v0.31:Irrigation

v50.14 · v0.47 · v0.34 · v0.31.25 · v0.28 · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

Irrigation is is the process of adding water to an underground or rock tile so that it can be Template:L. This is done by flooding the tile with Template:L. Any amount of water will suffice but the less water, the better—farms cannot be built on any square containing water of Template:L. 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 muddied unless a Template:L 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.

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.

Template:L, for obvious reasons, cannot be used to irrigate^[Verify] but can cause Template:L.

Early Irrigation

Farms must be built on muddy tiles. Farms cannot be built on underground tiles (rock or soil) unless those tiles have been muddied. This is not the case for above ground farming, where you can Template:L and Template:L them for alcohol or even farm in above ground soil with the gathered seeds. But underground farming is a generally quicker, safer and more reliable (and dwarven) way to gain Template:L and Template:L. Plus, you can only embark with seeds for underground crops. So, it is useful to know how to irrigate with as little investment in workshops and mechanisms as possible.

One obstacle to early irrigation is the time required to build mechanisms (which cannot be taken when Template:L 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 Template:L. The methods below are designed to work without mechanisms.

Murky Pools

Most areas contain Template:L, 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.

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 about 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.

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 Template:L (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.

Buckets

If you have access to a large source of water such as a Template:L or Template:L, it is possible to irrigate an area with Template:L.

To do this, find a subterranean area where you plan to locate your farm. Tunnel two z layers of the same size, as the upper z level will be the irrigation gallery for our farms. The irrigation will fall down to the desired tiles on the z-level below, creating our mud for farming.

Template:L the upper gallery in the following pattern:

++++
+..+    legend
+..+     . = channelled tile
++++     + = floor 

(If you haven't Template:L the farm level by this point, you will have down ramps in your channelled tiles. Tunnel out the z-level below, as that is where your farms will be.)

Template:L the channeled tiles on the upper gallery as Template:L. If you designate each channeled tile individually as a pond, you can quickly muddy your planned farm tiles as only one dwarf can fill a pond activity zone, and you can control the spread of the water precisely. As each pond tile gets its first filling of water (brining it to 1/7 depth), unzone that pond tile, and this will result in 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.

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 you keep the rectangle 2 wide or 2 long, and this will result in quick and efficent muddy tile creation on the floor below.

If you accidentally add too much water, you can wait for some of the water to evaporate or for it to spread to nearby tiles. However, as long as you keep an eye on the dwarves and dezone that pond tile on the upper gallery as soon as a dwarf dumps a bucket of water, you shouldn't have this occur.

Other ways to easily create an upper irrigation gallery and a lower resulting farm level are possible. This is left up to the fortress designers to experiment with