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Newbie Questions

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Asher
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« on: October 27, 2008, 03:55:16 pm »

So I'm learning DF.  I'm have a couple of problems, and can't seem to find the answers.

1> How do I get seeds back from fully grown plant?  Mainly Plump Helmets and Quarry Bushes.  I don't cook or brew the helmets or spawns, for the first couple of years, but my spawns just keep going down. (I started with 50 and after 3 years I have 10 left..).  I process the bushes to bags and get leaves, but no rock nuts.

2> Fertilize.  My dwarfs don't do it.  I bought 10 blocks of potash at the start and 3 years later, I still have them.  I've built farm plots 1x1, 2x2, 5x5 and whatever the largest size is, but if I press f in the build menu nothing happens.  I've also pressed seasonal fertilize and that doesn't happen either.

Thanks

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Floirt
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« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2008, 04:16:18 pm »

Good luck with learning DF! Anyways:

1) To get seeds from any plants, you need to brew them (cooking 'em will destroy the seeds). I'm not sure about brewing the leaves, through.

2) Did you buy potash or blocks of potash? 'cause potash comes in bars (but it's not specificied).
If your potash is in blocks, then it is construction material and thus is useless for anything but stuff requiring blocks and walls/floors.

Also, the Wiki is your friend! Just do't use it too much or you will be kinda spoiled.
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LeonidasRex
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« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2008, 05:39:30 pm »

As I understand it, you can do five things with plants:
eat them,
cook them,
brew them,
thresh them (at the farmer's workshop), or
mill them.

Cooking destroys seeds.  Everything else leaves seeds.

On the fertilizer, I have no idea.  The current game balance already seems to produce lots and lots of food.
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Floirt
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« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2008, 05:49:55 pm »

As I understand it, you can do five things with plants:
eat them,
cook them,
brew them,
thresh them (at the farmer's workshop), or
mill them.

Cooking destroys seeds.  Everything else leaves seeds.

On the fertilizer, I have no idea.  The current game balance already seems to produce lots and lots of food.


Woops, forgot about milling and threshing. Since they aren't going to give you booze, and plump helmets aren't threshable and millable, brewing without cooking seems the best option, considering you can cook booze (even if it's not as satisfactory as cooking real stuff).

The quarry bushes not yielding seeds seems like a bug, you may want to report it or check the inventory of the farmer's workshop and the inventory of the farmer when you process them.

Also, cook the leaves if you aren't doing it already.
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Zorgn
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« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2008, 05:52:52 pm »

Get some more bags is my advice, and keep them empty (not running a glass making economy, are you?). I've had seeds strewn all over the dining hall floor, and it doesn't count them there for planting. Unless they were in bags the planters ignored them, even going so far as to cancel planting for lack of seeds.
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Deon
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« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2008, 06:22:24 pm »

Maybe potash should be in buckets... Try to make it.
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susancreature
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« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2008, 06:48:05 pm »


I agree with Zorgn, and if you're very new - the problem may be that you haven't specified a food pile (or a food pile dedicated to seeds).  If you see 'leftovers' where your dwarves are eating at, there's a good chance it's the plant seeds being left on the floor.  Making a food pile will encourage the dwarve to pick them up and put them in a pile (thus making them plantable..)
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Refar
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« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2008, 06:50:00 pm »

The wiki is not accurate on fertilizing.
The f: Fertilize command does nothing at all.
"Seasonal fertilizing" might work tho - If set Seas Fert (Y) and assign a crop for the next season before the season change, the dwarves should fertilize the field.
Changing the "Seas Fert" setting seem to have no effect during the ongoing season.

« Last Edit: October 27, 2008, 07:02:08 pm by Refar » Report Spam   Logged
slink
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« Reply #8 on: October 27, 2008, 07:09:14 pm »

Fertilizing only seems to work on aboveground plots.  Even though Seasonal toggles on for the underground plots, it still doesn't work.  They will fertilize the aboveground ones with (f), though.
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Floirt
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« Reply #9 on: October 27, 2008, 08:13:34 pm »

Couldn't you "just" irrigate the farm plot with 1/2 levels deep water? It would be tiresome to do, but with a pond zone (?), you would be able to raise the fertility with a few dwarves and a few buckets? Considering he has dwarves to spare...
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Zorgn
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« Reply #10 on: October 27, 2008, 08:26:01 pm »

Couldn't you "just" irrigate the farm plot with 1/2 levels deep water? It would be tiresome to do, but with a pond zone (?), you would be able to raise the fertility with a few dwarves and a few buckets? Considering he has dwarves to spare...

Watering a plot has an effect on productivity?
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slink
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« Reply #11 on: October 27, 2008, 08:54:41 pm »

Fertilizing doesn't seem to work right, though.  I fertilized my plots in Spring, with them set to (z)Fallow starting in Winter (2 seasons set to fallow).  When the season changed to Summer, the fertility dropped from 5 to 0, and that's not right.  With no crop growing, the fertilizer should not be used up.

Why do plots go all red for all crops, sometimes?  I thought it might be lack of water, but I don't water them and they become useful again the next season.

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Asher
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« Reply #12 on: October 27, 2008, 08:58:19 pm »

So I bought blocks of potash, and yeah it's in the screens to use as building material. So I screwed that up, thanks.  Shocked

I have my food stocks all broken down in seperate piles.  Plants, drinks, seeds etc.  I am using the Stocks menu to track what I have and the seeds just seem to go down.  I have about 15 empty bags. (I bought 30 to start - sold my anvil and bought lots of food and bags.)

Does flooding the farm plots help yields?  I'm planting in sandy clay loam.  I get plants and bushes just fine.  Flooding would be pretty easy..I have lots of ponds.

No glass works, no metal forge and haven't gotten a well in yet. (only my second real try at building a fortress, I ended up flooding my first when I tapped into a river before I got the flood gates built)

I have another big problem, my Hunter quit hunting.  Everything other than butchery is turned off, he has armor, shield and a crossbow and bolts.  He just idles.  I know he hunted in the first year, then I had him cutting trees for awhile, and now he wont hunt.

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slink
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« Reply #13 on: October 27, 2008, 09:56:04 pm »

If you brew Plump Helmet, you should get seeds back (spawn, in that case).  Make sure you have Cook set off for all the seeds, under Kitchen  in Status (z), as well as for the Plump Helmets themselves.  You should end up with more seeds than you know what to do with.
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Zorgn
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« Reply #14 on: October 27, 2008, 11:29:22 pm »

So I bought blocks of potash, and yeah it's in the screens to use as building material. So I screwed that up, thanks.  Shocked

I have my food stocks all broken down in seperate piles.  Plants, drinks, seeds etc.  I am using the Stocks menu to track what I have and the seeds just seem to go down.  I have about 15 empty bags. (I bought 30 to start - sold my anvil and bought lots of food and bags.)

Does flooding the farm plots help yields?  I'm planting in sandy clay loam.  I get plants and bushes just fine.  Flooding would be pretty easy..I have lots of ponds.

No glass works, no metal forge and haven't gotten a well in yet. (only my second real try at building a fortress, I ended up flooding my first when I tapped into a river before I got the flood gates built)

I have another big problem, my Hunter quit hunting.  Everything other than butchery is turned off, he has armor, shield and a crossbow and bolts.  He just idles.  I know he hunted in the first year, then I had him cutting trees for awhile, and now he wont hunt.

As I understand it, you need not flood in soil layers, which is what you're in. I may be wrong, it may have an effect that I've not noticed. Your hunter probably stopped hunting because he ran out of game, so don't count on that for food.

You don't need to brew Plump Helmets to get seeds, they just need to be eaten raw. Stop cooking. If you're running low on food, do not brew.

As for the comment on red plots above, I believe that happens when your farmers can't find seeds.
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