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[greycat]

If you build walls and a roof, you can make your cavern farms safe from intruders.  Most people either neglect the roof, or fail to make it 100% monster-tight.  It's typically simpler and safer just to irrigate using the pond zones.

Nothing inherently wrong with the cavern approach, though, especially on maps where you have little or no surface water.

[Crashmaster]

I'm not sure why yet but i've had some issues with underground farms losing their mud. I think it might be due to designating or un-designating smoothing the farm plot floors or something to do with cleaning gone out of control.

[Lord Snow]

so whats wrong with this farm?

http://img819.imageshack.us/f/plot.png/

i've place a pump above, draining a murky pool into this channeled out space of above-ground farming area. Dried up, its all muddy, but will only be farmed to certain squares which are still muddy but behave as if they were either the underground or non-muddy. On the right side, in the top right corner where the carpenter currently is, i could not farm at all. "No seed for blaaa".


so. what now? Starve and die?

[greycat]

The square you've highlighted says "Outside Light Above Ground".  This means that you cannot plant underground seeds here.  You can only plant above-ground seeds here, and then only if the square is part of a biome that has plants.  (You may also need to have soil directly under the square.  I was never clear on that part.)

If you want to plant underground seeds here, build your farm plots only over the tiles that are marked "Inside Dark", if there are any.  (Nothing wrong with small farm plots, either -- even 1x1, if that's the only indoor tile you've got muddied at the moment.)

Once a tile has been exposed to light, it is forever marked "Light", even if you build a roof over it later.

[Lord Snow]

The square you've highlighted says "Outside Light Above Ground".  This means that you cannot plant underground seeds here.  You can only plant above-ground seeds here, and then only if the square is part of a biome that has plants.  (You may also need to have soil directly under the square.  I was never clear on that part.)

If you want to plant underground seeds here, build your farm plots only over the tiles that are marked "Inside Dark", if there are any.  (Nothing wrong with small farm plots, either -- even 1x1, if that's the only indoor tile you've got muddied at the moment.)

Once a tile has been exposed to light, it is forever marked "Light", even if you build a roof over it later.

Of course it does, its a freakin above ground farm, made by carving a square channel into uneven ground, and then irrigating/muddying it.

i've place a pump above, draining a murky pool into this channeled out space of above-ground farming area.

[greycat]

As I said in the first post, you need soil for an above-ground farm, not mud.

[TolyK]

both work 

or existing organic matter (decayed)

[Drawde]

I'm not sure why yet but i've had some issues with underground farms losing their mud. I think it might be due to designating or un-designating smoothing the farm plot floors or something to do with cleaning gone out of control.

Irrigated farms eventually loose their mud and need to be re-irrigated.  It's been that way since 31.x came out in my experience, if not even older.

[TolyK]

I have never lost mud in farms. actually, I have when they're built. the ground turns "furrowed" and I can plant there. afaik from my eternity self-sustaining fort of 6 men (hehe magma the whole world) it never dries up. unless exposed to very hot above-ground air or magma.

[Drawde]

I usually end up with my underground farms built on stone, so that might be the difference.  Every year or so I have to irrigate again.   Which causes problems when I'm not paying attention.

[TolyK]

strange. maybe it changed in .17/.18?
anyways I usually do both above-ground and below-ground farms, and yearly flood them automatically just 'cause. 

[Mr. Argent]

A farm plot can produce 2-3 crops per season

then would it be better to have a bunch of 1x1 plots instead of 1 monstrous plot?

[TolyK]

yes, much better
I usually have 1x3 plots growing Plump helmets (year round), special crops that I need (seasonally) and occasionally Dimple cups (Year round)

[GreatWyrmGold]

I dug a shaft that was 100 z-levels deep

...Wow. You may have too much spare time on your hands.
Or else not enough cavern layers.

[Ultimuh]

Aagh.. farming used to be so simple, now my dwarves starve even faster than before.
Need to reread this several times before I understand the process.