So far I've done 2 rounds of growing Tree Saplings, once trying to achive Dark Ores, once trying to achieve Fire Ores. My net result [Dark]3 Light Clusters, a stupid amount of Persikos (it's a fruit) [Fire]7 Ice Clusters, so much Cinnamon I had to rearrange my mog safe twice to pick it all, and 1 Fire Ore.

So, in 2 months I spent 60K for the 10 pots I used, 160K in Saplings for the Saplings I used in total. My returns I'm still calculating (sooooo much cinnamon to sell at 2.5K a stack, and the Fire Ore is still on sale for 250K... *cough*hint*cough*), however on both occasions I've sold my harvest for more than I've invested. This has been very profitable for me so far, however for the amount of time it took (one month each round) I could have earned twice as much farming Tree Cuttings and selling those to people who grow their own Saplings... I was just playing other games for a while, taking an FFXI break, so it was a simple matter to log in once a day and check a few plants

All in all, I will continue to garden as I go about my days in FFXI, however it is far from being a reliable source of income. Some people have lost money doing it. I still highly recommend everyone try it out once, though. Never know, you may get an ore your first shot. For anyone interested, here's a link to the thread I used as a guide. In it you'll find good and bad results, as well as the tried and true method of getting these elusive rocks to grow --> http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?fitem=3984