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[Thorfinn]

I'm not sure what I'm doing different in this fort, but my planter can't seem to get anything done because all the seeds are in "Job"s to be put into bags. I can look in Improved Stocks (Ctrl-Shift-Z) and see the bags and seeds, and they are all listed in the Job list. The only thing I've figured out is letting the planter bag the seeds before he plants them. And even that doesn't work very well. He finds several other food-hauling jobs to do after bagging the seeds and before he wants to plant them.

I am going to be needing the bags for processing quarry bushes pretty soon, but it looks like the jerk is going to have all my bags dedicated to seeds by then. I've tried forbidding the bags, forbidding the seeds, forbidding both, trying to autodump them, everything I can think of.

Is there any way of salvaging this other than atomsmashing the stupid planter? I'll have a minecart of magma up top soon, so maybe that's the answer.

[Leonidas]

They usually store one type of seed per bag. So I'm guessing that you have lots of different types of seeds from aboveground gathering, or buying fruit from caravans.

Figure out which seeds you don't want. Move their stockpile near an atom-smashing dump pit. And mass dump all the unwanted seeds from the stocks screen. I do it every six months or so, just to keep the item count down, and to free up bags.

[mikekchar]

For this reason, I always build single tile stockpiles for each seed type that I want.  Usually that will force the dwarfs to put only the correct seed type in each bag.  But unfortunately you have to dump seeds occasionally as the bags fill up.  I usually just do that from the stocks menu.

[CyberianK]

The best way to handle this might be with DFHack.
Small stockpiles near the fields for each seed type. Source of more seeds should also be close so the Still for plump helmets and such.
Then one bigger stockpile farther away allowing all seeds that you set to auto-dump. Dwarfs will then put excess seeds into there and then automatically mark it for dumping

Without DFHack you might be able to allow cooking seeds and then let kitchen only take from specific stockpiles so they don't cook the seeds in the small stockpiles. Then you cook all the seeds away so no excess bags are used. Then you have to deal with the insane amounts of food of course.

[Pyrite]

I just designate my aboveground seeds for cooking, and have my underground seeds pulled into a specific stockpile near my farms.

[anewaname]

A single bag can hold at least 500 seeds, and only one job for "put item in bag" will be created at a time (causing a dwarf to walk around and pick up many seeds at once before bringing them to the bag, but also preventing the planter from accessing those seeds until they are put in the bag). Putting these two things together, you only need one small non-barrelled stockpile for seeds (I make one-tile one-seed-type stockpiles like mikekchar), but you also need enough seeds already in the bag to keep the planter busy while another dwarf is doing the "put item in bag" stockpile.

It sounds like your seed bag is bouncing on empty. If you 'q'uery the plot and set it on fallow for a season, the planter will stop planting for a while and you'll collect enough seeds in the bag.

I make a non-barrelled seed stockpile for all seeds that I do not have a one-tile stockpile for, and then ignore it. It hits the seed cap eventually with one bag for each seed type. I also avoid introducing new seed types to the fort until I have excess cloth and a manager job set up to "make 5 bags when less then 5 empty bags available".

[Xyon]

I enable the seeds I dont want as being able to be cooked in the kitchen screen, when I get a lot of useless seeds I que up a bunch of lavish meals so as many seeds get used as quickly as possible.

But with this method its usually just better to check your seeds every few months and  make sure to cook the unwanted ones regularly so they don't pile up.

[§k]

It would be nice to have a standing order for "reserving seed", so dwarfs only reserve the useful seed, and other seed is simply destroyed when the fruit is eaten or brewed.

I only farm and stock the good old 4 ones now.

[Xyon]

it might be possible to set up a standing repeating order to cook lavish meals of seeds if certain specific unwanted seeds are available? hmmm

[§k]

cooking is not very fast. some tree seed is not even cookable. And you can't autimatically dump those like dumping bones, because seed naturally stores in bag.

[Thorfinn]

That's kind of what I do, too.

I think the difference is that because I was able to slide past the aquifer, I didn't have to dedicate a pumper and a mason. They were available for other tasks. As such, I have emptied some of the vegetable bags much earlier than normal (It's about 3 weeks into the game.) I've never had to deal with the case where I have only 1 of the various surface crop seeds AND empty bags.

Did a quick test and looks like the best way to deal with it at this point in the game is to NOT have a seed stockpile at all. Leave 'em on the floor of the still. Still wish there were a way to tell the doofuses not to bag the seeds. Not until I have a handful, anyway.

[EDIT]
Forbidding bags didn't work well at all. When I needed them for the quarry bushes, and un-forbid (claimed?) them the game decided putting seeds in bags was more important than putting leaves in bags. I still have no idea what to do about that. Maybe something with burrows...
[/EDIT]

[EDIT2]
Well, that went over not at all. Having haulers in different burrows doesn't stop seed stockpiles from issuing bagging jobs. It's just now there's no one who can ever do the task, so it just sits there, the seed and bag both locked.

In retrospect, I should have realized that would happen. Early seed stockpiles work great unless you have some empty bags.

Hmm. Maybe QSP seeds onto a tile that can only be accessed by growers?
[/EDIT2]

[Loci]

Did a quick test and looks like the best way to deal with it at this point in the game is to NOT have a seed stockpile at all. Leave 'em on the floor of the still.

That's actually *worse* since, without the stockpile-consolidation logic, multiple dwarves will use multiple bags to store one type of seed.

Forbidding bags didn't work well at all. When I needed them for the quarry bushes, and un-forbid (claimed?) them the game decided putting seeds in bags was more important than putting leaves in bags. I still have no idea what to do about that. Maybe something with burrows...

The easiest solution is to just not grow quarry bushes. If you insist on quarry bushes, the next easiest solution is to make 100 spare bags to store worthless seeds in a stockpile. A third alternative is to completely separate your quarry bush processing in an isolated area.

[§k]

One can make adamantan bag, and rinse the bag in magma periodically.

[Thorfinn]

Did a quick test and looks like the best way to deal with it at this point in the game is to NOT have a seed stockpile at all. Leave 'em on the floor of the still.

That's actually *worse* since, without the stockpile-consolidation logic, multiple dwarves will use multiple bags to store one type of seed

Oh, you are right. Maybe I didn't let it run long enough? But when I started a new game, sure enough, those stupid jobs started showing up shortly after the cook emptied a bag.

Could well be that's what's causing the weirdnesses later in the game when trying to make flour and dye. I've only really started paying attention to jobs list recently. Too bad, really. QSP of seeds seems to work until you get a bag.

So you don't bother with flour or dye either?

[Bumber]

One can make adamantan bag, and rinse the bag in magma periodically.

But how would you enforce its use? They're likely to grab another bag for seeds whenever it's inaccessible, then someone else grabs the empty candy bag. Might as well just atom-smash a cloth bag.