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[Josher]

I'm on an embark worth a light aquifer but not so many trees. I figured it would be a good opportunity to try underground tree farming. Is there a recommended number of z-levels for efficient farming? What about harvest frequency for optimal yield?

[DwarfDwarf]

From what I've read, you want at least 3 z-levels of height, and you want to wait till the trees have fully grown before you harvest, which takes a few in-game years. I believe also important to penetrate to the 3rd level of the caverns so the spores for the better underground trees are released.

[Fleeting Frames]

I recall a previous test in DF questions with aboveground trees showed it was better to wait for extra growth than cut immediatelly, though don't recall the specifics.

That was aboveground trees, though. While this would still hold true for spore and fungiwood trees, mushroom trees have useless caps, which means you're better off chopping those down asap and only use 2z height per tree farm layer if you want tower-caps in particular or something like that. Additionally, as giving additional height to two tree types cuts into how many layers of farm you can have, idk if it is worth the bother. Could test and measure by preparing chambers with different height and frequency of cutting.

[PatrikLundell]

The long term problem is too many trees, not too few of them...

Securing a (part of a) cavern is probably faster than waiting for trees to grow. Otherwise, trees need a minimum headroom of 2 Z levels and take 3 years to mature (from a sapling appears until it matures into a tree). I doubt it's efficient to wait further with harvesting a recently mature tree, if for no other reason than the presence of "branches" at the level above will cause maturation of the saplings under them to fail. However, I haven't bothered to try to investigate it: as I said, you typically will have too many trees eventually (and Fleeting Frames, posting while I typed, indicates it has been investigated). Provided your embark supports surface trees at all (barring a special desert case, or when all surface vegetation is dead), new ones will keep maturing, so even a sparse desert will be completely overgrown if you don't cut them down, assuming you wait long enough.

[Josher]

Oh, interesting! My embark had a handful of trees along the edges, but there is some sparse vegetation throughout. If I'm understanding what you're saying, trees will start growing in places that didn't have any to start with?
My embark is predominantly badlands.

[NordicNooob]

Biomes that have no tress won't ever grow any, regardless of vegetation, but biomes with sparse or even scarce trees will eventually become overgrown. So if your badlands had no trees to start with, then it won't get any, but your other biomes that have small amounts of trees will grow more at a hilarious rate.

[anewaname]

Above ground trees grow fast in high-rainfall biomes and slow in low-rain biomes. After you cut down the surface trees in badlands, it is not worth looking for more there.

[PatrikLundell]

Above ground trees grow fast in high-rainfall biomes and slow in low-rain biomes. After you cut down the surface trees in badlands, it is not worth looking for more there.

The sapling maturation rate is constant: 3 years. However, that sapling spawning rate differs between different biomes, so the time it takes for complete junglification differs.

My experiments with trees were made on deserts, not badlands, but the results ought to be the same. With a Vegetation of 0-1 neither trees nor shrubs would spawn, while grass would grow if you channeled the soil down one level. With a Vegetation less than 5 (or possibly less/equal: I don't remember exactly) there might be trees that can be cut, but no saplings would spawn, but both grass and shrubs would spawn. With Vegetation greater than 5 (up to and including 9, as a higher level causes it not to be badlands anymore) saplings would spawn as well.

My guess is that the trees along the edges will be sufficient if you're careful with your wood usage (don't make things out of wood if they can be made out of stone, and try to make terraria out of glass rather than wooden cages, or make metal cages of you've got metal. Don't use wood as fuel, but use magma facilities).

[Kobold6]

Biomes that have no tress won't ever grow any, regardless of vegetation, but biomes with sparse or even scarce trees will eventually become overgrown. So if your badlands had no trees to start with, then it won't get any, but your other biomes that have small amounts of trees will grow more at a hilarious rate.

I find if you are in a desert or badlands with no trees and there are multiple levels of soil on the surface, channelling off the top level of soil causes trees and bushes to start growing. Oddly enough. Seems like a bug. Actually I remember this happening in a desert but think I did not try badlands. Might also be for an older version.