40d:How do I manage my seeds and crops

• Create a custom stockpile near your farm which will only accept seeds. This will consolidate your seeds into one place, instead of having them littered all through the dining room. As a large number of seeds can be stored in a single barrel, this stockpile can be only three or four tiles. Alternately, you can make a more traditional sized custom stockpile, which only accepts seeds and bars of potash for fertilizing.
• You can also create a custom stockpile that will only accept plants, to avoid having it all mixed up with your meat and drinks. It would be a good idea to have this stockpile near your brewery, farmer's workshop, kitchen, etc.
• Use the stocks menu, and go to the Kitchen tab. From here you can see how many of each kind of food you have.
  • If you're running out of a certain kind of seed, toggle the corresponding plant "Cook" setting to red. Cooking plants doesn't leave a seed.
  • If you have too many of a certain kind of seed, toggle the seed "Cook" setting to blue. Just make sure you check on the stocks (or just forbid one seed and leave it for emergency) and toggle it back before you run out!

Farming FAQ
How do I build a farm?
How large a farm do I need?
What is the best crop?
How do I manage my seeds and crops?
What does "Reserved Barrels" and "Reserved Bins" mean?
Why are crops sometimes displayed with red writing?
What do I do with these inedible crops?
What does the option "Fallow" mean?
My dwarves will only farm on a small part of the fields, why is this?
How do I make absolutely sure my farm plot is all set to produce crops?
If I don't see any dwarves working my farm plot, does that mean there's something wrong?
Can you grow surface crops on multiple z levels in a tower if the floors are glass even though there's soil on the glass?
What is the "seas fert" option for?
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?
Having banned seeds from the kitchen, how to prevent dwarves from eating them raw?
Why do my planters keep complaining they have no seeds?
Why won't my animals breed?
Add a question to this FAQ
Back to the Main FAQ