Farming!

[FatPoulet 24]

As the support forum is more for bug reporting (and because the bug section is being lazy), I will be posting here for questions about farming! Alright, so do crops all grow in summer or they do actually grow on their respectable real-life time zones? If you make a huge farmland do the crops grow slower because all the nutrients in the soil are being sucked out faster? Do I need to do crop rotations?

So mehny qwestionz!

[Just_Another_Guy_:) 1,066]

-This could go into supprot anyways, you know

-Crops finish growing between one year and 3/4 of a year after you plant them (remember you can change the length of the year in the configuration file if you feel it's too long).

-Tilled dirt blocks only account for their own nutrient levels, without checking the ones near them. Therefore no, there isn't a difference between the growth rate in a giant farmland and that one of a single crop.

-Yes you do. Dirt has 3 nutrient levels, simply called A, B and C. The crops are divided between this nutrients with no overlaps (every plant has one nutrient, and only one nutrient). A crop of group A planted on a tilled dirt block completely full of that nutrient will grow at a normal rate, and at the time of the harvest it will have sucked out almost all of that nutrient content in the dirt block. This nutrient levels regenerate slowly over time, really slowly. If another plant of the same species where to be planted in the same block right after the first plant is harvested, this one would take two times longer in being ready for harvest, because of the lack of it's required nutrient. Remember the water affects TFC tilled blocks and it's crops in the same way it affects vanilla crops: the growth rate of the crops is reduced when there isn't water at least 4 blocks away.

-Metal hoes (it's important for it to be a metallic one...) will allow you to check:

--Whether a tilled dirt block is supplied or not of water

--The nutrient levels left in that block (evne though it will only show you it's levels, not tell you which is what)

--Whether a crop is ready to harvest or not

[weylin 36]

So you rotate the type of crops you grow, right?

[FatPoulet 24]

I thank you my friend! Very useful post we have here

[Buczkowski 36]

-Metal hoes (it's important for it to be a metallic one...) will allow you to check:

--Whether a tilled dirt block is supplied or not of water

--The nutrient levels left in that block (evne though it will only show you it's levels, not tell you which is what)

--Whether a crop is ready to harvest or not

A stone hoe can do all but check the nutrient levels.

[Just_Another_Guy_:) 1,066]

A stone hoe can do all but check the nutrient levels.

I know, but to avoid any kind of confusion, it's better to tell people not to use stone ones :3

[FatPoulet 24]

Oh hell I did'nt know we could make stone hoes. Sure won't start to do so tho.

[Buczkowski 36]

Oh hell I did'nt know we could make stone hoes. Sure won't start to do so tho.

No reason not to. It might even be vital to set up agriculture before metalworking depending on food availability.

[FatPoulet 24]

The mod requires such a big variety of resources to be able to move onward it'll make you move around biomes a lot (crops don't follow you around). Wild crops are quire rare so you don't have a lot of growing early on. They take a very (very) long time for them to reach maturity you have plenty of time to starve before producing. With a couple of cows or pigs you have enough food for a very long time. All these coupled together you get to the point where you realize that a stone hoe is actually 100% useless.

[Buczkowski 36]

Meh, I've had no problems settling down at (a lucky) spawn and getting plenty of seeds.

[dockwithme 76]

I just take a few minutes, let the OCD kick in and punch a bunch of grass! In a few minutes (depending on how lucky you are) you can have a decent amount of seeds. Make a hoe, tile some earth, and plant them near the water! It's a great 'set it and forget it' method of food, then when they are harvest-able, instead of eating plain old pork chops or steaks, experiment with some meals... Who knows what cool effects you might find...

Useless? Nah. Unnecessary? I could give you that one... If you have a bunch of animals around you, or killed some on your way to your current location, you're pretty set in terms of food for a while.

[FatPoulet 24]

Yeah you are right, unnecessary is the right word for this.