Editing v0.34:Seed

{{Quality|Superior|20:28, 29 May 2013 (UTC)}}
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:''Looking for information on world generation seeds? See [[Advanced_world_generation#Seed_Values|Advanced world generation]].''
:''For information on seed management, see [[How_do_I_manage_my_seeds_and_crops|this page.]]''

Seeds are used in [[farming]] to grow [[crop]]s. They can be stored in [[bag]]s (100 seeds per bag), which can in turn be stored in [[barrel]]s or [[pot]]s (10 bags per barrel/pot). Different seed types can't be mixed within a bag, so storing 10 seeds, one each of 10 different types, would require 10 different bags.

Seeds can be brought on embark or obtained by [[trading]].  They can also be produced from plants (acquired by [[plant gathering]] or growing the respective [[crop]]s). When a plant is eaten or used in [[brewing]], [[milling]] or [[plant processing]], it leaves one or two plantable seeds (see below for details). The exceptions are [[valley herb]], [[bloated tuber]], [[kobold bulb]], and [[muck root]], which will not leave behind seeds after processing. [[Cooking]] plants in a [[kitchen]] will not produce seeds.

==Seed Production==

Seeds are produced by brewing (at a [[still]]), milling (at a [[millstone]] or [[quern]]), processing (at a [[farmer's workshop]]), or by dwarves eating the plants raw (uncooked).  Below is a table showing the various seed production methods for all seed-producing plants.

In order to prevent your fortress becoming cluttered with thousands of seeds, there is a cap of 200 seeds per type of plant. Seed producing activities will only produce seeds if your fortress contains fewer than 200 seeds of that type. You can exceed the 200 seed cap by buying seeds from caravans, and seed production will restart when your stocks fall below 200.

For information on where to grow and/or collect plants, consult the page on [[crops]].

{|class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center"
|+Seed Production Methods
|-
!Plant Name
!Type
!Brewing
!Eating Raw
!Milling
!Process Plants
|-
|style="text-align:left"|[[Plump helmet]]
|Food/Drink
|Dwarven wine
|X
|
|
|-
|style="text-align:left"|[[Pig tail]]
|Drink/Cloth
|Dwarven ale
|
|
|X
|-
|style="text-align:left"|[[Cave wheat]]
|Food/Drink
|Dwarven beer
|
|X
|
|-
|style="text-align:left"|[[Sweet pod]]
|Food/Drink
|Dwarven rum
|
|X
|Barrel
|-
|style="text-align:left"|[[Quarry bush]]
|Food/Oil
|
|
|
|Bag
|-
|style="text-align:left"|[[Dimple cup]]
|Dye
|
|
|X
|
|-
|style="text-align:left"|[[Prickle berry]]
|Food/Drink
|Prickle berry wine
|X
|
|
|-
|style="text-align:left"|[[Wild strawberry]]
|Food/Drink
|Strawberry wine
|X
|
|
|-
|style="text-align:left"|[[Longland grass]]
|Food/Drink
|Longland beer
|
|X
|
|-
|style="text-align:left"|[[Rat weed]]
|Food/Drink
|Sewer brew
|X
|
|
|-
|style="text-align:left"|[[Fisher berry]]
|Food/Drink
|Fisher berry wine
|X
|
|
|-
|style="text-align:left"|[[Rope reed]]
|Drink/Cloth
|River spirits
|
|
|X
|-
|style="text-align:left"|[[Blade weed]]
|Dye
|
|
|X
|
|-
|style="text-align:left"|[[Hide root]]
|Dye
|
|
|X
|
|-
|style="text-align:left"|[[Sliver barb]]
|Drink/Dye
|Gutter cruor
|
|X
|
|-
|style="text-align:left"|[[Sun berry]]
|Food/Drink
|Sunshine
|X
|
|
|-
|style="text-align:left"|[[Whip vine]]
|Food/Drink
|Whip wine
|
|X
|
|}


'''Note:''' In case you are confused about getting spam of messages like "Urist McFarmer cancels Plant Seeds: Needs %seedname%", while you are sure that you have enough seeds, no burrow restrictions or closed doors, the reason for this is most likely this: the haulers see a seed somewhere and take the whole seed bag from stockpile to go pick it up, making the farmer cancel his job. The problem is exacerbated when barrels are used on the seed stockpile, because the dwarves will additionally store the seed bags inside barrels, blocking even more seeds during each hauling job and extending hauling jobs by first bringing the seed bag to the seed, then returning to the stockpile, picking up the barrel to bring it to the bag, storing the bag in the barrel and only then bringing the barrel bag to the stockpile. During all this time, the seed barrel and all its contents will be blocked from access by any other job.

You can simply disallow barrels from the stockpile, which requires a somewhat larger stockpile but makes seed collection jobs much shorter and less disruptive. Bags will always be used to store seeds in stockpiles, you cannot forbid that. 

Another way to deal with this problem is this: set up 2 seed stockpiles, with the larger (primary) one set to only accept items from links.  Set the secondary (smaller) pile to take from anywhere and {{k|g}}ive to the main stockpile. Now, when a seed showes up in your dining room or brewery, the dwarves should try to put it into the secondary pile first, which shouldn't have anything in it for long (so no bag for world tour). Once the seed arrives in the secondary stockpile, a new job will be created, moving the seed over into the main stockpile.  Now the bag will be picked up to move that seed into it, but if the piles are next to each other it should only be in transit for a few seconds reducing the likelihood of cancellation spam. 

As a workaround, you can finally make use of the peculiarities of stockpile commmands: setting a stockpile to "take" from a mill, still or farmer's workshop will prevent the workshop from sending its products to any other stockpile. If the stockpile in question doesn't accept seeds, all seeds produced by the workshop will stay in the building, readily accessible to farmers. This can be handy if the workshop is directly adjacent to the farm plot, but can cause cluttering of the workshop if other products like barrels of booze aren't moved out of the shop regularly.