Do I still need crop rotation with fertilizers?

[captainamaziiing]

I'm still figuring out just how farms work. If I have fertilizers, do I still need to do a green manure phase to keep my ground fertile? Or can I just grow food in all 4 slots?

[CoyoteTraveller]

First off - you don't need to fill all 4 slots. Your farm always cycles through the slots you've filled in. If you fill in only one slot, it'll keep doing that thing.

Second off - Take a look at the estimated goods/60 on your farm. That'll help you figure out whether or not you still need green manure, and how much fertilizer you'll need to get what you want. (It'll also help you learn that, when using green manure, you usually want 2 crops : 1 manure, depending on what crop.) Adjust your marker for desired fertility and it'll show you the expected outcome.

To answer the actual question - no, you don't need a green manure phase with fertilizer.

[Wanderer]

You'll generally find you want your farms to end up specialized. Rarely to never do you actually use all 4 slots, as mentioned.

It really depends on how much fertilizer you're producing if it's worth it to have another farm, or just shove more fertilizer at the problem. If you're running low on fertilizer, slap another farm down and use green manure to deal with the single crop/no rotation problem. If you've got too much, kill the manure and let it rip.

Yes, I start with taters/veggies at the opening but that's typically the only dual crop I use. Once you've got high enough population/industry, you just want to make sure you've got everything working without jamming, so you don't want crops stuck on the belt or excess waste.

Many of the later game crops take a while to generate, and you need a lot. Sugar's a good example. It's an industry crop for ethanol, useless, mostly, for food (ignoring cakes).

In the earlier game, don't worry so much about it. Just use taters and veggies since they have different output lanes, don't sweat the manure, and build another farm.

[Peter34]

I never use Green Manure, and as soon as I get Vegetables I start rotating between actual crops, each Farm doing 2 or 3 or maybe 4 in rotation, always different ones, or else something like Potatoes, Veggies, Wheat, Veggies, because I keep finding myself low on Vegetables compared to the others.

I never use Green Manure nor the one I call "Fallow phase". I think they're noob traps, or close to it. If you don't use Fertilizer then you certainly get slightly less per month on average, if you include one of those in the cycle. Maybe if you use Fertilizer, theres a rotation using Manure and/or Fallow that actualy wins out over those not using it. But in general, it's a subsystem lacking in transparency relative to the many other subsystems in the game, and i dislike it.

[Wanderer]

Fallow field is useful for potato only, un-irrigated croplands, as a replacement for green manure. It doesn't require rain but makes sure it has a breather for replenishment in case it's raining just as the crop swaps back. It's useful for very certain setups.

[Peter34]

So Fallow lets rain accumulate? I can see how that might be useful.

[Kaery]

No, what he's saying that if it rains while the crops swap, the farm doesn't immediately start another potato cycle, draining the fertility even more, but instead the fallow lets the fertility recover.

[Peter34]

Okay, thanks.