Deduce #45: The allotment — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from September 28, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 8 clues, 3 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

Four people — Kit, Quinn, Zara and Cleo — and three things to work out about each: their crop, tool and plot. The clues only ever rule things out.

1. The onions grower is not the one on plot 2.
2. Cleo is the one on plot 4.
3. Kit is not the one on plot 3.
4. Quinn is not the one with the spade.
5. The one with the spade is on a lower plot than the beans grower.
6. The squash grower is exactly 2 plots after the one with the rake.
7. The one with the fork is exactly 2 plots after Kit.
8. Kit is the one with the rake.

The walkthrough

A round is one pass over the clues. Each round applies what the last one settled; every step below is an elimination the clues force, in the order a solver would take them.

Round 1

Start with every possibility open, and take the clues in order.

Clue 2, “Cleo is the one on plot 4”: plot 4 comes off Kit, Quinn and Zara. That settles it: Cleo is on plot 4.

Clue 3, “Kit is not the one on plot 3”: plot 3 comes off Kit.

Clue 4, “Quinn is not the one with the spade”: spade comes off Quinn.

Clue 6, “The squash grower is exactly 2 plots after the one with the rake”: rake comes off Cleo.

Clue 7, “The one with the fork is exactly 2 plots after Kit”: fork comes off Kit, Quinn and Zara; plot 5 comes off Kit. That settles it: Kit is on plot 2.

Clue 8, “Kit is the one with the rake”: rake comes off Quinn and Zara. That settles it: Kit’s tool is rake and Quinn’s tool is hoe.

Round 2

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

Hoe is Quinn’s, so it comes off Zara and Cleo. That settles it: Zara’s tool is spade.

Spade is Zara’s, so it comes off Cleo. That settles it: Cleo’s tool is fork.

plot 2 is Kit’s, so it comes off Quinn and Zara.

Clue 1, “The onions grower is not the one on plot 2”: onions comes off Kit.

Clue 5, “The one with the spade is on a lower plot than the beans grower”: beans comes off Kit and Zara; plot 5 comes off Zara. That settles it: Zara is on plot 3.

Clue 6, “The squash grower is exactly 2 plots after the one with the rake”: squash comes off Kit, Quinn and Zara. That settles it: Kit’s crop is rhubarb.

Round 3

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

Rhubarb is Kit’s, so it comes off Quinn, Zara and Cleo. That settles it: Zara’s crop is onions.

Onions is Zara’s, so it comes off Quinn and Cleo. That settles it: Quinn’s crop is beans.

Nobody but Cleo can still have squash, so Cleo’s crop is squash.

plot 3 is Zara’s, so it comes off Quinn. That settles it: Quinn is on plot 5.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #44 (Sun, Sep 27)

About Deduce

Deduce is Noggin’s daily logic grid: four people, three things to work out about each, and clues that never hand you an answer. Every puzzle has exactly one solution and can be finished by crossing off alone. How to play Deduce, or play today’s.