Agriculture

Agriculture allows one to use the "Till Field" action under the Build menu. A tilled field is required to plant any seeds.

Farming:

Farming is accomplished by the general task of tilling a field, preparing it with Humus, and then planting seeds. Once seeds are planted, you can then fertilize the fields using various items. After a period of time, your crops grow and you can then harvest them. Currently, Cabbage, Cereals, and Cotton seeds available for sale in Boston. Pumpkin seeds can be obtained through Gardening.

Preparing the field for planting requires a base of 5 Humus. After the first planting, a fields upkeep can be improved (see Fertilizers below). Setting up the very first fields for a new character takes some forethought. Humus is slow to produce in a single Compost Bin, so it is recommended two or more are built to start. (Humus is a good fertilizer and a player will go through a lot of it once farming gets underway.)

After the fields are prepared, the seeds can be planted. Each field requires an amount of seed depending on the crop planted. Having improved upkeep on the field lowers the number of seeds needed. Cotton and Grain fields require 50 seeds; Cabbage requires 25 seeds.

Once the seeds are planted, the fields can be fertilized at will up until the crops are fully grown. The only caution when using fertilizer is to avoid using +speed fertilizers late in the cycle. There is almost no return for getting a few extra percentage to the speed when there might only be a few hours left for the field to grow.

Finally, when the crops are fully grown, they can be harvested. Note that in the section on pumpkins that they can be harvested at any time once they start growing (in other words, they've grown at least one stage after planting).

Crop Growth and Rotation:

In this image, the 0th meter has about 5%. The other meters are empty.
The upkeep has been reduced to 50%, meaning 50% less humus and seed will be required to replant this field.

From Jorb (Brother Bean@Paradox/Beanieman@SynIRC.net#Salem):

"The crops use the following meters:

takes from -> gives to

Cabbage: 2,3 -> 0
Cereals: 3,0 -> 1
Cotton: 0,1 -> 2
Pumpkin: 1,2 -> 3

The idea here is obviously that you need to rotate your crops over your various fields, and fertilize them in an intelligent manner, in order to build up their meters and thus reach the higher output tiers. For example to reach higher tier of cereal you would need to build up meters it takes from 3 and 0, so you might rotate cabbage and cotton beforehand."

Crops will produce new types as the influence gets high enough. The following is a table of the various tiers of crops (order of tiers are as given by the devs).

Plant Type	Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4
seeds of Cotton	Yellow-Stained Cotton	Indian Cotton	Egyptian Cotton	Sea Island Cotton
seeds of Cereal	Ear of Oats	Ear of Rye	Ear of Barely	Ear of Wheat
seeds of Cabbage	Colewort	Green Cabbage	White Cabbage	Red Cabbage
seeds of Pumpkin	?	?	?	?

Pumpkins:

Here's the list of special cases for pumpkins:

Game Development: 12 varieties of Pumpkin

Postby jorb » Tue Jan 31, 2012 4:14 am

New world gourds can now be planted in gardening pots.

New world gourds are harvested as either (determined randomly).

"Baby Bear", "Red Bell Peppers" or "Green Bell Peppers".

"Baby Bear" can be sliced for pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin seeds can be planted in fields.

Pumpkins can be harvested in any one of the last three growth stages. The tier of the output is determined by the normal influence mechanics, but are also dependent on the growth stage.

Growth stage one: "Baby Bear", "Small Sugar", "Sugar Treat" and "Spooktacular" Growth stage two: "Autumn Gold", "Bushkin", "Harvest Moon" and "Jack-o-Lantern" Growth stage three: "Aspen", "Big Autumn", "Connecticut Field" and "Ghost Rider"

Spooktacular, Jack-o-Lantern and Ghost Rider are curios. All pumpkins can be sliced for generic pumpkin flesh and seeds.

All pumpkins in growth stage one can be replanted in gardening pots.

Fertilizers & Field Values:

Several items can be used as fertilizers and different fertilizers have different effects on your fields.

• Hay: Increases the influence the crop has on the field
• Wood Choppings: Decreases the upkeep needed on fields
• Lime: Increases plenty
• Humus: Increases influence and plenty
• Coal: Increases growth speed.
• Clay: Improves influence, penalizes growth speed
• Dross: Improves speed, penalizes plenty

Influence: This increases the amount that crop adds to the positive growth meter.

Plenty: Increases field output

Upkeep: Reduces the number of seeds needed to replant the field.

Speed: Improved crop growing time.

Fertilizer Type	Upkeep	Planty	Speed	Influence
Hay	-	-	-	▲(Crop)
Wood Choppings	▽?	-	-	-
Lime	-	▲	-	-
Humus	-	▲	-	▲
Coal	-	-	▲	-
Clay	-	-	▽	▲
Dross	-	▽	▲	-

Each value has a specific effect on the field:

• Upkeep: This reduces the amount of Humus needed to prepare a field as well as reduces the amount of seeds needed to replant the field. This value caps at 50%
• Plenty: This value increases the yield of a field when harvested. Currently, planting a field provides a random amount plenty from 0% to a percentage equal to the planter's Stocks & Cultivars/100.
• Speed: This value reduces the growth time of the field. Currently, the field advances one stage every 24 hours and may be harvested after four days after planting.
• Influence: This value increases the amount of gain of the four output meters.

After a field is harvested, all fertilizers are reset and each field loses 5% upkeep. For example, if I keep my field at 50% upkeep each time I plant them, when I replant, they will then lose upkeep value and then be at 55% upkeep.

Finally, the more fertilizers used on a field, the less effective the next one becomes. Each fertilizer counts as one, so a Wood Chopping, a Coal, a Humus, and a Clay counts as four fertilizers, which would be the same reduction as using four Humus. (Note: the exact calculation isn't know

Seeds:

Seeds for plants are recovered in various ways depending on the plant. As a note, each crop unit provides a maximum number of seeds based on the crop type. That number can be lower and one of them almost always have less than the maximum because.

Grains need to be winnowed for seeds. This is done with the (insert command) command. This destroys the ears of grain, though, so you can either get seed or grind in a windmill for flour.

Cotton seed is included in the boll. In order to get seed, use the Clean Cotton command in the craft menu. This will return a ball of cotton and some seed.

Cabbage produces a seed stalk. When the cabbage field is harvested, you get several heads of cabbage and a seed stalk. Simply place the seed stalk in the container and wait 48 hours for it to dry to collect the seeds.

Pumpkin seeds can be obtained from any pumpkin by slicing it. Slicing produces X seeds per pumpkin as well as pumpkin flesh (which can then be eaten or cooked with... pending recipes added).

Notes:

I'd like to improve this with screen shots and actual examples. This is going to be one area that may be a challenge.