How to avoid crop failure???

[Krashing]

I am having issues with crop failure. I dont know how to avoid it? I cant seem to get the production/consumtion ratio to a net +ve.

Thanks

[ErynnSilver]

Crop failure is more likely if your farms are understaffed, for instance just having one or two people working them. I'd set farms higher priority if i was struggling with food.
They are inevitable if your dome looses power or water during their cycle.
In farms, they'll also occur if your firtility is low and you should make use of firtility increasing crops in your rotation (like soybeans).

Any of that actually helpful?

[Astasia]

Hydroponics will fail constantly if they aren't fully staffed. I've never seen a farm have a crop failure though, and fungus farms don't have crops it's just constant food. Honestly hydroponics seems like they are totally garbage, I don't know if there are any later techs or breakthroughs that make them useful. A farm set to potatoes and soybeans produces more food in the same amount of space with less staff while providing +10 comfort to the colony.

[KhalunQalli]

Originally posted by Astasia:

Hydroponics will fail constantly if they aren't fully staffed. I've never seen a farm have a crop failure though, and fungus farms don't have crops it's just constant food. Honestly hydroponics seems like they are totally garbage, I don't know if there are any later techs or breakthroughs that make them useful. A farm set to potatoes and soybeans produces more food in the same amount of space with less staff while providing +10 comfort to the colony.

Hydroponics actually take up 3/10ths the space of a full farm, but they produce less per hex than a farm. Still, a hydroponics farm with 3 workers can feed your founders until you've cleared the founder stage and bringing in more people to work in a second dome specialized for farming.

Once you have either a farming dome or a medium dome which has enough space for a 10-hex Farm, admittedly the hydroponics farm is a waste of space and inefficent on workers.

Regarding crops in the Farm, I like to start out with a soybeans until the soil quality reaches 100% (or if I've already got the Utility Crops tech, do soybean > cover crops) and then switch to a soybean > potatoes rotation.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by AzureLyrrix:

Hydroponics actually take up 3/10ths the space of a full farm, but they produce less per hex than a farm.

Ya I meant one farm produces more food than 3 hydroponics. On paper I had originally though hydroponics would be better food, since they have high upkeep and require more staff, and I figured 3 hydroponics was probably going to be a lot better than 1 farm, but that's simply not the case. It seems hydroponics are just for very early game food if you don't have farms or fungus farms researched yet. Then again there is probably a breakthrough that makes them amazing.

[lotherius]

This crop failure is a bad loop to be in. I kept having crop failures on my cover crop, so it dropped the soil quality down to 10% which led to more crop failures.

If the root cause is that there aren't enough farmers, then we need a way to tell colonists to stop moving out of the dome to the "fun dome" and stay there and FARM.

[Emmote]

If you're getting failures on a Farm you've probably got an Idiot working there causing it to malfunction.
I've never seen a Farm crop fail, even with only 1 non-spec or off-spec worker and I use them exclusively because they're just better than every other option.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Astasia:

Honestly hydroponics seems like they are totally garbage, I don't know if there are any later techs or breakthroughs that make them useful. A farm set to potatoes and soybeans produces more food in the same amount of space with less staff while providing +10 comfort to the colony.

1. Hydroponics requires no tech to build.
2. Hydroponics can be set to fast producing crops to cover the gaps between farm harvests.
3. Hydroponics is an inside job vs outdoor fungi farm (so gains immunity to outdoor events)
4. What do do with left over 3 hex space?
5. It still produces oxygen.
6. The job slots count towards training botanists at academies to have spares.
7. You try keeping 3000 colonists employed.

[baddoggs]

Originally posted by Bored Peon:

Originally posted by Astasia:

Honestly hydroponics seems like they are totally garbage, I don't know if there are any later techs or breakthroughs that make them useful. A farm set to potatoes and soybeans produces more food in the same amount of space with less staff while providing +10 comfort to the colony.

1. Hydroponics requires no tech to build.
2. Hydroponics can be set to fast producing crops to cover the gaps between farm harvests.
3. Hydroponics is an inside job vs outdoor fungi farm (so gains immunity to outdoor events)
4. What do do with left over 3 hex space?
5. It still produces oxygen.
6. The job slots count towards training botanists at academies to have spares.
7. You try keeping 3000 colonists employed.

Yep, that about covers it.... End of story...
Move on. Nothing more to see here.

[ExavierMacbeth]

There is a stat about half way down in the farm details window for building efficiency/productivity or something like that. I have found that has to stay above 50 for the entire growth cycle to have a successful harvest. Generally I can do this with 1 really good Botanist or 2 normal botanists (no harmful flaws). And of course keep an eye on the soil quality.

I have found that setting my Farm to full priority & then limiting the number of worker slots will eventually get any Botanists in those slots & keep them there. Setting the dome filter to prefer botanists (thumbs up) will keep any in the dome from leaving for a better dome if they have a job already... usually :P

[Uncle_Bulgaria]

Originally posted by AzureLyrrix:

Originally posted by Astasia:

Hydroponics will fail constantly if they aren't fully staffed. I've never seen a farm have a crop failure though, and fungus farms don't have crops it's just constant food. Honestly hydroponics seems like they are totally garbage, I don't know if there are any later techs or breakthroughs that make them useful. A farm set to potatoes and soybeans produces more food in the same amount of space with less staff while providing +10 comfort to the colony.

Hydroponics actually take up 3/10ths the space of a full farm, but they produce less per hex than a farm. Still, a hydroponics farm with 3 workers can feed your founders until you've cleared the founder stage and bringing in more people to work in a second dome specialized for farming.

Once you have either a farming dome or a medium dome which has enough space for a 10-hex Farm, admittedly the hydroponics farm is a waste of space and inefficent on workers.

Regarding crops in the Farm, I like to start out with a soybeans until the soil quality reaches 100% (or if I've already got the Utility Crops tech, do soybean > cover crops) and then switch to a soybean > potatoes rotation.

I go with similar but sometimes you get lucky and research farms before I call for the first passenger shuttle then I don't bother with hydroponics as they fail all the time.

If I haven't got farms then one hydroponic building for the first dome then replaced as a dedicated farming dome with 2 farms. 2 well staffed farms can support a pretty decent number of people.

For crop rotation I go with soy beans - soy beans - potatoes on rotation, this will improve the soil from the starting 50% and get it up to 100 without it ever going below 90%.

I've found building a "breeder" dome (basically a very plush dome that doesn't do any "work") with the Martian University as early as possible has worked well. I find that the shuttles quite often run low on botanists so I bring a whole shuttle of non-specialists and feed them through the university.