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[Alexei403]

So I've run out of food in my current fortress, I've got an obscenely large farm plot and like 131 seeds or so. I've got dwarves with farming enabled, and a 7x10 plot should be more than enough (yay overkill! ) to support a full fortress according to the wiki and it would if my dwarves would plant the damn spawn!

Any ideas on how to fix this? Currently rendering/cooking animal fat to survive. >_>


EDIT: And I totally placed this in the wrong forum! It should be in Gameplay Questions!

[Phantom]

GasMagma bathe all the members of one faith, that should stay you for a while.

[Alexei403]

I'm tempted to do that to all my peasants that I'm too lazy to assign jobs to won't work.

[Shadovarn]

Remember, if you don't set them per season, they will automatically deactivate.

[Slogo]

Also make sure none of the squares are outside on an indoor plot (or vice versa). From my experiences if a plot is both indoors and outdoor you can assign a plant type to it but the dwarves won't ever plant there.

[Alexei403]

Yea, they will plant seeds on the plot. Eventually. Just nowhere near enough/what they should be planting.

And I've got seeds set to plant year-round (I'm using plump helmets) and the land is irrigated (incidentally, do you need to/should you re-irrigate land eventually or does it stay muddy forever if made into a farm plot?).

[Wolfius]

Yea, they will plant seeds on the plot. Eventually. Just nowhere near enough/what they should be planting.

Did you deactivate all other jobs for your planters? That should speed things up if you haven't.

(incidentally, do you need to/should you re-irrigate land eventually or does it stay muddy forever if made into a farm plot?).

You shouldn't have to, no. I've had one farm plot around for almost 15 game years befor declining FPS finally killed the fort.

[Albedo]

No re-irrigation unless you do something overt and aggressive to it.

Does anything ever grow? Has anything ever grown?

Are the seeds unforbidden? (Forbid all and then unforbid again, in z-stocks.)
Is there a path to them? (try moving military to the seeds and the farmplot both.)
Have you designated the farmplots w/ specific seeds season by season?
Do you have only Farming (and maybe food and refuse hauling?) enabled as a labor on your Grower(s)?

[Alexei403]

No re-irrigation unless you do something overt and aggressive to it.

Does anything ever grow? Has anything ever grown?

Are the seeds unforbidden? (Forbid all and then unforbid again, in z-stocks.)
Is there a path to them? (try moving military to the seeds and the farmplot both.)
Have you designated the farmplots w/ specific seeds season by season?
Do you have only Farming (and maybe food and refuse hauling?) enabled as a labor on your Grower(s)?

Yea, stuff grows just not at a very fast rate. I've designated about 5 full-time Growers and it's improving, but not very quickly.

This should answer the other pathing and forbid questions too (there is a path, they aren't forbidden). And only Growing is enabled.

Our stocks are just plain low. >_> I guess I'll wait until my newcomer Growers become somewhat competent at their job and see how things turn out, but at the moment I have 159 seeds and 7 plants in stock. Is this normal (for some reason I suspect I should have fewer seeds)?

[personofshadow]

Are you using the dig deeper mod? I'm pretty sure plants grow slower with that

[Alexei403]

Nope, I'm using vanilla because I'm a pansy new and don't want to be totally screwed.

[PaperJack]

I always use 8 10x10 mud farms, two for every season, so I'm sure I never run out of food.

[Hellcar]

Turn off literally everything (all hauling types) except planting for the planter and monitor the dwarf. Check the job list to see if "plant seeds" is there.

Don't use inexperienced growers as it'll just reduce the food you get from the seeds that you do plant.

[Albedo]

Yea, stuff grows just not at a very fast rate. I've designated about 5 full-time Growers and it's improving, but not very quickly.

Never grows quickly enough.  PH's are your best bet underground (look at the RAW files for growth time.)

I'd go with less Growers, esp if they're full time.  Their skill rank will skyrocket and you'll get larger stacks, which is a MAJOR factor in reducing overall labor demands. (See wiki, "farming" for full discussion.  It's like 1:8 or something stupid - with Growers, you absolutely want quality over quantity.  Absolutely. I use only 3 Growers to feed 100, and they become Legendary fast!)

Oh - and how far are your kitchens from your farmplots and seed/raw plant/prepared food/empty barrel stockpiles? They "should" be adjacent or right above/below each other to minimize travel time, which is another big factor.

Seeds pile up as stuff is processed/eaten.  1 seed can easily = 3-5 plants with a good grower, so the seeds start to multiply.

I always use 8 10x10 mud farms, two for every season, so I'm sure I never run out of food.

Pointlessly large. Might as well have 80 that size for all the good they do you.  I feed 100 dwarfs on 50 farm tiles. (That's the equiv of 1 5x10, 1/16 of what you're using.)

[Blargityblarg]

I used to take two planters on embark, now I only take one. I use 29 tiles of farmspace, and that works nicely. 9 tiles are plump helmets for three seasons, fallow for winter, and the other twenty are equally sweet pod and pig tail as often as they can grow.