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v0.34:Seed
| This article is about an older version of DF. |
Looking for information on world generation seeds? See Advanced world generation.
Seeds are used in farming to grow crops. They can be stored in bags (100 seeds per bag), which can in turn be stored in barrels or pots (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 crops). 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
Most 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). Some seeds can also be gained by plant gathering or purchased from traders. 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.
| Plant Name | Type | Brewing | Eating Raw | Milling | Gather Plants (Biome) | Process Plants |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plump helmet | Food/Drink | Dwarven wine | X | Subterranean, Wet (?) | ||
| Pig tail | Drink/Cloth | Dwarven ale | Subterranean, Wet | X | ||
| Cave wheat | Food/Drink | Dwarven beer | X | Subterranean, Wet | ||
| Sweet pod | Food/Drink | Dwarven rum | X | Subterranean, Wet | Barrel | |
| Quarry bush | Food/Oil | Subterranean, Wet (?) | Bag | |||
| Dimple cup | Dye | X | Subterranean, Wet | |||
| Prickle berry | Food/Drink | Prickle berry wine | X | Above Ground, Dry | ||
| Wild strawberry | Food/Drink | Strawberry wine | X | Above Ground, Dry | ||
| Longland grass | Food/Drink | Longland beer | X | Above Ground, Dry | ||
| Rat weed | Food/Drink | Sewer brew | X | Above Ground, Wet | ||
| Fisher berry | Food/Drink | Fisher berry wine | X | Above Ground, Wet | ||
| Rope reed | Drink/Cloth | River spirits | Above Ground, Wet | X | ||
| Blade weed | Dye | X | Above Ground, Dry | |||
| Hide root | Dye | X | Above Ground, Dry | |||
| Sliver barb | Drink/Dye | Gutter cruor | X | Above Ground, Dry, Evil | ||
| Sun berry | Food/Drink | Sunshine | X | Above Ground, Wet, Good | ||
| Whip vine | Food/Drink | Whip wine | X | Above Ground, Dry, Savage |
Note: All "Above Ground" plants will not be found in freezing environments (tundra, glacier, or mountain biomes). Also, the "Subterranean" plants will not grow randomly underground until a cavern is breached, then their spores will spread throughout your fortress and they will begin growing on any subterranean soil or muddied rock.
Note: In case you are confusing 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. One 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 give 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. You can, of course, just disallow bags and barrels from the stockpile, but that would be really counterproductive (since you would need a HUGE stockpile for (possibly) hundreds of seeds).