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[Proudnerd]

So ever since fruit was introduced and multi tile trees I haven't done any farming at all. I just zone three or four max size fruit picking zones assign a handful of herbalists and forget about food and booze. Dwarves bring in more fruit than I can ever use and there enough of a variety that i never  get bad thoughts for the same food over and over. with  a 80 dwarf fortress 4 years in i had 6000 food 3000 booze and had never farmed. Farmers go directly into the military.

[Zealord]

I have tried it a few times but I feel like it is hard to control my dwarves when a siege arrives for example. I rather keep my fort closed off because having dwarves run in and out to get fruit is just too much of a security risk. How do you handle it?

[FortunaDraken]

*raises hand* Not entirely, as I still make sure to set up farms, but they can easily take seasons off for thread farming and I'll be fine. And with how much excess I have, I can ride out a siege for quite awhile.

Best way to manage it, imo, is both having zones near the fort entrance, and if you need it, having bolt holes set up in areas far away from the entrance covered with a hatch that fruit gatherers (and fishing dwarves) can run to.

[Foxite]

I once saw some wild quarry bushes growing inside my fort and since I needed some extra rock nuts to start up quarry bush farms, I wanted to have them gathered. So I designated the bush for gathering. However, when I assigned a random idler to gather plants he first went outside into a zone which was a pasture as well as a gathering zone, which I didn't want. So I disabled that option in the zone. After that, he kept on gathering plants as if nothing ever happened, even after I fucking disabled the labor on him. I literally had to assign him to a burrow, and even then he still kept gathering the plant (which was on the ground, by the way, and he used a fucking stepladder) and only when he finished with that plant, he went inside. I tried again with another dwarf, which proceeded to do the same thing in a place that did not even have a zone, leave alone plant gathering designations.

After some serious micro-management I finally succeeded in collecting the quarry bush I wanted to. But it required setting a 1-tile plant gathering zone over the bush, disabling all other plant gathing zones, setting the civilian alert, explicitly designating the bush, and waiting five real minutes before he decided to get off his lazy ass and grab the plant.

[NJW2000]

So you tried [d]-[p]?

[Foxite]

So you tried [d]-[p]?

Is that the gather plants designation? Yes, I had it on the bush the whole time, and it was the last plant he gathered. You'd think that explicitly designating stuff goes before zones.

[cochramd]

So you tried [d]-[p]?

Is that the gather plants designation? Yes, I had it on the bush the whole time, and it was the last plant he gathered. You'd think that explicitly designating stuff goes before zones.

Did you only have one plant gatherer in your entire fort? I always start with 2.

[Splint]

I once saw some wild quarry bushes growing inside my fort and since I needed some extra rock nuts to start up quarry bush farms, I wanted to have them gathered. So I designated the bush for gathering. However, when I assigned a random idler to gather plants he first went outside into a zone which was a pasture as well as a gathering zone, which I didn't want. So I disabled that option in the zone. After that, he kept on gathering plants as if nothing ever happened, even after I fucking disabled the labor on him. I literally had to assign him to a burrow, and even then he still kept gathering the plant (which was on the ground, by the way, and he used a fucking stepladder) and only when he finished with that plant, he went inside. I tried again with another dwarf, which proceeded to do the same thing in a place that did not even have a zone, leave alone plant gathering designations.

After some serious micro-management I finally succeeded in collecting the quarry bush I wanted to. But it required setting a 1-tile plant gathering zone over the bush, disabling all other plant gathing zones, setting the civilian alert, explicitly designating the bush, and waiting five real minutes before he decided to get off his lazy ass and grab the plant.

It was probably just the usual "Oh, okay. Lemme finish this job first though, not like the job items are gone." kind of response that you would get from other things
"Oh, I'm supposed to fish over there now? Okay, but lemme finish looking in this pond for a moghopper."
"Oh, I'm not a tanner anymore? Well, let me finish this bit of leather first since I'm already on the way."
"Oh, you want us to stand down and not charge the goblins? Well, we're just gonna go ahead and attack anyway, since we're all out where they can see us already."

As to the living off fruit alone, it's doable but does partly depend on what you have for fruit trees and other local plants, since herbalists aren't gathering just fruit off trees. I've found a small orchard with a mix of different fruit and nut trees plus whatever shrubs can take care of a community of around 70 people pretty comfortably, with fishing the ponds and rivers to help with variety.

Dealing with the fruit seeds is a colossal pain in the ass though.

[Foxite]

Did you only have one plant gatherer in your entire fort? I always start with 2.

I only enabled it on some idler because I needed that particular bush, but I don't gather plants routinely.

It was probably just the usual "Oh, okay. Lemme finish this job first though, not like the job items are gone." kind of response that you would get from other things
"Oh, I'm supposed to fish over there now? Okay, but lemme finish looking in this pond for a moghopper."
"Oh, I'm not a tanner anymore? Well, let me finish this bit of leather first since I'm already on the way."
"Oh, you want us to stand down and not charge the goblins? Well, we're just gonna go ahead and attack anyway, since we're all out where they can see us already."

I know that dwarves will finish their job when something else with a higher priority tells them to do something else. But this guy insisted on gather fruit using stepladders where A) there were no trees, B) there was no zone nor designation and C) even after he had his labor disabled. He also did not cancel his job right away when the civilian alert was turned on.

And then it took at least 5 real minutes of doing nothing when he decided to gather the plant I wanted him to gather.

[Donagh]

Yeah the fruit tree update was earth shattering I really like the tall trees and fruit, I don't like to depend on fruit though because it feels a bit too elven. Dwarves eat plump helmets and drink plump helmet booze in my fort provided the civ I'm using has them. Animal raising is also quite nice but allot of work. It gets a little hard to harvest fruit too when I have cut down all the tree for industry.

[TheFlame52]

I unfortunately can't because I live in a desert. But usually I take advantage of the local trees for fruit when there are some.

[omega_dwarf]

My current fort is in aa beach side forest, which I'm sure has some fruit. However, I haven't had the chance to look too closely, because it's an evil biome with husking smoke, and we additionally get various nefarious visitors. At least the founding-seven miner husk is contained now, so we're working on our minecart accelerator of doom.

But no, no fruit usage here. In a previous fort (in my sig, actually) that I never finished, we did subsist solely off of fruits and veggies. The biggest invaders there were some extremely troublesome monkeys (*not* husked wild boar), so it was significantly more feasible.

[Kumquat]

I thought I'd try something of a challenge by embarking on a spot that was half freezing taiga and half cold forest.

It was somewhat dismaying to see that the whole 'taiga' part of the map is almost entirely covered with bayberry trees, with some rare apples and pears thrown in as well. After going through the aquifer in the freezing area I pretty much consider the map to be conquered. Taiga is supposed to be big conifers, like larch and spruce and such, not a giant orchard...

[BodyGripper]

I've made a few attempts at forts built around the fruit trade.  I want to have all the fruit pickers live above ground while the wealthy elite live underground in luxury.  Unfortunately these forts were lost to distraction, but I'm probably gonna try it again soon.

[Splint]

I've made a few attempts at forts built around the fruit trade.  I want to have all the fruit pickers live above ground while the wealthy elite live underground in luxury.  Unfortunately these forts were lost to distraction, but I'm probably gonna try it again soon.

Huh, becoming a commercial fruit and nut producer. I should try that sometime.