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[Glech]

Hello, newb here.
Just started playing this game last week, but I still don't know how to make farms. I saw that I need mud, but when I flood the area, I can't place buildings there.
Am I just being stupid?

[nbonaparte]

the water needs to be down to 1/7. Any higher and it won't work. It will evaporate eventually if any tiles reach 1/7, otherwise just dig out a larger area.

[Ze Spy]

or play 40D

[Thadius]

Urist McOverseer: Hey, why aren't the plump helmets planted yet?
Urist McFarmer: Because the farm plots be several feet underwater!  Ye don't want the seeds washed away, do ye?

[Briggs]

The mechanism I use for farming involves 4 screw pumps. Typically I dig out my farm near the river/brook on the map. Once that is done, I install the screw pumps so two pump into the farm area and two pump out. After that's done, I turn on the screw pumps to flood the room. Once flooded, those two are turned off. I then turn on the second set to suck the room back out and pump it back into the river/brook. This allows for rather quick creation of even large farms.  Bonus points for using Waterwheels to power the pumps.

[nbonaparte]

The mechanism I use for farming involves 4 screw pumps. Typically I dig out my farm near the river/brook on the map. Once that is done, I install the screw pumps so two pump into the farm area and two pump out. After that's done, I turn on the screw pumps to flood the room. Once flooded, those two are turned off. I then turn on the second set to suck the room back out and pump it back into the river/brook. This allows for rather quick creation of even large farms.  Bonus points for using Waterwheels to power the pumps.

That's also utterly unnecessary, seeing as a 10x10 plot can feed a very large fortress comfortably. I just drain a murky pool. now maybe if you're exporting cloth or something, but most fortresses don't do that.

[slothen]

I usually start farming above ground on surface soil.  Wild strawberries and prickle berries can be obtained from gathering, and both can be brewed and eaten raw.  a bit of channeling or a small wall around a 4x5 plot is easy and will keep it defended from invaders, and provide more than enough food/wine year round.  Underground farming is a bit more complicated, but I get the muddied ground in the first season by draining a murky pool or using a brook for irrigation.  At most it requires a door and a single floodgate+lever.  The room can be expanded until the water evaporates.  After the first couple years i transfer the underground plots deeper underground and closer to the heart of my fortress.  A really easy way though is to dig to the first cavern layer and wall off and remove slopes from a plot of already muddied ground.

[Briggs]

The mechanism I use for farming involves 4 screw pumps. Typically I dig out my farm near the river/brook on the map. Once that is done, I install the screw pumps so two pump into the farm area and two pump out. After that's done, I turn on the screw pumps to flood the room. Once flooded, those two are turned off. I then turn on the second set to suck the room back out and pump it back into the river/brook. This allows for rather quick creation of even large farms.  Bonus points for using Waterwheels to power the pumps.

That's also utterly unnecessary, seeing as a 10x10 plot can feed a very large fortress comfortably. I just drain a murky pool. now maybe if you're exporting cloth or something, but most fortresses don't do that.

Unnecessary, but fun I like doing things in fun ways. Besides, I also end up with a thriving business of selling copious amounts of prepared foods to the visitors.

[FleshForge]

Worth noting that if the water you dumped in the room is more than 1 deep it won't evaporate, or at least not for quite a long time.

[xordae]

Related question. When making a Fortress in an area that is designated Freezing, is my only chance melting water, and can I only do that with magma?

[3]

You can drop a load of ice a couple of z-levels to get it to defrost (don't ask). More info can be found on the glacier page on the wiki.

You could also just try digging straight down until you hit water, but that's risky.

[FleshForge]

It's pretty either/or really, dropping the ice plug into a well can be very tricky as well if you don't know exactly where the ice is in all levels.  Somehow I got this right the first time I tried it but then I just spent today trying to do it again and kept screwing it up.