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[Nyme]

Hello. I'm new here, though having lurked for a longish time now.

I'm not actually sure if this is a bug, so I'm posting it here. My searches did not yield any information on this. Mods can of course move this if it's in the wrong place.

My growers seem to have a habit of planting a seed, then walking away with the "no job"-indicator, and only then returning to plant another seed. In all other jobs, the dwarves do not take sudden pauses. They just get materials, work, then immediately get materials again until thirst, hunger, snatchers, flooding magma, getting married or something else stops them.

The growers' behaviour is not constant, the distance they walk away between each seed planted varies. Sometimes they walk only a few steps and then return, sometimes they reach the dining hall and hang around for a while before going back.

If this is intended behaviour, I can only think of one thing, which is that they're trying to "stagger" the plant growth so all plants don't mature within a few seconds. But this seems impropable. So, do other experience this and what is the reason for it?

[RandomNumberGenerator]

I believe this has to do with your dwarf's persoanlity traits, but the grower job. I they have something like "occasionally gives in to procrastination", they will do this quite often. You do not want this trait on any important dwarves.

[Bricks]

I'm not sure what the optimal ratio is, but I have found that having smaller farm plots can actually yield more food.  Or, at least, there is always a portion of a plot that goes completely unattended.  Planters/growers seem to train faster that way, too.

Slightly protip:  disabling the harvesting of plants for everyone but planters may increase the rate of training (via the 'o'ptions menu).  If you haven't done this, you may have noticed how your legendary miner tends to dig out one spot, then FLIES to your farm to yank out one mushroom.  That, and almost everyone in your fort will be a dabbling grower.  I really wish they helped on constructions instead; I never have enough masons.

[Quietust]

I'm not sure what the optimal ratio is, but I have found that having smaller farm plots can actually yield more food.  Or, at least, there is always a portion of a plot that goes completely unattended.

If part of a plot is unused, it's possible that it's half above ground and half underground (which will allow you to select both seed types, though only the corresponding half of the plot will be used), or it crosses into a biome that isn't capable of sustaining plant life (from what I recall, you can't irrigate the surface of a mountain and grow above-ground crops, though I know you can irrigate stone pebbles in the middle of a grassy field and grow surface plants on them).

[Nyme]

I believe this has to do with your dwarf's persoanlity traits, but the grower job. I they have something like "occasionally gives in to procrastination", they will do this quite often. You do not want this trait on any important dwarves.

I checked and neither of my two growers have that trait, nor does one in a different fort. All of them do this.

[mortal]

I think this has to do with how some jobs are created or assigned, since I also notice this with item hauling jobs: dwarves will haul an item from the stonecrafter's workshop to a pile right next to it, and then walk 5-10 spaces toward the meeting area before being assigned another hauling job and returning to the stonecrafter's workshop. It's most noticeable when I first start out, since I'll have a stonecrafter going and a couple dwarves occasionally with nothing to do but haul his goods. This is very different than jobs like mining, engraving, constructing, or working at a workshop, where they start on the next job right away.

With some jobs, it appears dwarves are purposefully assigned the same type of job (unless there's something high priority in the job list) to make them more efficient, and hauling and planting are not treated this way. It also seems to treat user created ('d'esignated, workshop orders, 'b'uilt) jobs differently than jobs that are automatically created when appropriate, e.g. create hauling job when there's room in a stockpile, create a planting job when there's space on a plot and an available seed. So maybe the automated jobs like hauling and planting aren't assigned the same way and are only assigned during a periodic 'who has no jobs' or 'should anyone be planting now' check.

There's probably nothing you can do to make them pick up the jobs quicker.

[Hellcar]

I can't say I've ever noticed this but then I don't really watch my grower in action and I have to cycle legendary growers with unskilled ones to avoid being inundated with food.

Makre sure there's multiple "Plant Seeds" jobs in the job manager. I'm not sure how it works but it's probably to do with plot size.
How big are your farm plots?

Most jobs pick dwarves which is why when the dwarf finishes he has "no job" for a bit before the next job picks him.
If it doesn't, either there's no job to pick him, he's busy doing something else, or the job is slow at picking him.
No idea why that would be the case. Possibly if there's a crapload of dump item/haul item jobs.

[Nyme]

Tried making smaller farm plots, but that didn't affect the matter. My normal ones are 15 tiles. And it can't be too many jobs, since there was just two other jobs in addition to the "plant seed" jobs in the job manager, and neither of them was connected to the planters.

Coming to think of it, I remember seeing behaviour like this in some earlier forts with haulers, just like mortal described.

[The_Fool76]

I think it is because each square on the farm is acting like it's own independent workshop, perhaps because the dwarf has to move.

You can get a similar behavior out of other workshops by building a big block of the same type and then assigning one job per each one.  I notice this sometimes when I make a small work order in my larger forts and all but one of my craftdwarves of the appropriate type are off partying.   (The workorders seem to like spreading jobs around rather than just filling up one workshop first and then going to the next.)

[Albedo]

Slightly protip:  disabling the harvesting of plants for everyone but planters will increase the rate of training (via the 'o'ptions menu). 

Fixed.  One dedicated planter with "only Growers harvest" will make Legendary in just over a year or so.  His 1st unskilled apprentice will make Proficient in less time than that.


Each seed planting is a different job.  The personality traits do have an effect - activity, whether the dwarf "likes change", things like that.  But all dwarfs have a small "?" for just a frame or so between jobs unless they are following a "repeat" order.  And seed/farmplots (unfortunately) do not work that way.

Removing all labours except farming and food and refuse hauling works well for me.  (I combo my starting Grower with something I rarely use, like Weaponsmith or Metalsmith or some such - for me, I only need so many axes or anvils.  If he gets a mood, great - otherwise it's 100% Farmer.)