Agriculture Question not on wiki

[Arshness 2]

How long do crops take to grow?This information should probably be added to the Agriculture page. I have read the entire page and can't find this information. It's not in the stone age guide either. 

[Deviator 51]

The devs want some mystery to the game so you won't find everything on the wiki.

 

As for crops, I don't think it is a set time limit for growth. I think it has to do with water level, nutrient level and temperature.

[TangentialThreat 2]

If I'm around a lot I can get two wheat crops in a year on a server, and maybe three if I timed it perfectly or lived south of the frost line. I rotate my crops.

Garlic and greenbeans seem to grow faster than wheat.

[Arshness 2]

Ah. I can understand that. But I'd still include *this* because it's hard to tell when plants are mature by looking at them. But thank you for the answer!

[Deviator 51]

 Make a metal hoe and change the mode with M and it will tell you when the crops are ready.

[mvillaronga 0]

Piggy backing on this, I assume that chunk loading still applies to crop and tree growth.  I need to be in the area for the crops and saplings to check for their chance to grow?  I am trying to figure out if I need to move to be closer to water to start up a crop system.  Or if I can just live some where a bit away and come back and visit the crops every month or so.

[Deviator 51]

You do not need to be in the area. Crop growth and other events go by the amount of ticks that have passed. Say it takes 10,000 ticks to do something. If you leave the area for 20,000 ticks and come back, it will revert to it's finished state when the chunk is loaded again. This is why you never want to use TMI or NEI or server commands to change the server time. Those options generally set the server ticks back instead of progressing forward a certain amount. I think there is a time add command but I am not sure what it is exactly.

[___Frank 18]

Hi Arshness,

 

I've wondered the same thing in the past and I found this post by Temujen to be very useful: http://terrafirmacraft.com/f/topic/4186-growth-time-in-days/

 

One tip I could offer is to make your fields in 3 sets of 6.  This will allow you to plant your red, orange, and yellow crops in each of them and then rotate them more easily each year.  I spend one day in the spring planting everything and one day in the fall harvesting everything. I ignore my fields (and their growth times) the rest of the year since I'm busy in the mines. 

 

This already yields an absurd amount of crops but if you really want to spend more than 2 days per year farming, you can pair your crops (e.g., yellow garlic and orange cabbage) so that they mature at the same time allowing you to continuously alternate them for multiple harvests. Whatever makes you happy.  I hope this helps.

 

Frank

[mvillaronga 0]

Thanks both of you.   This helps a lot.  I am used to requiring everything chunk loaded.  I was planning on just planting them and leaving them for a while.  Rotating them when I harvest.  Though without a way to create source blocks it will be interesting creating the farmland area.

[msmith 1]

Getting water to crops can be a pain.  If I could add only one thing to TFC worldgen it would be springs in the hills like you get in vanilla -- aqueducts, anyone?  *wistful*

[___Frank 18]

I move water using a sluice.  You'll notice when you set up a sluice that a water block is created after it.  If you axe the sluice, the water will remain. As of build 77, using a bucket on this water will make it disappear.  Here's what you need to do to create an inifite water source inside your base or outside for your farms.

 

1. Pick a 2x2 hole where you want your "well" to be.

2. Get 2 thatch blocks and place them in diagonally opposite corners of the 2x2 hole.  This will leave two 1x1 holes.

3. Channel water from the nearest water source, and using a sluice get the water to go through the sluice and then end up in one of the 1x1 holes. Axe the sluice such that the water remains in the hole.

4. Repeat for the other hole.

5. Once you have water in each of the holes, remove the thatch blocks.  The water will merge and form an infinite source. You can now use buckets on it.  It may take a few click but the buckets/jugs will fill up and the water source will remain.  There's a trick for doing all this quickly but you'll probably figure it out with a little practice.

 

I like having a water source inside my base.  As for farming, I find it easier to find a natural bay where I have a lot of coastline.  The water will hydrate up to 4 blocks which is quite a bit.  If you do 3 x 6 x 16 blocks along the shore of this inlet you end up with a crazy amount of crops. 8 block fields would suffice.

 

I hope this helps tide you over until we hopefully get irrigation and pipes in future builds.

 

Have fun!

 

 

[HiddenSage 39]

Re: water sources

 

I've always found is simplest to just build a house that hangs slightly over the water to begin with. Water source that doubles as secret back entrance to the estate (mobs don't swim down, so it's safe), plus I get to set up awesome bay windows on the ocean/riverside. 

 

Then there was that one time I started near a river in a high hills biome. Build my estate hanging between the cliffs, and the exit involved diving into the river. Really wish I had gotten screenshots of that, since the world corrupted.

Re: agriculture

 

_Frank has it right with favoring lots of small fields near a coastline (flatten the coast out and let the grass regrow before tilling for maximum effect). I'd also advise finding as many crop types as possible, just to experiment with meal creation. Find some things that are good for high-value meals (or meals with good effects), and then specialize down to those. Makes sure you need a lot less food to get by.