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[Phoenix3270]

Hey. I'm new to Dwarf Fortress. So far, I grasp all concepts except one, farming. I read through the farming guide it it didn't help me. I was wondering, How do I farm underground? I dug one layer down into the ground and a layer of sand came up, the next layer and many layers below that was stone. I'm just starting my world and I only have underground seeds. I can't farm in the sand or stone, could someone help me out? My dwarves are about to die of starvation. Thanks.

[VerdantSF]

Iirc, the indicator is incorrect for underground soil layers.  It will say that you can't place a farm down, but if you go ahead with building it, it will work just fine.  For stone, you have to cover the area with water to get a layer of mud first.

[greycat]

Sand counts as a soil type, so you should be able to build farm plots on the sand, regardless of whether it's underground or aboveground.  Just make sure a single plot doesn't span both underground and aboveground tiles.  It has to be all of one or the other.

[Phoenix3270]

Okay, thanks guys.

[Blue_Dwarf]

Sand, clay or dirt all work.

If your dwarves are about to die of starvation, you can make them gather plants on the surface. That should give you enough berries and brewable crops.

[Reelya]

Also important: you can't farm underground crops on any square which has ever been exposed to the sunlight. They are marked as a surface square as soon as they get exposed. This can be exploited though, by channeling part of the topsoil, then putting a floor over the top. Any square under the new floor will be considered good for surface crops, even though it's now underground.

You can safely have outdoor crops under where you dug, and cave crops right next to them, as long as each entire plot is all "above ground" or all "below ground", so plan out carefully where to channel and where to dig normally. If even one square is the wrong type, then that farm plot won't allow you to plant on it.

[They Got Leader]

Check the ground with 'k' if you are wondering if it is above ground or below ground. When you make the farm, it will default to the best options available (if above ground, your above ground plants become available). However, this does not show how many seeds you have ready to be planted. This will only show you what crops your dwarves can plant.

Above ground farms need to have dirt to work, which means that the random stones and pebbles that fleck the surface (or mountains, if you embarked there) will not let you farm above ground crops well. Underground crops can be sown anywhere underground that is not stone (that first layer that you dig into works perfectly). If it is stone, you need to have water wash over it to make it into mud.

I recommend digging a huge section in the first layer to make your farms in. This sand/dirt layer will be able to be farmed.

[Reelya]

I wonder if you floor over rocks and pebbles, then remove the flooring and it reverts to the basic soil type? Anyone tried this?

[Garath]

yes and no it doesn't work. It does remove the boulder or pebbles, but leaves the rock surface

edit: the rocky surface above ground counts as a base tile too. Just like a tile that is 'red sand' and will always revert to 'red sand' when whatever grows on it is removed, it will go back to the default of, for example 'conglomerate'

[Hurkyl]

But fortunately muddying works above ground too.