Farm Station and greenhouse, help needed.

[Nanako]

Here's my greenhouse: https://i.imgur.com/r5n7ih3.jpg
It has a farm station, it has lots of hydroponic tiles, it is of the right size. Every plot is currently growing mealroot. The hydroponic tiles are supplied with water (but not using it), the farm station is by the door

Just outside that door is a storage container which contains dirt and fertilizer
https://i.imgur.com/ngSSIZD.jpg

There is only one farmer in he colony who maintains this facility:
https://i.imgur.com/3aU58WZ.png

His name is farmer, his job is farmer, his skills are farming
https://i.imgur.com/UkiCucM.png

A little dystopian i know, but we're struggling for survival, names are a luxury. I just name people after their job.
Anyways my problem is thus: The farming station is being entirely ignored. This guy refuses to operate it and make special fertilizer in it.
I badly need special fertilizer because i have a food shortage people are starving

Once all the crops are tended this farmer just runs off and builds things, or does some other useless not-farming job. He has one job and i just want him to do it.
Why is the farm station not working?

----------------------

And on a related note, mealroot is all i really know how to grow, but i would like some advice for growing other things. I have access to bristle berries, but the light requirement for them seems like a hassle.

I also have mushrooms and pincha pepperplants, but the atmosphere requirements for those seem like even more hastle.

Can anyone recommend on good greenhouse layouts to make these crops work?
Bristle berries for example, will be the easiest one. How can i lay things out to make maximal use of a single light source, and thus minimise power costs. Is it possible to make a max-sized greenhouse with a single light? Can bristle berries grow sideways or downwards?

any advice is appreciated!

[df1307]

Don't use 2 floors installation. Ladder climbing is very time-costly.
Keep door open permanently.
Pump O2 to meet atmosphere requeirement.
Use cell lamps.

My current farm room
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1396105830

[Nanako]

Originally posted by df1307:

Don't use 2 floors installation. Ladder climbing is very time-costly.
Keep door open permanently.
Pump O2 to meet atmosphere requeirement.
Use cell lamps.

My current farm room
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1396105830

what is that quadruple airlock abomination?

And all those lights seem horribly inefficient. Isn't there some design with the light on a high ceiling to maximise the area of the light cone at the bottom? Can lights shine through mesh floors perhaps?

[Hoki]

Originally posted by Nanako =^.^=:

what is that quadruple airlock abomination?

a purely mechanical airlock with internal gas destruction.

4 doors guarantee that there is always at least 1 door closed when 1 dupe is passing (no guarantee for multiple dupes at ones). having one door closed prevents pressure evening out between both sides (only the 6 tiles of the opened lock are pressured).

the 2 horizontal doors in the middle destroy any leftover gas once the airlock has been used. (vertical doors would push the gas through as the dupe passes through)

its not a perfect airlock but the best requiring no energy right after liquid airlocks (using liquids to seperate 2 areas)

[leaderdog]

The lights are only 10 watts so it hardly hurts your overall energy bill. The heat can add up, but a wheezewort is enough to temper that. But I thought as you do, I put my light high up, and I use farm tiles, I gave up on irrigated tiles, I have enough dups that they just deal with delivering water. That ended the non-moving water in the pipes heating the base problem.

My med bays are set above the awkward shaped farm rooms to maximize ussage. You could put whatever, storage, bedrooms anything in place if you wanted.

You can get 11 workable berry plants with the light being, 7 tiles up, I believe. It has to an awkward shaped room because of the allowable number of tiles for a farm. Take a look at my profile, there are pics of my previous 2 bases in there.

Although, it is hard to see because I did a zoom out to show my entire map.

[Nanako]

Originally posted by rpierce:

The lights are only 10 watts so it hardly hurts your overall energy bill. The heat can add up, but a wheezewort is enough to temper that. But I thought as you do, I put my light high up, and I use farm tiles, I gave up on irrigated tiles, I have enough dups that they just deal with delivering water. That ended the non-moving water in the pipes heating the base problem.

My med bays are set above the awkward shaped farm rooms to maximize ussage. You could put whatever, storage, bedrooms anything in place if you wanted.

You can get 11 workable berry plants with the light being, 7 tiles up, I believe. It has to an awkward shaped room because of the allowable number of tiles for a farm. Take a look at my profile, there are pics of my previous 2 bases in there.

Although, it is hard to see because I did a zoom out to show my entire map.

can you post a picture of your setup?

also does anyone know why my farm station isnt operating?

[Elidrin]

Your out of Fertilizer.

[leaderdog]

Here's the link to the 7 high 11 wide farm room.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/914674151665509094/1764A0A546C7C871BE0DA7A1EE1F673F30DB0006/

Took a bit of messing to fit in farm size room restrictions.

Apparently, I only did 5 high and 7 wide tiles in my current game. Not sure why I changed it to that, I think it was because I wanted room for my experimental slime -> o2 experiment.

[df1307]

Originally posted by Elidrin:

Your out of Fertilizer.

Me? ik. I'll make fertilization from this water in near future

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1393404322

[Nanako]

Originally posted by rpierce:

The lights are only 10 watts so it hardly hurts your overall energy bill. The heat can add up, but a wheezewort is enough to temper that. But I thought as you do, I put my light high up, and I use farm tiles, I gave up on irrigated tiles, I have enough dups that they just deal with delivering water. That ended the non-moving water in the pipes heating the base problem.

My med bays are set above the awkward shaped farm rooms to maximize ussage. You could put whatever, storage, bedrooms anything in place if you wanted.

You can get 11 workable berry plants with the light being, 7 tiles up, I believe. It has to an awkward shaped room because of the allowable number of tiles for a farm. Take a look at my profile, there are pics of my previous 2 bases in there.

Although, it is hard to see because I did a zoom out to show my entire map.

please post a picture!

also does anyone know why the farm station won't work?

[df1307]

Originally posted by Nanako =^.^=:

also does anyone know why my farm station isnt operating?

Make screenshots of your 'priorities' and 'consumables' table

[Nanako]

welp farm station works now, but only in my newly built bristle farm. I guess mealroot just cant be fertilized?

[Nanako]

I figured out some magic
https://i.imgur.com/lhsHsvL.jpg

Lights can shine down through airflow tiles. So i've made a greenhouse which is mostly 2 tiles high. A single ceiling light provides illumination for up to 10 bristle plots laid out in a row like this.
This leaves me a nice illluminated space above, which i'll use for a hatch ranch or somesuch

[df1307]

Originally posted by Nanako =^.^=:

Lights can shine down through airflow tiles. So i've made a greenhouse which is mostly 2 tiles high.

Cool, you found new way to light farms. I've never seen this in guides.

[leaderdog]

Nice, that's a smart way to do it and keep the heat out.

[ghostrider]

i think farm station only works on crops that can be irrigated with water (bristle blossoms, pincha peppers, and thimble reeds, but not dusk caps)