40d Talk:Farm plot

Equipment

I forgot to designate a farmer(plot) at the prepare screen. I added the task to my fisherdwarf, there is no free water on the map so he cannot fish anyway, but he refuses to farm (even though he created a plot).

Should he need any eqiupment which I don't have due to my oversight?

ThanksGarrieIrons 05:48, 8 January 2008 (EST)

AFAIK, you need *some* skill level to build a related building. Meaning grower is one of those skills you need atleast a single skill point in to use. Best bet is to either survive on hunting and herbalism, or restart. --Edward 07:12, 8 January 2008 (EST)

The plot is built - but they refuse to plant it. Having looked at soil - is that because it is sandy loam? It isn't on the list at that article. Maybe it's time I learned how to irrigate?GarrieIrons 07:30, 8 January 2008 (EST)

If you built the plot, then it should be farmable. You have seeds and have told that plot to use those seeds, right? If so, I don't know why the fisher's not farming. Will other dwarfs farm with the labor on? --Edward 20:17, 8 January 2008 (EST)

you do not need any level of skill to build anything edward, just need to turn on that job type. Chariot 22:02, 8 January 2008 (EST)

Suggested size

Anyone got a better estimate than "25 squares will get an undefined number of dwarves through one winter"? On that note, do dwarves eat more during winter? --Juckto 06:44, 6 May 2008 (EDT)

A 25 square plot growing plump helmets can easily provide food and beer indefinitely for 40-50 dwarves with a low skill dedicated grower. A high skill dedicated grower can easily support 80-100 dwarves. Only thing to be careful of would be the grower going on break, but placing a second or third grower should enable you too support a fort without worry. All previous testing seems to indicate that dwarves do not eat more during winter.--Metalax 08:35, 6 May 2008 (EDT)

I use 25-square plots as well, and rotate crops to ensure variety in my food & drink offerings. I use a brewer and a cook to turn sweet pod and quarry bush into high-value ingredients, and I grow (inedible) pig tails so that I'll have bags to store my quarry bush leaves and whip vine flour. Even after all of that, I find two 25-square plots quickly fill up my food supplies to overflowing. I can also usually afford to trade away the ten most valuable stacks of food in my fortress in exchange for most of what a caravan brings me.

I dramatically lowered the recommended size (from 10x20 to 5x5 or 5x10), as my fortresses have all had far more food than necessary at pretty small farm sizes. Vaniver 20:06, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Fertilization

I know that potash is used for fertilization, sometimes I have potash lying around, but I can't fertilize. There needs to be a section to explain how fertilization works.--Rusty Mcloon 10:54, 31 July 2008 (EDT)

Fertilization requires a muddy farm patch. --Zchris13 20:41, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Caveat

If you build a farm plot and the majority, but not all of the tiles are underground, the plot will be an underground plot, but will be completely unusable. There's no notification of any sort to tell you this and it'll just look like your farmers are lazy. --Xonara 09:58, 25 October 2008 (EDT)

Reclaim fortress mode

I recently had my fortress over-run by demons (the hard kind). After sending out three parties in succession to reclaim my fortress, I finally cleaned them all out. To my surprise I noticed that all my farm plots said "No seeds available" or something of the likes. I figured it was because the plots didn't count as my owned buildings somehow. I proceeded with two actions: I removed and reconstructed a couple of the plots, this seems to have worked; I also re-flooded the remaining plots, and this definetly worked. In conclusion it is safe to assume that when a fortress is lost, any farm plots (subterranean at least) will become dried-out. And need to be re-irrigated. --Liqum 08:07, 3 February 2009 (EST)

I also had an enounter with the problem of farm plots giving the status of "no seeds available" after I muddied a room and built a few plots. The water dried and they were all fertilized but when I went to schedule which plants to plant it gave me that message. Strange. I'll try to re-irrigate or re-build like you said and see if that works. Richards 21:26, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Overuse of plots?

I tend to use several small plots rather than one large one... I like to grow a constant variety. As an example, I have ten 9x9 plots above ground to grow a variety of those sorts of crops. I had them built in the autumn and instructed dwarves to plant them in autumn/winter, which they happily did.

However, towards the end of winter, I noticed nothing there. Looking at the plant menu, almost all crops were listed in red, as if no seeds were available. However, I received no such messages (i.e. no seeds available), and checking my stocks I have tons of seeds available.

Is it possible to overplant/overuse a plot? I imagine, if so, that I might reach such saturation quickly with such small plots and such skilled/numerous planters. --Mattmoss 11:50, 6 February 2009 (EST)

From the Farming FAQ: "Why are crops sometimes displayed with red writing" (Yeah, there's no question mark. That's not allowed.) Answer: "Because it is too late in the season to plant that kind of crop. Year-round crops, like plump helmets and dimple cups, cannot be planted at the end of winter."--wattj 14:52, 6 February 2009 (EST)

Boulders

I've found that if you construct a wall over a boulder, and then remove said wall, the boulder disappears. This way you can build farm plots over boulders! Please discuss, as it might be worthwhile to add. (I'm going to double check to see if it works again)--CrazyMcfobo 16:14, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Yes it does work. One way to remove the rocky ground after you demolish the constructed wall is to flood it.

--CrazyMcfobo 17:44, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Alternatively, you can just have your Engraver smooth the floor. Possibly easier than flooding the entire plot is designating the tiles 1 Z-level above the rocky ground as ponds and giving your dwarves a means of getting up there (whether by building a temporary scaffold or by removing tiles from the roof of your greenhouse) and dumping a bucket of water on the square, conveniently muddying it. --Quietust 18:24, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Ah hah, I shall attempt to do that now.--CrazyMcfobo 20:34, 21 July 2009 (UTC)