Difference between revisions of "Agriculture"

Latest revision as of 07:37, 14 August 2024

Overview

The agriculture skill allows players to grow their own food.

Agriculture provides a good long-term source of food and healing herbs, due to the time difference between sowing crops and harvesting them (around 8 weeks). Crops start to become ready in late summer through to late autumn, though exact times differ depending on the species of plant. All crops except for cereals can be simply picked up but some plants will not yield seeds unless harvested using ALT+A (a cutting tool is required). Plants and cereals must be threshed to obtain their products (usually roots, seeds, leaves and sometimes flowers.)

As of v3.19, animals and birds can (and do!) eat your growing crops and this can have a devastating effect, particularly in smaller fields. Tying a dog to a tree nearby may help protect small fields from crow and hare incursions. Deer and elk are known to lust after turnips, a trap-fence will deter them.

However, a character cannot survive solely on plants. Due to their low nutrition value when raw, plants must be processed in order to be useful. Crop yields can be greatly variable, and plant foods must be supplemented with protein from meat or fish to stop starvation.

In order to start farming, land needs to be prepared with a shovel. This land needs to be fertilized with the remains of a fire. The correct site must be selected for agriculture- rocky or marshy terrain will not support farming, so you should choose a forest tile. Due to the limitations of the game, it is strongly advised to plant large (20x20 or even bigger) fields two or three tiles away from your main settlement, to prevent lag and item overflow. A fence can be built around large farms to prevent NPCs from triggering the item overflow bug, though this is a lot of work.

How to

Steps to planting:

• Locate a suitable site (forest a few tiles from your main settlement).

• Light a fire on a square and let it burn out

• Stand on the square with the burnt-out fire

• ALT-A to open the Agricuture Option and Prepare the Soil (you will need a shovel)

• Wait until the ground cools (Takes a day or so)

• ALT-A to Plant/sow

Note: Sowing again will override the previous planting, losing the seeds

Steps to harvesting a square:

• Wait until the crop is ready to harvest (using ALT+A - HARVEST will inform you if the crop is ripe)

• Have a cutting tool and use ALT+A to HARVEST AND PICK, reaping and threshing in one step

• Rejoice and praise the spirits

• Remember to conserve some seeds for replanting next Swidden!

Notes: Unknown plants can be harvested in the same way and thus be stockpiled until identified. However, for unidentified fiber crops (flax, hemp etc.), the stems can no longer be identified once threshed, rendering them useless. Some herbs have an additional flowering stage and can be harvested then to gain flowers. Berries are harvested by hand and give only berries which cannot be replanted. The most efficient tool for harvest as of 3.32 is the masterwork woodsman's axe. (requests cutting tool, tested with various knives sickle and various axes on unknown grass.)

List of Crops

Image	Name	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Calories (per lb)	Thresh Multiplier*	Time to Harvest	Sprout	Harvest (first)	Wither	Produces
	Barley	64	2	7	1,370	0.1	110 days	Seedtime (May)	Harvest 19 (August)	Fall (September)	2 small fistfuls (0.110 lbs) barley grains
	Rye	55	2	9	1,243	0.1	120 days	Seedtime (May)	Harvest 29 (August)	Fall (September)	2 small fistfuls (0.110 lbs) rye grains
	Broad Beans	19	0	8	490	0.5	110 days	Swidden (April)	Hay 20 (July)	Dead (November)	5 large (0.773 lbs) broad bean pods
	Pea	12	1	6	367	0.5	90 days	Seedtime (May)	Hay 30 (July)	Fall (September)	2 medium (0.115 lbs) pea pods
	Hemp	8	10	24	989	0.1	130 days	Swidden (April)	Harvest 9 (August)	Dirt (October)	2 medium fistfuls (0.221 lbs) hemp seeds, 2 medium fistfuls (0.150 lbs) hemp leaves
	Turnip	7	0	1	145	N/A	55 days	Seedtime (May)	Fallow 25 (June)	Fall (September)	1 small pinch (0.022 lbs) turnip seeds, 1 large (0.662 lbs) turnip root
	Flax	2	15	20			90 days	Seedtime (May)	Hay 30 (July)	Dirt (October)
	Clayweed	40	4	13			90 days	Seedtime (May)	Hay 30 (July)	Dirt (October)
	Nettle	2	1	6			50 days	Fallow (June)	Hay 21 (July)	Fall (September)
	Sorrel	2	0	2			45 days	Fallow (June)	Hay 16 (July)	Dirt (October)
	Yarrow	0	0	0			50 days	Fallow (June)	Hay 21 (July)	Dirt (October)

*Multiplier to non-seed nutrition after threshing. Note that in the vanilla game, hemp is the only crop with a threshing modifier that produces something other than seeds, grains, or pods, making hemp leaves one-tenth as nutritious by weight as the seeds. No longer true, in 3.84 many plants now produce leaves when threshed. Leaf nutrition value should be checked.

Farmer's calendar

This is the schedule for a farmer

See the plants page for more detailed information about individual plants. It's important to make sure plants have enough time to grow from the day they are planted before the start of their withering month. (Months have 30 days, except Hay and Center, which have 32.)

If plants are fully grown before they start withering, they can still be harvested. The withering process ends in the latter half of the withering month making the plants unharvestable. A plants withering condition can be checked by examining with L key. If the plant is still withering, it can be harvested and examining it tells how long until it withers (e.g. a week).

CHANGE: from v3.18 onward months' names are changed but the below still keep both names for ease of use across all versions.

April/Swidden

Planting: Broad beans, Hemp, Flax, Rye*, Barley*, Turnip*

* These won't sprout until the next month starts, but they have a long growing time so its advantageous to plant them early.

Time to prepare new soils if you see there's more seeds than planned.

May/Seedtime

Planting: Rye (the first two days), Peas, Turnip, Barley (try to finish until 10th), Hemp (until the 20th), Clayweed

Priority: Rye, Barley, Hemp, Peas, Turnip

June/Fallow

Planting: Nettle, Sorrel, Yarrow

Still can plant: Peas(until last week), Turnips, Broadbeans, Clayweed

Prepare new soils if you feel like more turnips

July/Hay

Harvest: Turnips

Still can plant: Broadbeans (first week), Turnip (until last week), the first two weeks: Yarrow, Nettle, Sorrel

Harvest: In the last weeks: Nettle, Sorrel, Yarrow

August/Harvest

Harvest: Rye, Barley, Turnip, Peas, Hemp, Broadbeans, Clayweed, Nettle, Sorrel, Yarrow

September/Fall

Planting: Rye*, Barley*, Turnip*

Harvest: Rye, Barley

Starts withering: Rye, Barley, Turnip, Peas, Nettle

* These won't sprout until the next Seedtime (May).

October/Dirt

Planting: Rye*, Barley*, Turnip*

Starts withering: Hemp, Sorrel, Yarrow, Clayweed

* These won't sprout until the next Seedtime (May). See Autumn planting below for more details.

November/Dead

Starts withering: Broadbeans

As you can see, Turnips, with great effort and care, can give two crops a year.

Calendar

The week calendar starts at midwinter point. Winter months are marked in blues and summer months are in greens. Planting can be done in autumn after (during?) withering, through sprouting month, and up to the last plant date, provided soil is warm enough to work. Anything after that will be lost in withering.

Related content

• Grainflail - A valuable type of agricultural tool and impovised weapon.
• Shovel - A particularly valuable type of agricultural tool and construction tool.
• Sickle - A valuable type of agricultural tool and impovised weapon.
• Wooden shovel - A particularly valuable type of agricultural tool and construction tool.