At the moment my farming is either producing far more than I need or I'm having food shortages. So I have a few questions:
1. Once a seed is planted on a farm tile, does the amount of crops that grow from that tile vary from 1-5 stacks? Is a stack of 5 the most that grows from a single planted tile? Is it the same for all plants or does it vary?
2.What's the difference between a legendary grower and a dabbling one? Will a legendary plant seeds faster? Will the legendary produce bigger stacks of plants? Will the dabbler produce only small stacks and maybe not grow at all and lose seeds?
3.Does 1 unit of crop always make 5 unit of booze?
4.I read on the wiki that plump helmets and pigtails grow 3 times a season compared to 2 for the others. Any point in growing other crops besides these?
5.Any point in growing surface crops (besides when your starting civ has no crops for you)?
6.Flour, Sugar, and Quarry Bush Leaves. Are they worth it?
1. Farmer skill plays a role in how many stacks of food get harvested from a single farm tile.
2. See #1, legendary growers get bigger harvests (and work faster?)
3. Not sure, I think so because I think brewer skill only affects drink quality
4. If I have 9 farm tiles, 2 are for plump helms, 2 for cave wheat, 2 for sweet pods, 1 for quarry, 1 for dimple and 1 for pig tails. Total farm tiles that I usually have is around 27-36 tiles. That lets the sweet pod fields lie fallow when it's not their season.
5. If you have surface dirt / sand and spare room, I always grow strawberrys, prickles and any other surface crop that produces alcohol.
6. Yes.
One of my first 7 dwarves is 100% farmer. They tend the fields, keep the seeds planted and harvested (and I only let farmers harvest using the "orders" menu). Their side job is brewing. Usually a few at a time (so I'll queue up 3 brews in the still's task list).
When you get your first wave of migrants, one of those gets turned into a cook/farmer and I setup nest boxes (usually 2-3) and an egg stockpile by the kitchen. The still still gets operated manually as does the kitchen (if there are eggs in the barrels, I make lavish meals, otherwise the cook gets the day off).
When I hit 30 dwarves, one of them gets to be a brewer full time with no other tasks and the farmer gets to focus on farming. Now the still goes on repeat and I start making rock pots out the wazoo. My goal is to have 10 units of drink for every dwarf in the fort. If the still gets cluttered, then I'll setup another booze stockpile somewhere - or if I'm close to my 10x number, I'll just leave it cluttered so that the brewer is auto-throttled on their output. (Clutter reduces the speed of production.)
Also at this point (30-50 dwarves), I probably have a full-time cook with Lavish Meals on repeat, at least one tanner/farmer, one butcher/farmer and one cook/farmer (to process fat from butcher shop). I might have a few more nest boxes, and might even start processing leaves/grain into flour/syrup/etc.
At 100 dwarves, I might add a 2nd full-time brewer. I probably have small 3x4 or 2x3 stockpiles of booze hidden in nooks and crannies all over the fort, up on the outer walls, down in the magma forges, etc. That's more efficient because dwarves go to the booze pile to drink and it helps if they're close to wherever the dwarf gets thirsty. Plus, in a bad situation where I lose part of the fort, I don't lose all my booze. Food stockpiles tend to be 100% prepared food only, in barrels, near the dining rooms. (Create a food stockpile, block all food types, hit 'u' to turn prepared foods back on.)
Basically, you don't need to micromanage the food or drink situation too much. Setup a 3x5 or 2x8 plot for each crop type, maybe two plots for plump helmets, and let the farmers have at it. Give them stockpiles near the kitchen/still to store the raw plants and it basically just works.
I've had forts with 150 dwarves where I had about 2500-3000 drink and 1500 prepared food.