Potato farming -- what am I doing wrong?

[tryonedustbiter]

I picked up the potato seeder and planted a new field. I found that I had to cultivate it first so I did, and then planted (the seeder doesn't hold enough for a 3 ha field). I also used the fertilizer sprayer on the newly planted field.

The field showed up as planted, growing and ready for harvest as normal, so I bought the bigger potato harvester as that was labeled as doing everything I needed to harvest potatoes.

I ran it over to the field and hired a worker. The machine fired up and went about four feet and stopped. There was nothing harvested. I hired another worker with the same effect.

I then had the brilliant idea that I needed the "topper" first and bought that to run over the field. There was no visible effect whatsoever. I again tried the harvester with the same results. I also bought the smaller harvester with the thought that maybe the bigger one was bugged.

I cannot harvest my potatoes at all.

Any ideas?

[Maiteria]

Press I and check the growth types map, see if it's actually potatoes and not sugar beets.
Also check your equipment that you didn't get the beet harvesters and not the potato harvesters.

[tryonedustbiter]

thank you for replying but:

potato seeders won't plant sugar beets, you need either the largest sower or the corn seeder for beets.

also the plants look completely different when growing.

with that said however, I didn't try the beet harvester and maybe I should have.

[Maiteria]

Yeah, I am very well aware of those things. But sometimes it's those kinds of questions that needs asking / answered, to find out what's going on. (You'd be surprised how often it's the simple things :-) )

If you indeed used the potato planters, and bought the potato harvesters - there should be no need at all to try the beet harvester. Which also brings me to saying: No clue what's going on.

(Edit: Just threw the TECTRON on a field of some ready potatoes, and it harvested just fine :/ )

[Willow Rivers]

Also go bit farther into the field and try it. In my game sometimes a corner patch of a field willl bug out and not be able to be harvested. This drove me nuts until I figured out the problem.

[PKNecron]

From what I understand only the Tectron 415 works with hired help. The other quipment is bugged for workers.

[tryonedustbiter]

Originally posted by TT Bixillarla PT:

Also go bit farther into the field and try it. In my game sometimes a corner patch of a field willl bug out and not be able to be harvested. This drove me nuts until I figured out the problem.

I should have tried that .. I did run along the edge about 1/3 of the field length so that should have been enough to get out of a bugged spot. Apparently not though... maybe the whole edge was bugged .. I've already plowed the pototoes under and planted corn there, so maybe I'll try again later (sold my equipment too).

[tryonedustbiter]

Originally posted by PKNecron:

From what I understand only the Tectron 415 works with hired help. The other quipment is bugged for workers.

The 415 is the one I was trying to use. I also tried the SE 260 (?) -- there are two potato harvesters on the un-modded menu the 415 is the bigger one, I tried both (waste of money) -- with no better luck. I also tried to run it manually as well as hiring a worker.

[band1c]

Are you sure your potatoes ready to harvest? Potatoes grows longer than other crops. Check growth state map. Is your field still dark blue?

[tryonedustbiter]

Originally posted by band1c:

Are you sure your potatoes ready to harvest? Potatoes grows longer than other crops. Check growth state map. Is your field still dark blue?

Growth state map showed beige indicating that it should have been ready to harvest. When I cycled through my equipment to find the potato harvester (which I left standing near that field), the crops were also beige/tan suggesting they were ready.

[Maiteria]

Could you zip up the savegame and share it through Dropbox or a similar service?
If you want more eyes on the problem, to see if it's at all possible to figure out, or if it's just some weird bug you've ran into.

[tryonedustbiter]

Originally posted by Maiteria:

Could you zip up the savegame and share it through Dropbox or a similar service?
If you want more eyes on the problem, to see if it's at all possible to figure out, or if it's just some weird bug you've ran into.

I've already saved over that one, tore up the potato field, sold the equipment, and planted something else there. Maybe I'll go back and try it again later, I was just trying to find out if others have had a similar problem...they did.

Thank you for the offer though, and thank you all for reading and replying.

[Maiteria]

Oh okay, sorry if I missed you saying that part before :-)

[TwinShadow]

Believe it or not, Potatoes and Beets are the only two crops that actually is a two-step harvest. If you don't use the TECTRON (I do for simplicities sake), you must first purchase something to remove the tops of the crops. That's why there are two different "Ready for Harvest" in the Overview screen. One is to remove tops (a real dark blue), then you have the normal green.

Once the tops are removed, then you're able to harvest like normal.