy harvesting mushrooms. I used the Chief's ability to create magic food once every 24 hours. And kept the population at 15, until they were able to start fishing. I was very careful with it, after many times in VV1 and VV2 having villagers die on me. This time, fortunately, I never lost a single villager, until they began dying from old age. You just have to watch carefully. And put those kids to work.

Greetings VV3 Fans!!

I'm having the same problem as Proud Cat Lady. Any ideas for the food regrowth time for the orchard and beehive? Is it 24 hours, Isola time? 48 hours? I know my Chief can add food magically, but only every 24 hours.

My 17 villagers get down to almost 150 food before even just a couple fruit show up on the trees in the orchard. And forget about the beehive - it seems to only create about 15-20 food every couple days. I use the lift when it rains, but that doesn't help much, even when my Tribe is doing the Weather Dance frequently.

I don't want to think about my precious tribe dying from not enough food (wahhhh!)

I have not yet solved the sharks puzzle, but am wondering if fishing is an option in VV3. I may have missed a post, but there doesn't seem to be anything in the guides about fishing to support your Tribe.

I currently have Level 1 in faction Nature and in Alchemy, and Level 2 in all others except Magic. I have solved Puzzles 1-8 as well as 10 and 14.

Thanks for any help in advance!

The reason you never see trees with more than 8 or 9 food is because when they drop to 7 food, villagers will not harvest from them. It takes very very little time for villagers to strip a tree; in all the time I've been playing, I've never once been sitting there to see a tree refresh itself, and I've never once loaded the game in between a tree refreshing itself, and the villagers stripping it bare again. I would look to your population as the culprit; the honeycomb may look like it can sustain a few villagers indefinitely, but that's an illusion caused by the 500 food it comes with. The regeneration of the honeycomb cannot indefinitely support a single villager. The orchard, likewise, can sustain many villagers in the short term, but only around a dozen villagers long enough to get another source of food, and only four villagers indefinitely. (More if you don't mind them going hungry now and again.)

The trees regenerate 111 food every 3 hours, if I remember correctly. Additionally, each tree arrives with 1000 food when it matures. This is the reason for the illusion that the trees can support many more villagers than they actually can support alone. I wouldn't expect it to support more than 10-12 in the time it takes you to get the tech needed for another food source.

Remember, when it rains, it's a mushroom fiesta! Get gathering! You can sustain ten people on mushrooms alone, if you're vigilant, and if you pause the game before quitting. Pausing also has the advantage of being able to use the chief powers much more often, from the villager's point of view.

The 'guides' section has detailed solutions to the puzzles clearly marked. Since this thread isn't marked spoiler, I won't post solutions here, but the topic should be easy to find over in the guides section.

Here it is:
Virtual Villagers 3 Tips, Tricks, Hints, Spoilers
This guide is chock-full of spoilers, so beware.