Farming

Farming is good means to get a secondary source of food, in case you run out of wildlife (or just want some blueberries to ferment them into vinegar for batteries). Its still a Work-In-Progress (though there has been major improvements, farming cannot be relied on as a primary source for food). This is a guide provides some basic steps (along with pictures) for players who are new to this feature to start.

Get dirt mounds

You can find some dirt mounds at a farm, be wary of zombie dogs if you're vising the farm for the first time. Clear the farm first then look around for some tools, if the farm has some farming tools or seeds then you can start right there.

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/412/9fhm.png

Or create your own with a hoe by applying it.

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/3395/2zve.png

A hoe requires metalworking tools and is hard to craft (if you want then you can craft it using 8 chunk of steel/24 scrap metal with a hammer, aluminium tongs, anvil, crucible and electric forge/charcoal forge/acetylene torch but its much easier to find one than actually craft it yourself). If you don't have a hoe then consider using a digging implement (such as a shovel) to Till soil. Tilling the soil requires a tool with digging of 1 or more, a stone shovel can be easily crafted at construction(1) and survival(2) using a heavy stick or a two by four, 1 rock or 1 ceramic shard and 2 small string or 40 sinew or 40 thread or 40 plant fibre.

If you don't have the required skill levels and still want to attempt farming then you can easily craft a digging stick, using a heavy stick (which can be obtained by smashing young trees) at survival 1.

http://i.imgur.com/ojwjDzC.png

To till the soil using a digging implement, press the key for construction menu (as of version 0.B "Brin", '*' is the default key for construction menu), then select the "Till Soil" option to create a dirt mound adjacent to yourself.

http://i.imgur.com/4QV1DR9.png

Its simple and easy to create dirt mounds this way, if you don't have a hoe handy.

Plant seeds in dirt

Seeds cannot be planted in winter. Once planted you'll not be able to retrieve them until they're fully matured, once they're fully matured you'll be able to get the fruit and seeds by examining them. You can get some seeds to start by foraging (examine underbrush), blueberry and strawberry bushes can be easily found in underbrush, present in open fields.

examine dirt mounts with the seeds for the said plant in your inventory.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/8412/vzew.png

Your dirt mounds become planted seeds.

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/7604/158b.png

Fertilize the Plants

(This step is optional. Fertilized Seeds will grow faster!)

Liquid fertilizer can be easily found (it may be on the farm itself), but you may have to craft it. It requires a cooking skill of 3 and survival skill of 2. If you've these skills then you can craft it using 1 water or 1 clean water, 2 bone meals, 1 chitin powder and 1 ammonia or 100 lye powder. Chitin powder can be ground from chunk of chitin using a quern, ammonia is commonly found in gallon jugs in most houses, bone meal can be created from bones using a quern.

http://i.imgur.com/O6aClps.png

Fertilize your seeds, but don't activate the plant food (activating or Eating the substance can prove harmful, don't do it!).

http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/9291/6wzo.png

examine a seed with some liquid fertilizer in your inventory.

http://imageshack.us/a/img823/382/7ef5.png

Plants will get a fertilized token, in 0.9 there is a bug where it does not stay on the plant: this is fixed in current experimental build as of 12/2/13.

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/7328/xmpc.png

Wait

Travel into the future and examine your plants to harvest them, but make sure you are ready to eat/use them because it will spawn items that can rot as soon as you harvest; the plant will not grow in a day, be ready for a whole season for them to grow.

http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/2685/xg6x.png

In fact, I am sure they cannot grow if you wait in the same place for days. Some part of the code must require that the tile be unloaded as you walk away and compare it to time passed as it phases back into reality in order to grow. Saving and quitting can accomplish this.