Seed

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v50.12 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

Looking for information on world generation seeds? See Advanced world generation.

For information on seed management, see How do I manage my seeds and crops?

Seeds are used in farming to grow crops. They can be stored in bags (100 seeds per bag), which can in turn be stored in barrels or pots (10 bags per barrel/pot). Different seeds generally can't be mixed within a bag, so storing seeds of 10 different types requires 10 (or more) different bags (though a bug does cause dwarves to combine seeds occasionally).

Seeds can be brought on embark or obtained by trading. They can also be produced from plants (acquired by plant gathering or growing the respective crops). When a plant is eaten or used in brewing, milling or plant processing, it leaves one or two plantable seeds (see below for details). The exceptions are valley herb, bloated tuber, kobold bulb, and muck root, which will not leave behind seeds after processing. Cooking plants in a kitchen never produces seeds.

Tree seeds cannot currently be planted, though a few varieties, such as macadamia nuts and walnuts, are edible or cookable.

Seed List

The seeds of the following 155 plants can be stockpiled:

• Abaca seeds
• Acacia seeds
• Acorns
• Alfalfa seeds
• Almonds
• Apple seeds
• Apricot pits
• Artichoke seeds
• Asparagus seeds
• Avocado pits
• Bambara groundnut
• Banana seeds
• Barley seeds
• Bayberry seeds
• Beet seeds
• Bilberry seeds
• Bitter melon seeds
• Bitter orange seeds
• Bitter vetch seeds
• Blackberry seeds
• Blade weed seeds
• Blood amaranth seeds
• Blueberry seeds
• Broad bean
• Buckwheat seeds
• Cabbage seeds
• Cacao beans
• Candlenuts
• Caper seeds
• Carambola seeds
• Cashews
• Cassava seeds
• Cave wheat seeds
• Celery seeds
• Cherry pits
• Chestnuts
• Chickpea
• Chicory seeds
• Citron seeds
• Coffee beans
• Cotton seeds
• Cowpea
• Cranberry seeds
• Cucumber seeds
• Custard-apple seeds
• Date palm seeds
• Desert lime seeds
• Dimple cup Spawn
• Durian seeds
• Eggplant seeds
• Elephant-head amaranth seeds
• Finger lime seeds
• Finger millet
• Fisher berry seeds
• Flax seeds
• Fonio
• Foxtail millet
• Garden cress seeds
• Garlic seeds
• Ginkgo seeds
• Grape seeds
• Guava seeds
• Hard wheat seeds
• Hazel nuts
• Hemp seeds
• Hide root seeds
• Horned melon seeds
• Jute seeds
• Kaniwa seeds
• Kenaf seeds
• Kumquat seeds
• Leek seeds
• Lentil
• Lesser yam seeds
• Lettuce seeds
• Lime seeds
• Long yam seeds
• Longland grass seeds
• Lychee seeds
• Macadamia nuts
• Maize
• Mango pits
• Mung bean
• Muskmelon seeds
• Oats seeds
• Olive pits
• Onion seeds
• Orange seeds
• Papaya seeds
• Papyrus sedge seeds
• Paradise nuts
• Parsnip seeds
• Passion fruit seeds
• Pea
• Peach pits
• Peanut
• Pear seeds
• Pearl millet
• Pecans
• Pendant amaranth seeds
• Pepper seeds
• Persimmon seeds
• Pig tail seeds
• Pineapple seeds
• Plum pits
• Plump helmet spawn
• Pomegranate seeds
• Pomelo seeds
• Potato seeds
• Prickle berry seeds
• Purple amaranth seeds
• Purple yam seeds
• Quinoa seeds
• Radish seeds
• Rambutan seeds
• Ramie seeds
• Raspberry seeds
• Rat weed seeds
• Red bean
• Red spinach seeds
• Rhubarb seeds
• Rice
• Rock nuts
• Rope reed seeds
• Round lime seeds
• Rye seeds
• Sand pear seeds
• Single-grain wheat seeds
• Sliver barb seeds
• Soft wheat seeds
• Sorghum seeds
• Soybean
• Spelt seeds
• Spinach seeds
• Squash seeds
• Strawberry seeds
• String bean
• Sun berry seeds
• Sweet pod seeds
• Sweet potato seeds
• Taro seeds
• Tea seeds
• Teff
• Tomatillo seeds
• Tomato seeds
• Turnip seeds
• Two-grain wheat seeds
• Urad beans
• Walnuts
• Watermelon seeds
• Whip vine seeds
• White millet
• White yam seeds
• Wild carrot seeds
• Winter melon seeds

Seed Production

Seeds are produced by brewing (at a still), milling (at a millstone or quern), processing (at a farmer's workshop), or by dwarves eating the plants raw (uncooked). For information on where to grow, gather, or process specific plants consult the specific plant's page or the general crops page.

In order to prevent your fortress becoming cluttered with millions of seeds there is a cap of 200 seeds for each type of plant and a global cap of 3000 seeds. Seed producing activities will only produce seeds if your fortress contains fewer than 200 seeds of that type. You can exceed the 200 seed cap by buying seeds from caravans, and seed production will restart when your stocks fall below 200. Seed production is not affected by the global cap; rather, the oldest seeds in the fortress will be periodically removed to remain at or around 3000. Note that this removal may affect "strategic seed stockpiles" (i.e. seeds forbidden for use in case of dwarf stupidity), any crops that you grow only occasionally, and potentially any crops which have been prevented from producing seeds by the specific type cap. Both of these limits can be modified in the d_init.txt file.

Note: In case you are confused about getting spam of messages like "Urist McFarmer cancels Plant seeds: Needs [seed name]", while you are sure that you have enough seeds, no burrow restrictions or closed doors, the reason for this is most likely: the haulers see a seed somewhere and take the whole seed bag from stockpile to go pick it up, making the farmer cancel his job. The problem is exacerbated when barrels are used on the seed stockpile, because the dwarves will additionally store the seed bags inside barrels, blocking even more seeds during each hauling job and extending hauling jobs by first bringing the seed bag to the seed, then returning to the stockpile, picking up the barrel to bring it to the bag, storing the bag in the barrel and only then bringing the barrel bag to the stockpile. During all this time, the seed barrel and all its contents will be blocked from access by any other job.

You can simply disallow barrels from the stockpile, which requires a somewhat larger stockpile but makes seed collection jobs much shorter and less disruptive. Bags will always be used to store seeds in stockpiles, you cannot forbid that.

Another way to deal with this problem is this: set up 2 seed stockpiles, with the larger (primary) one set to only accept items from links (a). Set the secondary (smaller) pile to take from anywhere and give to the main stockpile. Now, when a seed shows up in your dining room or brewery, the dwarves should try to put it into the secondary pile first, which shouldn't have anything in it for long (so no bag for world tour). Once the seed arrives in the secondary stockpile, a new job will be created, moving the seed over into the main stockpile. Now the bag will be picked up to move that seed into it, but if the piles are next to each other it should only be in transit for a few seconds reducing the likelihood of cancellation spam.

As a workaround, you can finally make use of the peculiarities of stockpile commands: setting a stockpile to "take" from a mill, still or farmer's workshop will prevent the workshop from sending its products to any other stockpile. If the stockpile in question doesn't accept seeds, all seeds produced by the workshop will stay in the building, readily accessible to farmers. This can be handy if the workshop is directly adjacent to the farm plot, but can cause cluttering of the workshop if other products like barrels of booze aren't moved out of the shop regularly.

"Seed" in other Languages Dwarven: lenod Elvish: are Goblin: ösmosp Human: ase

Bugs

• Dwarves compulsively store seeds in bags.^Bug:7869
• Planted seeds removed from field by seed cap.^Bug:8107
• Seeds carried by merchants count against fortress seed cap.^Bug:8108
• Conflict between the two seed caps can remove an entire type of seed.^Bug:8091
• Dye stored in barrels without bags.^Bug:9219 This bug is believed to apply to seeds as well, based on the 01/19/2016 dev-log note: "stop dumping dye/flour/seed/etc. bags out into barrels improperly".