Farming

Farming is an effective way of gaining plant items, which are mostly used in food and medicine. The amount of resources you can get is almost unlimited because the farm will only require Water and Insecticide to keep it running. Beta 0.2

A Player Colony is not required for a private farm, but NPCs can automate the process of planting, watering, cleaning and harvesting when an Incubator is built. pre-Beta

## Quickstart Guide for Farmers

Beta 0.3

1. Create a Fertilizer Sprayer and some Fertilizer Pallets.
2. Spray the fertilizer on the ground.
3. Get some Water and Insecticide.
4. Get some seeds from wild plants or vendors, or Earth seeds from vendors.
5. Plant: drag the seeds onto the fertilized ground. If the ground is not fertilized, the seeds will not be placed.
6. Water the new seeds.
7. Wait. Water and clean the seeds if required.
8. Harvest.
9. Plant again.

To run a colony farm, you will need to place Native or Earth seeds, Water and Insecticide into the Incubator and assign some NPCs. If you do not have enough NPCs to fill all spots you can do the job yourself, but it is recommended to have at least a manager to take care of watering and cleaning. pre-Beta

## Notes

* Spraying the fertilizer is not possible when close to an NPC. It may be easier to spray all the fertilizer before ordering NPCs to plant. pre-Beta
* You may level the ground before spraying the fertilizer but it is not required. Beta 0.2
* NPCs will store the harvest in the colony storage. pre-Beta
* NPCs will not care for seeds outside of the colony shield. They may also refuse to plant very close to the shield, but should water seeds placed by the player. pre-Beta
* Player and NPCs do not require tools to harvest tree-like plants (Euphorbia, palms etc). Beta 0.3
* It is currently possible to fertilize and plant underwater. The seeds will require water anyway. pre-Beta
* Fertilized ground is not destroyed by digging. pre-Beta
* Fertilized ground and plants survive grenade explosions, the ground will still adjust to the crater though. pre-Beta
* Seeds grow without water, although slower, but they will not survive without any water. You should water them at least once after planting. pre-Beta
* Seeds grow when in need of cleaning. pre-Beta
* Seeds may change to harvestable state while they require water or insectide, removing that need. pre-Beta
* When a seed/plant needs water or insecticide depends on the type of seed/plant. Different seeds planted at the same time may require water or insecticide at different times. Beta 0.3
* It seems that regular watering and cleaning has no effect on the time a plant requires to fully mature, however, it has a strong influence on the yield. Beta 0.3
* Plants grown from seeds are solid, you can not walk through them like natural herbs. Beta 0.3
* Seeds grow faster when using organic fertilizer. pre-Beta
* Farmers work from 07:00 to 22:00. pre-Beta

## Plants and harvest

pre-Beta

Special note on catchfly grass: currently seeds die if watered more than once! Water after planting but don't water again when the seed is half grown. The moment you or some NPC waters it, it will die. pre-Beta

## Plant Dimension Guide

This for any farmers out there looking to create efficient farmland/systems by taking into account the size of each plant. Units are in blocks - the size of the blocks seen in Build Mode. All dimensions are rough approximates and have been measured by aligning the red volume lines (seen before placement of the seed) against a line of blocks and using that line as a 'ruler'. All dimensions have been rounded, if the plant barely touches the next block, the measurement was rounded down. If the plant is well into half of the next block, the measurement was rounded up. The width and length of every plant is a square base, so a base measurement of "3" indicates the plant will take up a 3 x 3 block area. Official Release: V1.0.9

Official Release: V1.0.9