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). It's 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.
Or create your own with a hoe by applying it.
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, aluminum tongs, anvil, crucible and electric forge/charcoal forge/acetylene torch but it's 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 , '*' 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
It's simple and easy to create dirt mounds using this way, if you don't have a hoe handy.
This's where th' seeds live! Git you some!
Where do you get seeds you ask? Some can be found while harvesting, harvesting a strawberry bush in the right season also gives you some seeds.
For others you will need to forage your first specimen (or more), and use the crafting menu & to get the seeds out of the plant. Which will destroy your specimen.
Some you can only find while exploring and looting ... ahum foraging ... the now infested buildings. Like a home improvement superstore, or a farm.
And last but not least, every time you harvest a completed plant you planted, you will get one seed from the type of plant you put in. And sometimes even more. (It is unknown if you you can fail to get a seed right now).
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.
Once you have some, examine dirt mounds with the seeds for the said plant in your inventory. You'll get a prompt if you have more than one type, asking which to use.
Your dirt mounds become planted seeds.
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, or in a garden supply store), 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 and 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!).
Instead, examine a seed with some liquid fertilizer in your inventory.
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.
Plants can be fertilized once at every stage of growth (seed, seedling, and mature) for cumulative effect.
Wait
The plants will not grow in a day. The entire growth cycle takes 21 days, on default season length. (On non-default lengths, this seems to work out to 150% your season length, but your mileage may vary, as grow times during long seasons are fairly buggy as of 0.A.) However, they won't grow at all if you wait nearby. Some part of the code requires the tile to be unloaded as you walk away and compare it to time passed as it phases back into the reality bubble in order to grow. Saving and quitting can easily accomplish this, as can a quick hop down some stairs and back.
You will know when they are done by their appearance (bright green #), and their description tag (harvestable plant). Once they are ready, examine your plants to harvest them.
You will probably get one seed, several of the planted plants, and some withered plants as well.
Make sure you are ready to eat/use any perishables, because the spawned items will start to go to rot as soon as they are harvested. Congratulations! You've just farmed your first homegrown produce. Again, this system is really not complete enough to fully sustain a character, but it can be a nice augmentation to your food supply, at the very least.
Powered Farming
In the most recent experimental you can find and build farm equipment that plows, seeds, and harvests respectively. There is no fertilizer attachment for vehicles and the chemical sprayer doesn't accept liquid fertilizer.
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