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[Mohreb el Yasim]

What is the ideal height for a tree farm nowadays? I've seen on the wiki that shroom-trees grow between 3-8 tiles max.
So if you set up a tree farm, what height do you go for?

[Ulfarr]

If I remember correctly mushroom trees are somewhat bugged in that new ones (spawned post embark) won't give more than one log, so there isn't really a reason to let them grow after they go from saplings to trees. I guess that means that outside aesthetics/roleplaying there isn't any reason to go beyond the minimum.

[PatrikLundell]

There's really no point in going beyond 2 Z levels (i.e. the minimum), as even if letting it grow would yield more logs, cutting it as soon as it matured means you make room for new saplings as soon as possible.

However, there's not much point in a tree farm, as the surface gives lots of wood (when there's wood up there), and you'll get issues with too many trees in the caverns (complete junglification with stuck creatures, failure to reach destinations, etc.), so you need to cut them anyway. Thus, it's better to secure a cavern (or a part of it) for trees, and you'll typically be able to do that before the tree farm trees mature.

I guess caverns and the surface full of reanimated critters is about the only case where a tree farm would make much sense.

[Quarque]

I'm still tempted to make above-ground farms to protect dwarves from a traumatic exposure to rain and sunlight.

[Stench Guzman]

In most cases you can reasonably get by with chopping whatever naturally grows underground, so long as you get access to magma so you don't need massive amounts of charcoal.  You'll need 250 or so wood for beds.  Beyond that there's ash for glazing, lye for soap and pearlash for clear glass, but those are all luxuries.  You can skip siege engine stuff since that's rarely useful, and everything else can be made from other materials.  Elves usually have tons for sale.

When you are at the point where you can safely set up an underground tree farm, you shouldn't need that much wood aside from ash/lye/pearlash production.

[Naryar]

I rarely go for underground tree farms nowadays given that a bit of outside chopping will give you far more wood than is reasonable. Even caverns give you quite a bit of wood if you chop them off regularly. Also if you're low on wood, caravans usually bring lots of logs.

That being said, if you're on a desert, badlands, glacier etc. or rely on wood for charcoal it can be useful. I wouldn't go for more than 3 z-levels myself. 4 if you're roleplaying, need more stone, or both.

[FantasticDorf]

More often than not you're using the open space for more valuable pasturing & gathering areas, putting a paved road through if nessecary so that deliberate neglect won't render it inaccessible.

Guilds will keep the herbalist immigrants (or people trained on site) mentally sharp for a lack of frequent work and delivering back substantial harvests. I rarely use treefarms, i just try to avoid making wood-stressing industries because obsidian casting feels instantaneous side-by-side to the boring process of watching saplings grow.

((With no gurantee your dwarves staying sane long-term or a siege wiping you out without doing your utmost to see the fruits of your labor))

[Hyndis]

An underground tree farm can also double as a strip mine and animal pasture. Its easy to dig out multiple Z-levels on a mark. The entire Z-level. Just channel it out.

Make sure to construct up/down stairs for your main stairway! Constructed tiles cannot be mined. This helps prevent accidentally channeling out your access stairs and stranding your dwarves.

Then go from one edge of the map to the other. I designate it all as up/down stairs for the entire size of the cavern, and once the up/down stairs are all designated and mined out you can either channel it out one Z-level as a time, starting from the top, or you can construct a support pillar linked to a lever, mine out all connecting/supporting tiles, and pull the lever. Either way works.

All you have to do from there is flood it and drain it. Aquifers make this super easy. Make sure you have a drain built in advance.

This strip mining excavation will get you an enormous amount of stone, gems, ore, and open space. You can make a pasture zone and animals will graze on moss while still having a huge area growing trees. You don't need to farm at all. Just cover the entire thing in activity zones with plant gathering and your dwarves will continually harvest all of the naturally growing cave plants, easily enough to feed even a huge fortress.

These strip mines also make for interesting fortresses. Instead of flooding it, try building your fortress in this huge open underground area. Build it like the great hall of Moria. You'll have to construct all of your rooms/buildings within this artificial cavern, but you can get a lovely city with freestanding buildings while still being underground.