Difference between revisions of "v0.34:Irrigation"

Farming FAQ
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	How do you create a custom stockpile that accepts only prepared foods?
	How do you successfully breed and utilize animals(grazing, non-grazing and poultry)?
	How often do you need to irrigate your farm fields?
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Revision as of 21:29, 3 November 2012

xTATTEREDx · +FINE+ · *SUPERIOR* · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡ · ☼MASTERWORK☼

v50.12 · v0.47 · v0.34.11 · v0.31 · v0.28 · v0.23

This article is about an older version of DF.

More Info · V

Farming is only possible on mud and soil. Any terrain can be made muddy, and therefore suitable for farming, by dumping water on it. In Dwarf Fortress, 'Irrigation' is used as a fancy word for dumping water onto terrain that isn't useful for farming, in order to make it so.

Any amount of water dropped, pumped, or otherwise transported onto a tile will leave behind at least 'a dusting of mud', and this is sufficient for farming. Farm plots cannot be built on terrain with a water level of more than 1/7, and more mud has no apparent effect on farm output, so it's best to use a minimum of water to irrigate.

Irrigation is especially useful in biomes with little soil, and deep underground. However, no amount of irrigation will make it possible to grow surface plants in a hostile biome, such as mountains. This is a matter of climate, not soil conditions.

Farm plots can be built on unsuitable ground but doing so will display a warning message. If even a one tile of the plot lacks mud or soil, the entire plot will be unusable.

Magma cannot be used to irrigate, as it does not leave behind mud. It's usually best not to confuse molten rock and liquid water, although the use of both in tandem may help with schemes to irrigate glaciers.

All types of soil can be farmed with no need for irrigation, even sand.

Easy Irrigation

At its simplest, all that's required for irrigation is a water source, a drop-off point, and a dwarf with a bucket.

Very little land is required to provide all the farm field resources a fortress needs to survive and prosper, so this method should suffice in most cases. Of course, we have many other methods documented here for more ambitious sorts.

via Buckets

This method relies on activity zones, as water for irrigation can't simply be dropped on the ground, but must fall from the level above.

Step one: Designate a water source activity zone over the edge of a body of water. In a saltwater biome, a [[well] must be constructed, instead.

Step two: Dig out or construct a drop-off point just above where you want your farms to be. This most often takes the form of a balcony, catwalk, or scaffolding. Alternately, channel out a shaft and/or staircase all the way up to the surface. Water can safely fall any distance.

Step three: Designate a pit/pond area at the drop-off point, or several if you'd prefer speed over conservation of buckets. By default, these zones are pits, make sure to switch them to ponds, and to remove them once you have all the mud you need.

That's it!

via Murky Pool

Most areas contain murky pools, full of stagnant water. Though unpleasant to drink, in DF terms it's as useful as any water for irrigation. Like any other body of water, it can be used as a source for buckets, but the limited quantity also helps a simple plan to dig into or around it, and drain it out to create farmland.

The final water level must be less than 2/7 in order for the water to evaporate and provide access to the muddy tiles for farming. When using this method, it's easier to use smaller pools.

There are two approaches to reducing the final water level, without using pumps. One is to leave plenty of room. If the area to be irrigated is 5-6 times the size of the pool, the water inside will evaporate on its own, even in temperate climates. The other way is to leave a route for the water to flow out. If the pool and the dug out area are separate, channeling can be used to connect them with no danger of drowning.

Complex Irrigation

The following methods of irrigation take longer to build, but they can be more powerful, better-looking, and, of course, much more fun.

via Corkscrew Pump

This method ranks somewhere between easy and complex irrigation as it's set up relatively quickly while not necessarily looking as cool as the complex method. It needs a pump and a river/brook in a chasm though. A lake will do well too.

You start by digging out a tunnel of one tile and a rectangular room near the river exactly one level above the river. The floor of the room has to be at the same level as the surface of the river. It doesn't have to be walled on the side of the river as you'll need some open space for the water to get out. If you have dug it farther away from the river, you should dig another tunnel from the room to the water source so that the pumped in water can get out.

Secondly, at the end of the one tile wide tunnel you'll set up the pump. You'll need a free place next to the light green part of the pump for a dwarf to be able to operate it. It will only be operated once, so you don't need any axles or gears or waterwheels or whatever. Manual pump operation is all it takes.

After setting up the pump (whose dark green end has to be between the tunnel's walls) you can start pumping water into the room. If you have set up everything strategically smartly you should have a pump filling up the room with water. The water should flow through the room and out of it at the open side of the room. After having enough muddy ground tiles you can stop the dwarf from operating the pump and deconstruct it (the pump, not the dwarf!) if you like. After some time the water should have completely left the room or oozed away and you should have some beautiful muddy ground tiles to farm on.

You should also consider a bridge for the farmers to reach the farming plots. The bridge at the exit point of the water should be long enough so that the water won't flow over it and damp the ground at its far end. You can do without that second bridge though as you can deconstruct the pump after the irrigation. So there is already a passage for the farmers to get to the plots.

Good luck! Here's a diagram of this method:

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via Reservoir

A reservoir system which provides enough water for 8 fields. Upper level

The irrigated bottom level.

First you need a sufficient source of water. The best would be a brook or river, but it is also possible to use a bigger murky pool (it depends on how many fields you want to irrigate).

For every 7x7 farm plot you need

a floodgate
a hatch cover
4 mechanisms (for linking)
a door

You also need

2 Mechanisms for the levers
at least one additional door (if you have enough time to set up a wall or floodgate as well)

Use the following pattern:

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After your miners have dug the pattern, channel the tile under each hatch cover's location. Now place the hatch covers and link them to lever 1. After that you can place the floodgates and link them to lever 2. To start the irrigation, channel out the last tile to the river / murky pool. Pull the floodgate-lever to fill the reservoirs and pull it again when they are 7/7. Finally pull the hatch cover's lever and release the water to the lower level.

This reservoir contains 70 units of water (10x7). 9 units of water are lost to the ground of the reservoir (61 left). Roughly 10 units evaporate while spreading (~51). The water should be just enough to cover the whole farm plot and evaporate quickly.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{quality|Exceptional|16:26, 14 April 2012 (UTC)}}{{av}}
-Irrigation is the process of adding water to a rock tile so that it can be [[farm plot|farmed]]. This is done by flooding the tile with [[water]]. Any amount of water will suffice but the less water, the better — farms cannot be built on any square containing water of [[water depth|2/7 or deeper]]. Tiles of depth 2/7 will flow into nearby tiles until the area is 1/7 if possible, so this is only an issue if deep water is placed in an enclosed area. Once the water has evaporated or been allowed to flow away, the tile will remain [[mud]]died unless a [[construction]] is built over it. Viewing the tile will cause it to display 'a pile of mud', 'a small pile of mud', or 'a dusting of mud' in its contents.
+[[farm plot|Farming]] is only possible on [[mud]] and soil. Any terrain can be made muddy, and therefore suitable for farming, by dumping water on it. In Dwarf Fortress, 'Irrigation' is used as a fancy word for dumping water onto terrain that isn't useful for farming, in order to make it so.
-Irrigation is only needed for [[biome]]s lacking soil (namely [[glacier]]s) and for making farm plots deep underground.
+Any amount of water dropped, pumped, or otherwise transported onto a tile will leave behind at least 'a dusting of mud', and this is sufficient for farming. Farm plots cannot be built on terrain with [[water depth|a water level of more than 1/7]], and more mud has no apparent effect on farm output, so it's best to use a minimum of water to irrigate.
-Farms can be built on unsuitable ground but doing so will display a warning message. If even a single square of the farm is not irrigated, it will be unusable.
+Irrigation is especially useful in [[biome|biomes]] with little soil, and deep underground. However, no amount of irrigation will make it possible to grow surface plants in a hostile [[biome]], such as mountains. This is a matter of climate, not soil conditions.
-[[Magma]], for obvious reasons, cannot be used to irrigate but can cause [[fun]].
+Farm plots can be built on unsuitable ground but doing so will display a warning message. If even a one tile of the plot lacks mud or soil, the entire plot will be unusable.
+[[Magma]] cannot be used to irrigate, as it does not leave behind mud. It's usually best not to confuse molten rock and liquid water, although the use of both in tandem may help with schemes to irrigate [[glacier|glaciers]].
-== Easy Irrigation ==
+All types of [[soil]] can be farmed with no need for irrigation, even [[sand]].
-One obstacle to early irrigation is the time required to build mechanisms (which cannot be taken when [[embark]]ing and take time to set up). They can also be daunting to newer players and mistakes can result in floods or famine - common sources of [[fun]]. The methods below are designed to work without mechanisms.
-=== via Murky Pool===
+== Easy Irrigation ==
-Most areas contain [[murky pool]]s, which provide one of the quickest, simplest methods of starting a farm.  Digging out an area near a murky pool and draining the pool into it is an easy way to make the ground muddy and farmable.
+At its simplest, all that's required for irrigation is a water source, a drop-off point, and a dwarf with a bucket.
-You should first locate a pool near where you wish to put the farm.  While any finite water source works, you need to drain the excess water somehow or allow it to [[evaporate]], so smaller pools are usually preferable. Once you find a good location, dig out the room and dig a tunnel that ends with only 1 tile between it and the pool. If you want to simply allow the water to evaporate after irrigation, the floorspace in the farm should be about 5 or 6 times that of the pool.  Otherwise, you can dig another room out underneath the farm via stairs placed on the opposite side from the pool to drain the water after irrigation.
+Very little land is required to provide all the farm field resources a fortress needs to survive and prosper, so this method should suffice in most cases. Of course, we have many other methods documented here for more ambitious sorts.
-Finally, channel out the one tile between the tunnel and the pool and the water will flow in.
-If you miscalculate the area, there are two possible outcomes, both easily solvable-
-:* If the dug area is too large, some tiles will be left unmuddied. While muddying these squares is a lot of trouble and arguably not worth it, these tiles are perfect for seed stockpiles.
-:* If the dug area is too small, there will be at least one tile of 2/7 depth. Until some of the water [[evaporation|evaporates]] (which will still happen, albeit slower, in the 1/7 tiles), you won't be able to farm it. However, unless you've drastically miscalculated, dwarves will be able to wade through the water and dig more tiles to expand the farm to the correct size.
 === via Buckets===
-It is possible to irrigate an area by carrying water in [[bucket]]s from virtually any source, such as a [[brook]], a [[river]], or a good-sized [[murky pool]].
+This method relies on [[activity zones]], as water for irrigation can't simply be dropped on the ground, but must fall from the level above.
-To do this, select a subterranean area to locate your farms. You must then dig out two identical rooms, one above the other. The bottom room is where your farms will eventually be built, and the top room is where the actual filling will occur. Once you have dug out both rooms, you will need to channel out the floor of the upper room, making sure to leave a walkway around the perimeter.
+Step one: Designate a water source activity zone over the edge of a body of water. In a saltwater biome, a [[well] must be constructed, instead.
-Once you've dug the [[channel]]s in the upper room, you should have something like this:
+Step two: Dig out or construct a drop-off point just above where you want your farms to be. This most often takes the form of a balcony, catwalk, or scaffolding. Alternately, [[mining|channel]] out a shaft and/or staircase all the way up to the surface. Water can safely fall any distance.
- Top Floor
+Step three: Designate a pit/pond area at the drop-off point, or several if you'd prefer speed over conservation of buckets. By default, these zones are pits, make sure to switch them to ponds, and to remove them once you have all the mud you need.
- ++++
- +..+    legend
- +..+     . = channeled tile
- ++++     + = floor
- Bottom Floor
+That's it!
- ++++
- ++++
- ++++
- ++++
-(If you haven't [[dig|dug]] the farm level by this point, you will have down ramps in your channeled tiles. Tunnel out the z-level below, as that is where your farms will be. Also note that if you carve the channels on the surface, the below farm will be listed as Above Ground, restricting certain crops.)
+=== via Murky Pool===
-Try to think of it like this: dwarves won't fill a pond that they are standing in. Therefore, you must dig another room above the farm and channel out the floor, so they can pour water ''down'' into the room.
-Next designate an [[activity zone]] over the channeled tiles on the upper room, and set it to [[pond|"pit/pond"]]. By default, the zone will be set as a pit. To change it to a pond, press {{k|P}} then {{k|f}}.
-If you designate each channeled tile individually as its own pond, you can quickly muddy your planned farm tiles- as only one dwarf can fill a pond activity zone at a time. Another bonus of this method is that you can control the spread of the water very precisely.
-As each pond tile gets its first filling of water (bringing it to 1/7 depth), dezone that pond tile, leaving behind an exact match of mud on the floor below. This process creates "a dusting of mud" on the floor below, which is all that is needed to plant underground crops. Place your farm plots over just these muddied tiles.
-When you are finished, the lower floor will look like the following:
- ++++
- +mm+    legend
- +mm+     m = muddied tile
- ++++     + = floor
-You can vary the basic square to any rectangle, so long as it remains 2 tiles wide or 2 tiles long. Otherwise, your dwarves will not be able to reach the central tiles.
-If you accidentally add too much water, you can wait for some of the water to evaporate or spread to nearby tiles. Even so, as long as you keep an eye on the dwarves and dezone that pond tile on the upper gallery as soon as it is no longer necessary, you shouldn't have any problems.
-Other ways of creating an upper irrigation gallery and a lower resulting farm level are possible, but this is left up to the fortress designers to experiment with. This is simply a guide for players just starting out.
-=== via Buckets II ===
-An alternate way to irrigate using buckets is to build a progressive vertical shaft that opens into a dug-out space, then have a team of dwarves continually dump water into the shaft until the floor is covered in water.
-First, find or create a suitable water source.  Easiest to do would be to divert a brook, then set up a bucket staging area above ground:
- ~~ ~~ brook ~~ ~~
- vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
-   v
-   vvvvvvvvvvvvv      <-- diverted brook
-   v~~ water ~~v      <-- artificial pond, will stay full
-   vvvvvvvvvvvvv
-   ##########         <-- stockpile that accepts only buckets, 1 x # of buckets you want to use
-   vvvvvvvvvv         <-- channel
-            +/        <-- "/" = stairs down (place as desired, "+" = reference point for next floor
-One level below, dig this:
- XXXXXXXXXXXX
- X^^^^^^^^^^XX        <-- Ramp up from channel
- X         +|X        <-- up/down stair (don't build next stair until this floor is done being flooded)
- X          XX
-       .
-       .              <-- extend as desired (suggest 10 spaces to match maximum farm plot size)
-       v
-Once the space is hollowed out, assign one activity tile to fill pond per above-ground channel tile, similar to the previous section.  In this case, though, less monitoring is required, as you should let the dwarves keep dumping water into their hole until the space below is covered in 1/7 deep water.  Once the floor is covered in water, remove the activity zones above ground.
-To extend this, you should to wait for the newly-irrigated ground to dry up, otherwise you will have to force miners to dig out damp walls.  Designate the upward ramps for channeling, and build another up/down stair below the current up/down stair and hollow out the next level, like so:
- Just-irrigated level:
- XXXXXXXXXXXX
- XvvvvvvvvvvXX        <-- formerly ramps, now down-ramps from channeling
- X         +|X        <-- up/down stair
- X          XX
-       .
-       .
-       v
- Next desired level:
- XXXXXXXXXXXX
- X^^^^^^^^^^XX        <-- Just like before, up-ramps from channeling
- X         +|X        <-- up/down stair
- X          XX
-       .
-       .
-       v
-Then set each of the above-ground channel tiles to pond activity zones.
+Most areas contain [[murky pool]]s, full of stagnant water. Though unpleasant to drink, in DF terms it's as useful as any water for irrigation. Like any other body of water, it can be used as a source for buckets, but the limited quantity also helps a simple plan to dig into or around it, and drain it out to create farmland.
-After each irrigation operation, you should extend the space as necessary to set up things like stockpiles for seeds for that specific plot, space for minecarts, space to walk around, etc.
+The final [[water depth|water level must be less than 2/7]] in order for the water to evaporate and provide access to the muddy tiles for farming. When using this method, it's easier to use smaller pools.
-Doing this, one can get a few subterranean farms set up within the first two seasons after embarking using just a few buckets and some idle dwarves.
+There are two approaches to reducing the final water level, without using pumps. One is to leave plenty of room. If the area to be irrigated is 5-6 times the size of the pool, the water inside will evaporate on its own, even in [[temperate]] climates. The other way is to leave a route for the water to flow out. If the pool and the dug out area are separate, [[mining|channeling]] can be used to connect them with no danger of drowning.
 == Complex Irrigation ==
-The following methods of irrigation take longer to build, but they are usually more reliable, look cooler and, of course, are more [[fun]].
+The following methods of irrigation take longer to build, but they can be more powerful, better-looking, and, of course, much more [[fun]].
 === via Corkscrew Pump ===