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v0.31:Farming
Farming is the action of growing Template:L for Template:L, Template:L production and Template:L manufacturing. While small forts can easily be sustained by plant gathering, Template:L and trading, farming is vital to large settlements.
Farming is done at a farm plot building (b-p, resize with umkh). It requires Template:L and a worker with the "Farming (Fields)" Template:L enabled.
Depending on where the farm plot is constructed, different crops may be planted. Farm plots built Template:L are not suitable for the crops grown on Template:L farm plots and vice versa. Note that the attributes Inside , Dark , Outside and Light are of no relevance.
See the article on Template:Ls for details on the conditions needed to grow the available plants.
Introduction to Farming
After building a farm plot building (b-p, resize with umkh), you must select which crops to plant there.
Press q and move the cursor over the farm, you will see a list of crops you can select to grow in the current season. To move to plan for crops to be farmed in different seasons use a,b,c, or d. You can select a farm to be fertilized but starting out you won't have the necessary items to do so, and it's largely unnecessary.
You must have the appropriate Template:Ls to plant a crop there. To easily see how many of each seeds you have you can go to the Kitchen menu z right Enter. Template:Ls are a good beginning crop for a first cave farm, and Template:L are a good choice for outdoor fields. Check the Template:Ls page for details on different seeds. Only some plants are edible so make sure the seeds you're using will produce food. It's often a good idea to pick a seed which produces a plant which can be Template:Led. This will create Template:L and also give you a seed to plant again next season.
Instructing a plot to remain fallowz during a particular season will instruct dwarves not to plant in that plot during that season.
To fertilize a farm plot, one needs Template:L, which is produced by processing Template:L. It greatly increases the yield of a plot (approx. multiplied by four). However fertilization only lasts for one season, and requires up to 1/4 * plot_size +1 of Template:L for saturation. Therefore fully fertilizing a farm would require burning a large amount of trees each season.
Subterranean Farming
To grow the six "dwarven" plants, including the Template:L, you will need an underground farm plot. The seeds and spawn available to your dwarves at embark will only grow underground.
Underground farm plots must be placed on mud. Toady One has stated that underground farming should also be possible on soil floors under which exist natural soil walls, but this bug has not yet been fixedv0.31.17.
Muddying the ground requires temporarily covering it with water: common methods include a bucket brigade or controlled flooding by temporarily diverting a river or pool, using a floodgate or door to stop the flow. (see: Irrigation) You may also find a muddied area in a Template:L, but note that each tile underneath the farm plot must be muddied. Most caverns have entire open areas which will be permanently covered in mud, but if you dig into the walls of a cavern or chisel away a pillar, the freshly cut floor area will not be muddied until you get it wet. Underground Template:Ls are dirty, and frequently contain Template:L that are perfect for quickly setting up farms. However, given the wide variety of creatures found in caverns, you may want to take precautions. Consider keeping a Template:L close at hand to guard the farm, or walling off a muddied area for your dwarves' exclusive use.
Underground farming is not restricted to soil layers and caverns: underground floor of any material -- rough stone, smoothed stone, ore, gem -- can support subterranean farm plots once there is a layer of mud covering it. See Template:L for tips on getting the right amount of water to the farm plots.
Above Ground Farming
Above ground farming is basically the same as underground farming, with the simplifying distinction that above ground plots typically do not require preparations. However, there are some complications.
The first complication is that seeds cannot be chosen at embark. They can be bought from caravans (Template:L or Template:L); or above-ground plants can be gathered using the Template:L designation, and then Template:L, Template:L, Template:L or Template:L directly (depending on the plant) to produce seeds.
The second complication is that the farming must be done on Template:L. Typically, it is done above ground, which is dangerous (due to aggressive animals, ambushes and sieges). However, any land which has ever been exposed to sunlight becomes permanently marked as "above ground". So, if you have multiple Z-layers of soil, you can channel some above-ground land, remove the resulting ramps, then construct a floor above, where the surface once was. The (now dark and protected) lower soil will still be suitable for farming Template:L, Template:L, Template:L, and anything else you may find.
Above ground farms built on rock layers (muddied or otherwise) will show the message "No seeds available for this location", and you will not be able to plant anything in them. (possibly fixed as of 0.31.17?)
Some crops require a particular temperature range to grow; so although it may be possible to plant them in any season, to obtain optimal usage of farm plots it may be necessary to coordinate planting with seasonal temperature variations.
Farm plots in action
Once a farm plot has been built and crops have been selected for the current season, dwarves with the Template:L labor enabled will begin planting the selected seed. The higher a Dwarf's grower skill in planting, the more plants will be harvested from each seed planted. The farming labor is fairly low in priority, so if you want a full time farmer, it is best to disable all other labors.
Plants take time to grow, depending on their type. Once a plant is fully grown, a dwarf will harvest it. By default, any dwarf will do this. Harvesting plants is not affected by any skill, although it provides a small amount of grower experience. Plants that remain in the field for too long will wither. These plants will eventually rot away.
Depending on the number of growers and their experience and the rate at which the plant grows, not all squares of large plots may be used. [Verify]
Management
Create a custom Template:L near your Template:L which will only accept Template:Ls. This will consolidate your seeds into one place, instead of having them littered all through the Template:L. 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 Template:L for fertilizing.
You can also create a custom stockpile that will only accept Template:Ls, to avoid having it all mixed up with your Template:L and Template:Ls. It would be a good idea to have this stockpile near your Template:L, Template:L, Template:L, etc.
Use the Template:L 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. Template:L 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!