why does my field not allow me to fertilize it?

[elfseeker]

I got the fertilizer, I got the bag, I choose fertilizer and try to spread it...nothing happens. is the 'knowledge' instruction wrong, somehow? what am I missing?

[elfseeker]

cannot fertilize field

when I started the field, I just put some seeds down. nothing happened. could not water them or anything. then I reset it, tried to fertilize, nothing happened, so I just put some more seeds down. trying yet again, I STILL cannot fertilize. for some reason, the system does not acknowledge fertilizer as a 'seed', and thus does not allow me to use it from the bag. weird, right?

[Spotter]

Do you have BAG for Fertilizer?

[Morri]

What are you trying to put the fertilizer on?
If you just created a new field, you first have to grub up the soil with a hoe before you can start fertilizing.
A bit outdated but still accurate for how to work a field: https://guides.gamepressure.com/medieval-dynasty/guide.asp?ID=56111

[Goldi_Toplitz]

My first guess is that it might be an orchard and that could be why it doesn't work. Orchards don't need fertiliser.

[elfseeker]

nay. my second field worked just fine. guess the system got confused when I put the seeds right on the prepared earth without fertilizer, or something. my villagers don't seem to want to work on the fields, though. guess I need to secure a scythe first?

[Morri]

Originally posted by elfseeker:

nay. my second field worked just fine. guess the system got confused when I put the seeds right on the prepared earth without fertilizer, or something.

The system doesn't get confused like that. You probably missed something. When you mouse over a field tile, it clearly shows the state of that tile and what's expected on it as next step.

Originally posted by elfseeker:

my villagers don't seem to want to work on the fields, though. guess I need to secure a scythe first?

You need to do 3 things for that:
- assign a villager to the farm shed
- for grubbing, fertilizing, ploughing and sowing: setup the field management with the crops you eventually want on the field (see "crop management" in the knowledge tab)
- provide them with the tools clearly listed in the farm shed window (hoe for grubbing and ploughing, bag for fertilizing and sowing and sickle or scythe for harvesting grains)

[elfseeker]

TLDR; yes, a scythe is needed. bugger. :) Well then my first field 'forgot' to start with fertilizing and went straight to asking for ploughing. my second field is the only one I recall having asked for fertilization. Guess it's a problem that seeds once sown can only be removed by ploughing, and ploughed earth can't be fertilized? I dunno. I'll tear it down and rebuild them both as one when I can get hold of scythes.

[The REAL chris]

Make sure you have enough fertiilizer and/or relevant seed available as well. That happened to me and took me ages to work it out..

[Morri]

Originally posted by elfseeker:

TLDR;

-.-

Originally posted by elfseeker:

Guess it's a problem that seeds once sown can only be removed by ploughing, and ploughed earth can't be fertilized?

I don't see your problem. Why are you so hell-bent on wanting to fertilize when it's not needed?
A field has 6 stages:
1. completely new and needs grubbing
2. grubbed up and needs fertilizing or harvested and needs fertilizing
3. fertilized and needs ploughing
4. ploughed and needs sowing
5. crops growing
6. crops fully grown and needs harvesting

After you harvested it goes back to stage 2.

[elfseeker]

clearly, it is, and my first field was sowed without it. I ploughed it again, tried to fertilize, bag asked for seeds. would not let me fertilize. so yeah. something went wrong that shouldn't have happened. second field worked, seemingly. so no bother.

[hubbemattsson]

So, likely happend to set an Orchard instead of a field then.

[elfseeker]

nope. even if i had, probably would not have been able to seed it with WHEAT. i was careful with that when i saw there were two types.

[restarter]

I dont think the program got "confused or forgot" lol. I think someone else did and is trying to blame the game

[elfseeker]

that's up to you. all I know is, I put down a field, put down seeds, ploughed it and could not get the fertilizer out of the bag. Then I put down another, and found it would not LET me seed it before fertilizing. so something happened with that first one. no two ways about it. let's put this to bed.

[Morri]

Originally posted by elfseeker:

clearly, it is, and my first field was sowed without it.

You cannot sow a field without ever fertilizing it first. This game is heavily played and bugs or weird stuff are reported very quickly. No one has ever mentioned this before in my 1.5 year of playing, and since you are new to the game, the most logical thing would be that you misremembered. It's not a big deal, it happens.

Originally posted by elfseeker:

I ploughed it again, tried to fertilize, bag asked for seeds. would not let me fertilize.

Ah, but that is normal. If you have a sown field, and you use the hoe on it again, you destroy the seeds or crops already present. But the ground stays ploughed (stage 4 in my previous post) and doesn't need to be fertilized again. So you can indeed then instantly sow again. That way if you made a mistake with planting the wrong crops, you can remove them and try again.