Seeking Early Farming Help

Hey all, I'm wondering if anyone is able to give any tips for early farming progress. I feel like it's absolutely crawling and I'm making no inroads at all. I've looked at a few youtube vids, but all the major ones are 2+ years old, and start with the person FAR ahead of where I'm currently at.

At the moment I have 25 plots unlocked, overgrowth and land ranks unlocked (Putting all points into the various rank Exp upgrades).

Land ranks are around 42.

Currently farming sunflowers for more plots with a 49 min timer per cycle.

Just feels like I'm missing something major, as I keep hearing farming just 'explodes' at some point.