Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Kimril]

At the moment I have about 63 dwarves, 600 seeds and about 100 drink. Yet all of my dwarves are starving, theres barely anything happening in the farm plot even though ive made quite a few farmers, i just need to know what im doing wrong.

Any help would be appreciated

[Ganthan]

Build farm plot on either indoor or outdoor soil with B then P.

Choose seeds to plant according to the season by pressing Q then hovering over farm plot.

Have a dwarf with Planting labor enabled.

Make sure dwarf has clear path to both seeds and the plot and isn't restricted from either with burrows.

A few tips:

One dwarf with a lot of Grower skill is far more productive than many dwarves with no Grower skill.  Default setting is "All Dwarves Harvest."  Ideally it should be set to "Only Farmers Harvest" unless all your farmers are on break.  Press O to reach that option.  The amount of harvest is determined by the skill of the dwarf that did the planting, not the harvesting, and this option only affects harvesting.  Nonetheless, leaving harvesting to only the farmers ensures that they get the maximum amount of grower skill

One big farm plot will work, but numerous smaller ones are better since you can just designate which seeds you want in which fields and avoid a lot of micromanaging.

I'm not sure if it still happens anymore, but I think dwarves can and will keep planting seeds right up until the end of that crop's growing season causing all the ungrown seeds to disappear on season change.  To safeguard against this you can set a particular field's planting schedule to Fallow for the final season of its growth.  Planted seeds will carry over into the next season if the next season allows them.  For example: Sweet pods grow in spring and summer so have a field set to plant in the spring and fallow in the Summer.  If you need more sweet pods then make more fields.

[Kimril]

Build farm plot on either indoor or outdoor soil with B then P.

Choose seeds to plant according to the season by pressing Q then hovering over farm plot.

Have a dwarf with Planting labor enabled.

Make sure dwarf has clear path to both seeds and the plot and isn't restricted from either with burrows.

A few tips:

One dwarf with a lot of Grower skill is far more productive than many dwarves with no Grower skill.  Default setting is "All Dwarves Harvest."  Ideally it should be set to "Only Farmers Harvest" unless all your growers are on break.  Press O to reach that option.

One big farm plot will work, but numerous smaller ones are better since you can just designate which seeds you want in which fields and avoid a lot of micromanaging.

I'm not sure if it still happens anymore, but I think dwarves can and will keep planting seeds right up until the end of that crop's growing season causing all the ungrown seeds to disappear on season change.  To safeguard against this you can set a particular field's planting schedule to Fallow for the final season of its growth.  Planted seeds will carry over into the next season if the next season allows them.  For example: Sweet pods grow in spring and summer so have a field set to plant in the spring and fallow in the Summer.  If you need more sweet pods then make more fields.

thanks for the response ill try the farmers harvest order and planting sweet pods

[Ganthan]

thanks for the response ill try the farmers harvest order and planting sweet pods

I only mentioned Sweed Pods as an example of that tip I gave.  Plump Helmets are actually far better for raw food production since they grow fast, can grow all year round and can be eaten raw.

[Mushroo]

If your dwarfs are dying from starvation and you need food NOW you can cook some of those seeds into biscuits at your kitchen workshop. Make sure you designate them for cooking from the z, kitchen screen, and undesignate them when you're ready to plant.

[Fishbulb]

A handy trick here is to forbid some of your seeds, put a "make meal" job on repeat and let it run until all but the reserved seeds are used up. Then let the job just cancel itself ("needs cookable item" or something), then unforbid the reserve seeds and go back to farminzing.

[Kimril]

thanks for the help guys, its gone up to 10 plants, which i know isnt great but at least they arn't all starving quickly. Now i just have to deal with a goblin ambush and im sorted

[Stormfeather]

A couple other things to keep in mind:

Below-ground crops (there are six of them, which you can embark with) are seasonal, so you'll need to go through and allocate which plants grow where for which seasons, and for some seasons your options are more limited. (In Summer you can grow any of the six, for instance, while in winter you can only grow two.)

Only some crops are used for food - others are used for cloth, for dye, or for booze. (Or booze AND food, or... you get the idea.)

Some crops need to be processed in some way after they're grown, to be of use.

And some crops are outdoor crops (the ones you gather from, well, the outdoors, or the ones you trade from elves and humans, or steal from them)... so you'll have to make separate plots in a space marked as outside to grow those.

The wiki's the easiest way probably to see which crops grow where, in what seasons, and what they can be used for and what you need to do to them first.

[proxn_punkd]

I usually rely on berries (prickle berries, wild strawberries, fisher berries) above ground, and plump helms below for food until I have everything else worked out. The berries grow darned near everywhere, so you can just send an herbalist to gather until you have some and seeds.

Additionally, if you need food on short notice, see if you have any stray animals and mark them for slaughter. If you have a kitchen, it'll automatically queue "render fat" jobs to turn fat into tallow, and most other meat and offal can be eaten raw in a pinch.

[Kimril]

yeah although i understand underground crops, im not sure on how to make an overground farm plot. If there isn't any soil overland then how can you make mud? surely its a bit more difficult cause you cant make a hole in a river for it to pour out, or can you?

[proxn_punkd]

My first reply to that would be, "if you're in a soilless area, where would you get the first samples/seeds". But then I remembered elves and humans usually bring surface plants and seeds for them.

The easiest method for a new user to use would probably be to irrigate and build a normal underground farm plot, then carefully channel out the ceiling to make it outside. More advanced users can play with pumps and aqueducts to move water from the river.

[Mushroo]

If there are wild gatherable plants growing (they usually look like " symbols) then you can build an above-ground farm plot in that spot and you don't need to irrigate it.

Likewise you don't need irrigation underground if your farm is in a soil, clay, or sand layer.

Irrigation is only really necessary if you're trying to grow on bare stone for some reason.

[Kimril]

awesome! thanks for the help guys, don't think ive ever had a response this fast or this amount responses in any forum cheers people

[Ihmhi]

With the inherent challenge of Dwarf Fortress, the community's helpfulness is half wanting to help you and half trying to tip you off as if you were dating their abusive ex-girlfriend.

"Man, don't put a barracks near a well. I did it, a Legendary Axedwarf dodged into it during sparring, and then the game slapped me."

[Stormfeather]

Plus there's a lot of paying-forward and paying-sideways... after all, it might be *our* frantic cry for help answered (nor not) next!