Guide to Farming

Being a grower of crops is an important role. You farm both food and cash crops. Growing food is vital for a nation to increase in wealth and power.

Tools

To farm, you will require some basic tools.

	Knife	Used for harvesting crops. Can be made out of Wood, Bone, Copper, Bronze, Iron, Steel, Silver, Gold and Diamond (metal knives are made via casting in the knife molds.
	Plough	A plough is made out of wood and used to plough fields for farming! Used once on the grass and once on the dirt underneath the grass. You can also plough snowy dirt and flooded plains dirt (found along the jungle rivers). In case of snowy grass, you will have to shovel the snow first. Lastly, there are places where you cannot plough: infertile soil, permafrost etc. You can also make an iron plough out of iron ingots to plough land faster.
	Trench shovel	A trench shovel is made out of iron ingots and a wooden handle. A trench shovel, as the name suggests, digs trenches. To dig a trench, simply click a dirt tile twice. If you dig a trench next to water tiles, the trench will get flooded, providing crops wtih water and serving as an extra barrier.
	Shovel	Made with either 2 bone pieces or a cast shovel head, plus a wooden handle. Used to dig irrigation channels that water crops and do not hinder your movement, unlike flooded trenches. TO dig an irrigation channel, hold a shovel in the active hand and click it, or press Ctrl-Z or Z in the hotkeys mode, then choose the respective option.
	Seeds	Some sort of seeds to plant and grow. You may find seeds simply lying on the ground, but you can also collect them in the wilderness by using any type of knife on bushes and small bushes.
	Seed collector	Made out of leather. Very useful for picking up seeds during large-scale farming. Have a seed collector in your active hand, stand over the seeds on the ground, then click the collector or press Ctrl-Z, and you will put the seeds in the bag. Just do not misplace it.

Farming

Just plough a plot of land by yourself or by attaching the plough to a cow or bull for quicker soil disruption, surround said plot of land with trenches with a trench shovel (Cant be walked over easily) or with irrigation channels with a basic shovel (can be walked over easily) filled with fresh water or plough near a river, put some seeds in the ground and watch them grow! Well, it is a bit more nuanced.

Watering

Plants need water, some more, others less. Weather conditions and climate also affect the crops in this regard. Each crop has a maximum water level when planted.

Normally, the water level decreases at the rate of 15 per minute, and when it reaches zero, the plants wither away. However, in the hot climates of the Desert and Semi-Arid biomes, water consumption is 25 per minute. On top of that, in the event of a heatwave, plants will require more water than usual - additional 10 per minute.

There are a few ways to provide the crops with water:

Plough land within two tiles of fresh water, which is any water, except for the saltwater. The plants will have all the water they need without any extra labor.
Dig a flooded trench from the nearest fresh water to irrigate remote fields. For this a trench shovel is required, which becomes available at the 14 industrial research mark. Dig the first trench on a lakeshore or on a riverbank, then the second trench next to the first one and so on. Farming fields should be within two tiles of the water channel as well. A trench could be removed by filling it with 2 piles of dirt.
Dig an irrigation channel from the nearest fresh water, which could be done with any shovel. It functions just like flooded trenches, without the drawback of being a barrier. An irrigation channel could be removed by filling it with 1 pile of dirt.
Water the plants manually. Bring the fresh water in buckets and barrels and splash it on the ploughed field (the ground, not the plant).
Pray for the eternal rain. Rain will water the fields (at the rate of 15 per minute), but may create other inconveniences.

Soil Nutrition

The soil, as in real life, has its level of nutrition. The plants that you plant in the soil will consume its nutrition little by little, until it reaches zero. If you let the soil rest, without farm plants, it will recover little by little. At the beginning of each round, every plot of soil will have maximum nutrition. The maximum soil nutrition is 150.

To examine the soil, stand close to it and examine it. When it is at or above 130: “The soil looks very alive and the plants will grow very easily.” When it is at or above 80: “The soil looks alive, plants would grow very well.” When it is above or equal to 25: “The soil seems half dead and the plants would not develop as well as they should.” When it is greater than 0 and less than 25: “The soil looks pretty dead and the plants would have a tough time growing.” When it is 0: “The soil looks dead and plants would hardly grow.”

Impact of soil nutrition on plant growth

Plants have various stages of growth. And to grow from one stage to the next, soil nutrition will be very important. When soil nutrition is,

above 80: Guaranteed growth.
greater than or equal to 40: Growth probability equal to soil fertility.
greater than 0 and less than 40: 40% growth probability.
equal to zero: 20% chance of growth.

Soil recovery

You can let a plot of land rest, with no farm plants on it, and it will recover every 20 minutes. After the time has passed, the soil will receive 20 to 40 nutrition points automatically. Considering a soil with 0 nutrition, it would take from 2.5 to 1.25 hours for it to fully regenerate.

Fertilizing

Many kinds of animals leave manure on the ground, which could be used to fertilize a field. This is one way to restore nutrition to your soil. You can use manure, fertilizer, or dung to nourish it. By fertilizing the soil, you will automatically fertilize all the soil in 3x3, around the soil that you have fertilized.

Manure: 10 points of nutrition, Dung: 20 nutrition points, Fertilizer: 60 nutrition points.

The compost bin (10 wood, “economy and production” section) also turns food scraps, plant matter (seeds, some plants) and something unpleasant else into fertilizer. Just place it in the bin and wait for a while. Fertilizer could also be used to refuel ovens etc.

When the soil health is above 80 points, out of a maximum of 150, you can harvest up to two extra products, out of the normal harvest product.

Severe weather

Be aware that blizzards will freeze the plants and kill them. A heatwave, as noted in the Watering section, will cause the crops to consume more water than usual. Sandstorms will also destroy the plants. You can try to cover them during the winter with tents, however, be sure to remove them in spring or they won’t keep growing!

Skill

Every time you make a ploughed field and plant seeds you gain more insight into the business of agriculture. When your farming skill reaches 1.6, examining a plant will, in general terms, tell you whether it has enough water. At 2.2, you will be able to determine the exact water level and nutrition of a plant. At 1.3 or higher skill, you will be able to tell when a plant is sufficiently well nourished to give extra crops.

Biomes and seasons

Different biomes have different plants that could be cultivated in them. Take notice, that some plants grow only in certain seasons. Biome restriction applies only to the largest maps: Continents, Pangea, Europe and New World.

Wet (winter and spring) and dry (summer and fall) seasons apply to the Desert, Savanna and Jungles biomes.

Crop catalogue

The table is sortable - click the headers to sort the column’s contents.

X - grows; O - doesn’t grow.

Crop	Tundra	Taiga	Temperate	Sea	Semi-Arid	Desert	Savanna	Jungle	Season	Max Water Level	Description
Rice	O	O	O	X	O	O	X	X	All	30	Used as food and to make sake.
Apricot	O	O	X	O	O	X	X	X	All	40	Used as food.
Cherry	O	O	X	O	O	X	X	X	All	40	Used as food.
Banana	O	O	O	O	O	O	X	X	All	45	Used as food.
Barley	O	X	X	X	X	O	O	O	Spring, Summer, Fall, Wet	50	Used as food and to make beer.
Beans	O	X	X	X	X	X	X	O	All	50	Used as food.
Cotton	O	O	X	X	X	X	O	O	Spring, Summer, Wet, Dry	50	Used to make cloth.
Oat	X	X	X	X	O	O	O	O	Spring, Summer, Fall, Wet	50	Used as food.
Wheat	X	X	X	X	X	X	O	O	Spring, Summer, Fall, Wet	50	Used to feed cattle, make flour and beer.
Tea	O	O	O	X	X	O	X	X	All	50	Drinkable, used to cure illnesses and treat toxin damage.
Tomato	O	O	X	X	X	X	X	X	Spring, Summer, Wet, Dry	55	Used as food.
Tobacco	O	O	O	O	X	X	X	X	All	55	Used to make cigars and cigarettes.
Mushroom	X	X	X	X	O	O	X	X	Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Wet	55	Used as food. Also, the only crop that grows underground and in caves.
Flax	X	X	X	O	O	O	O	O	All	60	Used to make retted fabric.
Hemp	O	O	O	X	X	X	X	X	Spring, Summer, Fall, Wet, Dry	60	Used to make rope, retted fabric and joints.
Sugarcane	O	O	O	X	O	O	X	X	All	60	Used to make sugar.
Grapes	O	O	X	X	X	X	O	O	Spring, Summer, Fall, Wet, Dry	65	Used as food and to make wine.
Corn	O	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	Spring, Summer, Wet, Dry	70	Used as food.
Cabbage	X	X	X	X	X	O	O	O	All	70	Used as food.
Olives	O	O	X	X	X	X	O	O	All	70	Used as food and to make olive oil.
Carrot	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	All	75	Used as food.
Potato	O	X	X	O	X	O	O	O	All	75	Used as food and to make vodka.
Poppy	O	O	O	O	O	X	X	X	All	75	A painkiller.
Lime	O	O	X	X	X	X	O	X	All	75	Used as food.
Lemon	O	O	X	X	X	X	O	X	All	75	Used as food.
Apple	X	X	X	X	X	O	O	O	All	75	Used as food.
Orange	O	O	X	X	X	X	O	X	All	75	Used as food.
Coca	O	O	O	O	O	O	X	X	All	75	Used to make cocaine.
Bamboo	O	O	O	X	O	O	O	X	Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Wet	80	A construction material.
Coffee	O	O	O	O	X	X	X	X	All	80	A stimulant, temporarily increase movement speed.
Tree	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	Spring, Summer, Fall, Wet, Dry	80	Cultivated to obtain wood.
Melon	O	O	O	O	X	X	O	X	Spring, Summer, Wet	90	Used as food.
Pumpkin	X	X	X	O	O	O	O	O	All	90	Used as food.
Peyote	O	O	O	O	O	X	O	O	All	100	A painkiller, slowly heals brain damage.
Coconut	O	O	O	X	O	O	O	X	All	100	Used as food.