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[Gus Smedstad]

I tend to make elaborate plumbing in my forts.  I can't help it.

However, recently I've discovered I need a roto-rooter.  It seems that moderately often, once I've discovered the caverns and trees start growing underground, a tree grows in one of my one-tile-wide pipes.  This appears to completely block the flow of water.  Then I have to send a dwarf down there to chop out the roots.

Do other people encounter this?  If so, what do you do?  Chop, or dig 2-tile wide pipes and hope you never get two trees side by side (which does seem unlikely)?

 - Gus

[Sphalerite]

Pave the channels with roads or constructed floors.  Those will prevent trees from growing.

[Gus Smedstad]

Oh, good answer.  Thanks.

 - Gus

[Bryan Derksen]

It's also a good hauling-free way of getting rid of the rock generated by digging them out in the first place. I sometimes pave the caves I excavate even when I don't expect them to ever see water, just for that.

[njero]

Follow up question. I know placing a stockpile hides shrubs and saplings, but does it also permanently stop their growth? If paving isn't a viable option, does it work to just designate an empty stockpile over the pipeworks?

[Nonsapient]

No, I don't believe so.  I have removed stockpiles to find new saplings underneath them, that were not there when they were placed (before breaching the caverns).

[Sphalerite]

Stockpiles won't prevent saplings and other plants from growing, but they will prevent saplings from fully maturing into water-blocking trees.  So placing stockpiles in your drainage pipes is a viable if cheesy way to prevent them from getting clogged by trees.

[Dave Mongoose]

Pave the channels with roads or constructed floors.  Those will prevent trees from growing.

Roads cost less stone and build faster, so I would opt for those.

[gtmattz]

I will second the stockpile method.  It is instant and works every time.  Just use a custom stockpile with nothing enabled.

[Zaranthan]

Pave the channels with roads or constructed floors.  Those will prevent trees from growing.

Roads cost less stone and build faster, so I would opt for those.

By the time your mason hauls all the spare rocks out of the way, he could've just built the extra floors. And now you've got rocks in your aqueduct!

[Draxxalon]

Haven't tried it since 40d, but smoothing the floor also used to prevent tree growth.   

[Quietust]

In 40d, smoothing the floor most definitely did not prevent tree/shrub growth.

[Urist Imiknorris]

In 40d, smoothing the floor most definitely did not prevent tree/shrub growth.

"The impertinent vegetation has defaced a Urist McStoner!"

[Sphalerite]

Dwarves will clean mud off smoothed rock floors indoors, and trees only grow on rock if it's muddied.  So provided you have idle dwarves with the cleaning labor enabled, muddied tiles they can reach are less likely to have plants grow on them because they may have the mud cleared off before anything can grow.  Won't help you with inaccessible drainage channels, or if your dwarves are too busy to keep the mud cleared out.

[Gus Smedstad]

I've just finished paving the blocked pipe, and I experimented with a mix of paved roads and floors to compare speed.  10 floor tiles are a lot faster to build than a 10-tile road, mainly because you can have 10 masons working on it, instead of just one architect (followed by one dwarf of any profession).  Once the pipe is re-filled, the tiles with floors show the water level, but the tiles with roads just show the "water blob" image.  So it's apparent that constructed floors are the better choice - assuming that they do block trees, and don't just result in regular floor cleaning.

I can verify that stuff does grow on mud on smoothed floors if your dwarfs don't come by the clean away the mud.

 - Gus