New to Farming - Need Tips

[Mencken]

Set up 3 plots to start, 1/2 the crop rotted almost instantly (rainy season), the rest had yields but only 1 seed.    Used compost (is that better than regular fertilizer?).  Talked to the plants as well.   That's about all I did.

My focus is primarily on growing red peppers, and garlic.    Is there any season they prefer?

 

[viberr]

theres this awesome guide on farming made by @QuartzBeam but its quite advanced

if you don't understand it then i recommend watching jazzy's videos on farming they teach the basics and are pretty useful.

 

 

you can also watch laknish's video on the farming which is also quite advanced but in my opinion they explain farming quite well(not saying that quartzbeam's guide doesn't do that)

 

hope you have a wonderful day or night wherever you are in the world

[Cheggf]

If you make a gardeneer hat you can research the plants to learn more about them. It tells you what seasons they prefer, how much water they want, what nutrients they consume and produce.

1 hour ago, Mencken said:

Used compost (is that better than regular fertilizer?)

If by "regular fertilizer" you mean manure then it's completely different. Compost restores the compost nutrient while manure restores the manure nutrient.

[Wumpus the 19th]

Research all the plants. if you're particularly flush, you could just shove compost wraps in the floor repeatedly and never worry about other nutrients.

If you are not particularly flush, use the garden hat to find the resources spent by each crop. Refer to the starver's farm guide if you want a nutritionally self-sufficient farm. Otherwise, just weed, water, talk to, and research each farming related item and continue to tend to them for a decent sized harvest, complete with extra plant specific seeds. 

[Mencken]

I got the enhanced hat, still have to figure out what some of it means (needs company?).     Left my farms for two days and 80% of the crop was rotted.   So far it's less efficient than the old way as I never get more than 1 seed.   I water, fertilize and talk to constantly but that doesn't seem to be enough.   

[ArubaroBeefalo]

40 minutes ago, Mencken said:

needs company

They need to be near of at least 4 plants of the same kind in a tile radius

 

40 minutes ago, Mencken said:

 So far it's less efficient than the old way

Only if you do it wrong. Just a litle of patince to learn the system and you will see how much efficient it is than the old farms

 

40 minutes ago, Mencken said:

Left my farms for two days and 80% of the crop was rotted.   

I dont remember that in 2 days they rot. Are you sure? Anyways, if you let them there they will regrow again

 

40 minutes ago, Mencken said:

I water, fertilize and talk to constantly but that doesn't seem to be enough. 

Remove weeds and take in count in which season grows the crop you want to plant to remove an extra stress point. Seems like you didnt do something correctly or they would give you 2 seeds

They grow in 4 stages, you only can tend them 1 time per stage (one man band is one of the cheapest and faster ways of tending). Water them to the max when you plant them and dont water them again unless you see the soil dry or your character said they need more water when you examinate them (you can check if the plant you are growing consumes a lot of water or few in the plant register), also in summer the water evaporates and in winter it doesnt. Knowing if they need nutrients is easier with the premiere gardener hat made in the ruins also make sure you are using the correct nutrient

 

[Psychomaniac]

In order to succeed you must fail. There is two ways to do this:

The hard way: read 4rum guide and play the game like normal.

The easy way: create a new TEST world with these mod: 

[TMIP]Too Many Items Plus

Snapping tills (Optional)

Improved Premier Gardeneer Hat (Optional)

And mess with farming without worry about your survivability, when you have mastered farming, log back to your world and play like normal.

You can use my Excel-Sheet to test crops combo, its not too fancy, but get the job done (for me at least).

On 12/29/2020 at 9:25 PM, Psychomaniac said:

This is my Excel sheet, not too fancy, but get the job done.

  Hide contents

1st table: raw data table

2nd table: crop combination, up to 16 crop, every row is a dropdown list of 14 type of crops. just select your crop and it will auto fill the cell.

3rd table: is the result table (auto check, of course).

How it work:

Just select your first few crops, and look at the total nutrient, then select the last piece of the combo.

Exp:

First i chose 2 toma >>> total will show -2 -2 4 which mean the last piece is dragon fruit (2 2 -4)

Or you can choose randomly, and the 3rd table will tell you if that combo is Self-feeding or not, and the season available for that combo.

  

Spoiler

On 1/7/2021 at 4:31 AM, Psychomaniac said:

 

DST Farming.xlsx 22.04 kB · 5 downloads

 

 

[Cheggf]

4 hours ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

They need to be near of at least 4 plants of the same kind in a tile radius

The crop itself is included in this check so it only needs 3 neighbors, to be specific.

4 hours ago, Mencken said:

 Left my farms for two days and 80% of the crop was rotted.

It takes 2.5-8 days of daylight for a crop to grow (depending on happiness and season) and then after that it needs another 4 days to rot. If your farm was rotted because you were gone for 2 days it's because you could've harvested everything 2 days ago.

4 hours ago, Mencken said:

So far it's less efficient than the old way as I never get more than 1 seed.

That's more efficient than the old way. The old way you had to give 67% (if I remember right) of your crops to the bird to sustain. Here you're giving 0% of your crops to the bird and sustaining. Not to mention the fact that you're spending 3 boards, 2 rope, 2 flint to get 36 plants growing concurrently instead of spending 10 grass, 6 manure, 4 rocks to get 1 plant growing. You'd need to spend 360 grass, 216 manure, and 144 rocks to grow as much as the 3 boards and 2 rope you're spending now.

[Mencken]

Getting the hang of it, though it requires constant attention.   Nevertheless production is so high that it makes it worthwhile.   Got my first giant crops.

Every day the plants ask for water or compost or company.   Company isn't possible until I have enough seeds of a particular crop, so a work in progress.

[viberr]

16 hours ago, Mencken said:

Getting the hang of it, though it requires constant attention.   Nevertheless production is so high that it makes it worthwhile.   Got my first giant crops.

Every day the plants ask for water or compost or company.   Company isn't possible until I have enough seeds of a particular crop, so a work in progress.

to help you out ill give you some words of wisdom 

you gotta think three steps ahead at all times,prepare a one man band and get a full watering can and have extra seeds prepared at all times to ensure that you'll get giant crops 

i personally recommend garilc and peppers so you can use them to make warly's spices which if you obtain a lot of garlic and peppers you can make tons of spices which are really useful 

other than that i recommend potatos,dragonfruit and pumpkins for hunger and health 

 

[Mencken]

Thanks Stranger.    Plants ask for tons of nutrients (I add some, it asks for more immediately), does it tell you when you the ground is fully saturated with these?   

[viberr]

3 hours ago, Mencken said:

Thanks Stranger.    Plants ask for tons of nutrients (I add some, it asks for more immediately), does it tell you when you the ground is fully saturated with these?   

well don't quote me on this but im pretty sure all you really need is either 4 or 8 of a certain fertilizer to keep your crops happy but again im not the absolute best at farming so im not sure if its 8 or 4 

[ArubaroBeefalo]

7 hours ago, Mencken said:

Thanks Stranger.    Plants ask for tons of nutrients (I add some, it asks for more immediately), does it tell you when you the ground is fully saturated with these?   

If you read the plant registre and you see that a plant needs 4 arrows of manure that means that in the entire grow cicle it will need 4 arrows of that nutrient so you need to use 4 poops per plant that consumes it in the tile or 2 if it gives 2 arrows, etc

Make sure you are using the right nutrient

Also, if you dont want giant crops, you dont need to use nutrients and if you want giants is more efficient to mix the plants so they feed each other without wasting fertilizer