Grass

[Satcom Wrangler]

How do I force new grass to grow?

Let my chickens get out of hand and now there is a huge grass shortage.

[Mightymow]

you cant force it, the only thing you can do is plant haygrass and use that for animal food.

[Satcom Wrangler]

Originally posted by Beefstaek:

you cant force it, the only thing you can do is plant haygrass and use that for animal food.

Thats what Im doing....

grow lamps help grass?

[muffins]

Grass is a wild plant and will reproduce when a live plant releases a seed (you can actually see them wafting in the wind). Create an animal area and put all your animals in it. They'll only be able to eat the grass in areas that you define, allowing grass elsewhere to recover.

Edit - make sure you have colonists who have growing enabled and have time to do it. Sunlamps let you grow indoors (good for growing during the winter or a toxic fallout)

[poly]

Seeds will blow in automatically. The best you can do is define in animal zone and restrict them to it, and place sun lamps if you really need them so the grass can grow at night. I believe you can grow grass in growing zones so place those in the middle of the bare patch to help them grow.

[muffins]

All plants rest at night. Growing zones are only to tell your colonists where to plant crop plants. They don't affect wild plants except to get all the wild plants (including grass) cleared ready for crop planting

[Cubey]

I would recommend constructing a large area for your chickens to roam in with that being zoned off for just those animals. Then anywhere that is exposed with no roof designate as a growing area for Haygrass.
To speed up the growth of Haygrass (and any other plant) you can either try to get your farm area ontop of Rich Soil which increases the fertility and speed of growth somewhat. Or you can use Sun Lamps to allow 24 hour growing, increasing yeild effectively between 30-40%.
Note: using Sun Lamps outside is dangerous as it requires elecricity and if it rains, it can very quickly cause electrical discharges and damaging equipment. However you can get around this by building a single wall segment next to the lamp, then zone the tile the Sun Lamp is on as a roofed area connected to the wall (only available Alpha14 onwards. Pre A14: build a 3x3 walled section, then once constructed, destroy all but 1 wall to keep the roof)

The advantage of using Haygrass is that any herbivore or omnivore animals set to roam in that growing zone will freely eat directly from the crop when they become hungry without the need for harvesting. Also, if you have any spare yeild after the animals eat the crops, it can be stored in a mini-freezer room attached to the farm area to keep the Haygrass fresh, and animals fed if a blight hits your crops.

If you are really desperate, you can also resort to using Hydroponics tables as they also give a boost to crop growth speed, however these also require power to even function, and light from a Sun Lamp. If you've got the spare resources and space for it, then go ahead. Just remember that Haygrass is completely inedible for humans!

[KatherineOfSky]

Chickens reproduce like crazy. Keep their population controlled. While you're letting your grass grow, (as in suggestions above), I propose that you have a chicken dinner!

[Shad]

Keep only 2 males, in isolated enclosures, away from the females. Only release when you need to.

[Riggs]

Grass is a big issue for me as well, I have 7 caribous, 1 elk, 1 ibex, racoon and a rat. All that herd already consumed all the grass on the map and as I noticed one patch of grass feeds caribou only for about 15-20%. Also hay isn't the option at all. They consumed 2000 units in just 3 days and that is alot! So, I just let my animals roam the kitchen and eat whatever they can find. Works for me at least. :)

[KatherineOfSky]

Originally posted by Riggs:

Grass is a big issue for me as well, I have 7 caribous, 1 elk, 1 ibex, racoon and a rat. All that herd already consumed all the grass on the map and as I noticed one patch of grass feeds caribou only for about 15-20%. Also hay isn't the option at all. They consumed 2000 units in just 3 days and that is alot! So, I just let my animals roam the kitchen and eat whatever they can find. Works for me at least. :)

In tropical biomes, it isn't really an issue because grass grows year-round, and you can just move critters around.

What may help you is creating kibble, which provides a bonus food satisfaction over simple haygrass/grass. (I.e. kibble is worth more than the sum of its parts).