Plants do not produce seeds and trees do not produce saplings

[Didz]

I keep running out of seeds and saplings despite the fact that according to the information in the farming zones every plant should produce at least one seed and every tree at least one sapling. So, once you begin farming the crops should be self-sustaining but they aren't.

I've even tried letting some of my crops deliberately 'Go To Seed' which should result in 10 x seeds per plant but I'm still not getting any.

Has anyone else noticed this or am I doing something really stupid?

[galadon3]

Now the amount they show are when the harvest goes well, settlers can fail the harvest (ofc loosing all) and they can harvest less then the amount thats shown (usually happens with ppl who have rather low biology skill).
That said, it would explain why you LOOSE seeds but even with that, if a going to seed-crop is harvested (so not failed) there should be seeds.

Now the question is, do you not get ANY seeds? Or do the settlers directly use those they get to replant and you just dont get any in the storage?

If its the former you should have run out of seeds after the first harvest and your fields stay empty.
If its the latter you would have less and less plants, since you loose every seed-harvest-cycle

[Didz]

It's hard to tell.

For example I purchased 17 x Carrot Seeds and about the same number of Beets from a merchant and I basically got just one crop and that was it, So, perhaps my guys are just really bad farmers.

The managed forests only seem to get replaced when I cut down wild trees. So, that seems to be producing saplings at least

I'll post a screenshot next time I'm in the game.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3130532124
This is a screenshot of the situation at the end of my first winter.

There is a small patch of beetroot closest to the camera (About 6/7 Plants) that I'm desperately trying to let 'Go to Seed' in the hope of gaining something to plant.

The two Carrot fields only produced one crop and are now barren. As are the Cabbages

The animals are all hungry as I can't produce any animal feed to feed them.

I suspect unless another merchant turns up my whole settlement will starve to death before next winter.

The only fields with any growth at all are the Flax Pastures but you can't eat flax.

[galadon3]

With trees its kinda normal since they only produce one sappling at best, so basically every failed harvest is a loss, but they tend to seed out around the field by themselves.
So if you make an apple orchard, leave free soil around it.
Some new apple trees you don't need to plant will spring there and you can cut them every now and then for sapplings.

[Didz]

Actually, I've just planted three Apple Tree's, So fingers crossed.

[Didz]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3130544516

Spring has sprung but its too late I think half my goats have starved to death due to a complete lack of vegetables for Animal Feed adn unless a merchant turns up like RIGHT NOW I think I'm stuffed.

[Didz]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3130548168
I give up.

What a total waste of my time.

[Didz]

I'd been growing crops all year. But hardly got any seeds.

However the idea of releasing the animals to fend for themselves sounds interesting but risky. I bought two chickens from the last merchant two visit and within hours the hen had been eaten by a fox. Not sure how the goats will fare against the wolves. Plus the only bushes out there are Ivy as far as I can tell. Can animals eat Ivy?

The hay ran out on the map really quickly and I never got any barley seeds.

Whats really lacking are some decent guides and tutorials though. I'm trying to learn from stuff that's two or three years old and even the research tree doesn't match anymore,

[Didz]

I've been forced to abandon my game as the shortage of seeds left my settlement with no vegetables to eat and led to my animal herds starving to death. There was no way to recover as I was not keeping a history of saved games and the settlement was obviously heading for a death spiral.

I think that the lesson learned is two fold:

    
1. Only plant crops in the Spring Season.
   I didn't realise the game was that finicky as the tutorials I read didn't mention this as being important.
       
2. Only use skilled botanists to tend plants.
   As apparently amateur botanists lose the seeds more often when harvesting.
       
3. Never interfere in the automatic planting cycle.
   I was not aware this was an issue and so had been telling my settlers to harvest crops manually on a daily basis. Which apparently wastes seeds.

I've calmed down a bit now and may try again when I feel more confident I understand the way the game works. I just wish someone had produced a decent tutorial I could watch,

[Didz]

Actually I managed to find an autosave in from Day 9 of Winter before the starvation cycle begun so I'm trying to prepare and survive the winter now.

[Didz]

Originally posted by Morbious:

so load a previous night open the gates and they'll run to the nearest food source

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3131004921
The starvation cycle has started so I've taken your advice and opened the animal pens.

Just to clarify is it necessary:

    
• Just to open the pens and let them wander freely?
      
• Or, do they actually need to be released into the wild?    

I've done the latter and released them into the wild figuring if they survive I can rodeo them up in the spring when I have some Animal Feed.

The goats made straight for my crop fields and began eating flax, which hopefully won't kill them.

BTW: Do you have a screenshot of one of your animal pens with the covered feeding/sleeping area you mentioned?

[galadon3]

Plant barley, it has a lot of advantages over vegetables:
A) barley doesn't use seeds, its re-planted from barley, so you just have to make sure you don't use it all up in the kitchen (I usually forbid them to use barley in the automated cooking orders and just sometimes in winter order them to bake a number of breads)
B) barley produces hay in big amounts. Except for chickens all farm animals can be fed on hay, wich has the added benefit of not needing time of a cook.
C) barley is pretty resistent to rot, usually putting it in shelfs in a level one cellar already makes it to never rot.
If you time it right you can actually get two harvests out of barley, but its a bit delicate you basically have to do the planting by the last day of winter and the settlers may not be taking too long for harvest and re-planting. Also the weather plays a role since bad weather means the plants grow less in the day, wich means a lot of bad weather can basically steal away days of growth.
So if you want to play it save do just one harvest in a year, planting in spring.

Vegetables can get several growth cycles done in a year, depends on how long they actually take. The info it gives ofc is relative because of weather conditions slowing it down.
What I usually do is make 1 or 2 fields of 20 tiles with the standard setting to harvest the actual vegetable and a smaller 6-12 field where I have set it to be harvested when they already go to seed.

[Kaelroth]

Just an fyi... chickens absolutely eat hay. I never give them animal feed and I've seen them eat hay from troughs.

[Didz]

Well as I say I noticed my goats eating Flax so it doesn't surprise me.

How do you design your animal pens?
What sort of cover do you provide?

[Zeion]

FYI: You can make your plant grow in winter (but not in cold snap) by using Brazier and you will never be need to manual the field again.

[polterchrist]

You could also invest in researching beekeeping which is what I do, my settlers live off that basically alone and honey/beeswax is an amazing thing to trade to merchants. (keep in mind they don't produce in winter but if you get them started by summer you'll have more than enough to keep feeding the settlers) Make sure you make it into meals and don't have them eat it raw. I usually run about 10 skeps in my settlements and it will flood you with food. You will need a lot of storage space with shelves preferably.

As for animals there's hay all over the map for them, (again not in winter) make a stockpile in their pen for the hay and use stick flooring to cover the ground and top of the stockpile. Also make sure they have a trough with it set to high priority so they keep it filled. Harvesting wild barley will also get you hay. If you're that low on hay just open the pen and let them wander to eat bushes and things around. I imagine you still have several of those around your settlement taking up space, I always do.

Cartography for trading is also something that will help with your seed problem.

This is an amazing game once you get used to it, don't give up so quickly.