cultivate

verb

1. To grow plants, notably crops.

   “Most farmers in this region cultivate maize.”

   “So unhealthy is this valley, which is the home of large game, that whole kraals full of people who have tried to cultivate the rich land, have died in it of fever, or fled away leaving their crops unreaped.”

   “My hobby is gathering the spores of some of the most delicious of the wild varieties of mushrooms, such as morels, giant puffballs and woods oysters, then cultivating them.”

   “In Ch'iung-hai Hsien of the same island, this year "Chen-chu-ai" has been cultivated over vast areas, yielding large increases and as 2,730 tons of the breed already harvested in June have been sent to Chekiang province, it is expected that it will be cultivated widely in Chekiang in 1966.”

2. (figuratively)To nurture; to foster; to tend.

   “They tried to cultivate an interest in learning among their students.”

   “Left also to himself by guardians[…] he cultivated more his imagination than his judgment”

   “The mix of ballet vocabulary, modern techniques and African steps is familiar, but the extent to which Mr. Rhoden packs — and overpacks — phrases, cultivates warp-speed delivery and hyperextends every possible hip jut and arabesque is, thank goodness, something special to Complexions.”

   “[…] after four years in which President Donald J. Trump had cultivated Mr. Johnson and expressed sympathy for Britain in its bitter divorce with the European Union.”

3. To turn or stir soil in preparation for planting or as a method of weed control between growing crop plants.