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[Lyam84]

I'm new to the game don't quite get farming yet. I create the farms, i irrigate them, I set up custom stockpiles with only seeds (i have 200 plump helmet spawn), and only raw plants nearby, but my farmers plant about a 1/4 of my 5X6 field and then never harvest. Why don't they put seeds in the stock piles beyond one or two barrels? why don't they plant the whole plot? And why is the only time something is harvested is when/by a hungry dwarf?

[Lagslayer]

Do you have a food stockpile? Do you have enough barrels? Is part of the farm plot above ground or on dry rock? Do your farmers not like working?

[Lyam84]

I have two custom stockpiles, one set for seeds only, one set for plants only, both only get filled to two spaces out of 12, with rest remaining empty, all the while i can see seed laying about and plants witherinng in the fields.
I'm pretty sure I have plenty of barrels, but I'll try making more.
Yes, my Urist McLazybeards standing around not working for no reason it seems

[agatharchides]

Barrels shouldn't matter, they only make it so you an store more plants in less space, it isn't like booze where you need them to produce things. The only reasons I can think of for nobody harvesting is if they can't path there or if you have it set so only farmenrs harvest and nobody with the farming skill on, though in that case they wouldn't be planting either. You might double-check your stockpile and/or make a normal food stockpile, I've spent some time trying to figure out why things were breaking down only to realize I enabled the wrong thing on the stockpile screen.

Also, you no longer need to irrigate farms unless you want to farm on rock.

[Flare]

I have this problem too from time to time. All this means is that you're not allocating enough dedicated farmers within the fortress. In short, you're short on hands to harvest them. Of course, what is implied here is that it's quite possible to have too many fields and too few farmers.

[Qinetix]

Well you need allot of seeds for the crops first of all
Secondly a stockpile next to them might be good,barrels might work
Third of all you could use a fertilizer for faster growing
And sometimes dwarves are extreemlly lazy to check the crops in my fort , you just have to wait for the crops to grow until they can be harvested.The number of the dwarves that farm must be somehow equal with the number of crops..

If you can't really wait you could do something else : Build a bowerys shop , craft some crossbows , asing some dwarf hunters , craft some bolts , and you will get some meat soon enough... (and i always somehow don't do it because i fear that the meat will rot)

[Sphalerite]

Did you disable gathering of food?  Check the Orders screen by pressing 'o' and see if dwarves are set to gather or ignore food.

[Jelle]

Like has been said make sure  your farmers are not distracted by others tasks that aren't as important for them. Also make sure y our dwarves have the food gathering or wichever it is called labor on.

[CobaltiteAmulet]

Download Dwarf Therapist (unless you wait till this afternoon you'll need to check the forum's thread for how to update the file for .21) so you can manage your dwarves at a glance, and then you can make sure skills are properly set. At the beginning (under 40 or so dwarves) I like to make them all as specialized as I can, 3-7 miners, 2-5 wood cutters, 5-15 farmers, and anyone I don't need to do something immediately has every hauling job turned on, which usually leaves my miners with none of them. I like to turn all dwarves harvest off once I have 10+ farmers, but before then it's rather imperative that everyone can do it.

If you can, locate the seed pile near your farms, and the food near your intended dining hall (maybe within 50 tiles, including z levels) and the only issue should be job allocation.

[dakenho]

there was a really old bug where you could not farm on  smoothed tiles or something along the lines of farming on such a tile would prohibit you from farming the entire plot.

try disabling everything thing on your farmer but farming if your farm is made up of multiple plots, please make sure that each plot is set to a crop,   try also opening up the order screen and ensure all dwarfs harvest

[greycat]

Well you need allot of seeds for the crops first of all
Secondly a stockpile next to them might be good,barrels might work
Third of all you could use a fertilizer for faster growing

I don't think fertilizer decreases time to plant maturity.  I think it only increases stack size.

If plants are withering on the plots, that means either (a) the plant was harvested, but there was no stockpile to put it into; or (b) it died before someone could harvest it.  Usually for me it's the stockpiles getting full, not lack of idle hands.  But it could be different for others.

And sometimes dwarves are extreemlly lazy to check the crops in my fort , you just have to wait for the crops to grow until they can be harvested.The number of the dwarves that farm must be somehow equal with the number of crops..

The default is to allow all dwarves to harvest crops.  If that wasn't changed, then there generally shouldn't be a labor shortage come harvest time.  There could, of course, be a labor shortage for planting, but that wouldn't lead to crops withering -- quite the opposite, in fact.

A single planter can handle a fair number of field tiles.  I start my forts with four 2x2 underground plots, and a single planter can definitely handle that (can keep it planted close enough to full-time for my taste).

I say the best bet is "make more food stockpiles".