Questions About Farming? A Quick Beginners Guide (Kinda)

[Nacho Bandit]

Alright so I'm not 100% certain if this has been brought up, (it probably has so I'm beating a dead horse at this point in time) but I'm going to put out a little bit of information in regards to farming and running your own shop later on in the game. This is my first guide I've slapped together so bear with me.

So farming...

There has been some confusion as to how you can effectively run the farming plots near your house when you get access to those grounds. For the most part it is fairly simple and straight forward. Depending on what you want to grow and how much will determine what you need to do. For simple farming of regular (no star) or bronze vegitables, you'll want to have the correct plots placed for the type of vegitable. I would recommend starting small because these things too soak up some time and until you can get the hang of it, it will be much easier to maintain and keep in check.

• Each Plot Takes 4 Seeds Each
  
• Some Plants Need Certain Plots or Areas to Grow
  
• Be Sure to Build A Trunk / Storage Box in The Garden

So once you find out what you want to plant, have all the plots put down, and ran around getting all your seeds and stuffs, its time to get started.

HOLD IT!

Some quick information to put out there. After you put in all that work, you will come to a realization of a few things. Your first harvest will be normal, you will not recieve the same amount of seeds you have used, and you're gonna get some stuff called "Crop Waste". Save that stuff.

So, after you harvest your stuff, you'll find out that you can't plant the same amount you had before. What? I gotta go buy more seeds? Is it worth it to farm? Yes, yes it is and I'll tell you why in just a few seconds.


Crop Waste

Crop Waste to the rescue! This stuff will help you maintain your seeds count for a prolonged period of time or in other words, once you harvest, you get all your seeds back from that one plant. Good to know right? Does it work all the time? Pretty damn close. So what can you do with this crop waste? Good question, on to the next part.


Compost Pile

You'll want a few of these to keep up with the demand you'll have for "Peat". Peat is essentially the very first fertilizer you will be able to get your hands on in the game for good reason. It will help keep you planting crops when you're a broke grave keeper. I would recommend building two of these. You'll take your crop waste you get from harvesting your crops, put them in the compost pile, and after a bit you will get 6 peat and 2 maggots. Keep the peat in a trunk along with any excess crop waste you have. The maggots are used in alchemy or a snack that will give you +2 energy for each one you eat. Go nuts buddy.

Back to Farming

Ok I got peat and some more seeds. Now what? Well here is where the simplistic, if not tedious, way of getting your crop growing venture up to speed. Follow these very simple steps to keep your farm rolling for a prolonged periods of time.

1. Make a farming plot
   
2. Place or "Plant" peat on an empty spot
   
3. Plant your seeds you want to grow right after you plant the peat

Seriously thats it. You dont have to wait for anything. As long as you see an hourglass sign off to the left, and a broze star off to the right, you're good. Let me say that again... You. Dont. Have. To. Wait. Plant peat, plant seed. Repeat.

Once you harvest, you'll come to find out that you will end up with the same amount of seeds you used when you first stated planting. Repeat the process of turning crop waste into peat, planting the peat on a plot before you plant your seeds and you should be good. This goes for all of the plants regardless of star rating. Save silver and gold star crops.


Star Quality

So once you start getting the hang of it, you might want to start planting seeds with a star rating. Good on ya. This will help with your store or making money off the tavern keeper by selling him wine. More on that in a min.


No Star Quality

So these are your average crops that are not really good for a whole helluva lot other than crafting average food to give you an energy boost. You can either use them or sell them to the farmer where you originally got your seeds from. Hang on to the carrots as those will be required by the donkey a little further into the game.


Bronze Star

These are the next step up from your regular crops. Same rules apply really, either use or sell to the farmer.


Silver Star

Now these are the ones you're looking for. These quality crops can be sold in your shop when you get to that portion of the game. Or alternatively, you can use them for whatever purpose you would like. I wouldn't recommend selling these to the farmer, hold onto them until you can put them in a crate which can be made in the garden area after you get your shop up and running. Just build a packing table in the garden area, it can only be built under that lean-to.


Gold Star

These can be hard to come by or even harder to produce. Specific type of fertilizer is needed to boost the seed quality if I'm not mistaken. Same rules apply for these crops. You want to put these in a crate and sell them in your shop. Or alternatively, you may need some of these to craft gold star quality food for quests later on so sell or hold on to them. Your call.


So this is gonna be the stopping point on this guide. I'll update it with more information later about the other fertilizers in the game. If there is something in here that is wrong, feel free to point it out and I'll double check on it and correct it. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, lemme know and I'll get back to ya.

[nightowl]

Thanks!

[Eliot_Thib]

I'm just trying to loot the damn crop lmao. How do I do that? Does it just pop out the ground when it's ready? It looks ready now. This Donkey is extorting me!

[Ani Blade]

Originally posted by Eliot_Thib:

I'm just trying to loot the damn crop lmao. How do I do that? Does it just pop out the ground when it's ready? It looks ready now. This Donkey is extorting me!

You need to use the action key on the crops. I think it's E on PC? (It's been a hot minute since I last played). Once you do that, everything falls to the floor (like when you collect berries, mushrooms, etc) and if you have bag space, things will be collected. Otherwise they will sit there until the end of time (like items may start grouping up together if they're close enough).

[Mal Function]

note: this guide is a little out of date, the packing table for the merchant shop is now built in the workyard, its a fixed structure that appears slightly above the garden,

while compost and skills will improve your seed return, you still will be at a small loss, its not until you start using quality fertiliser from either vanilla alchemy, or from the Better Save Soul alternative.

even with silver quality fertiliser, with quality crops (anything with a star) there can be a small loss over time as the seeds upgrade, once you have gold seeds you should be fine, but you will notice a diminishing return on lower tier seeds as they are replaced by the occasional higher tier seed.

and final note, zombies arent great at gardening, even with the gold fertiliser zombie farm, there will be some seed loss over time, by keeping a small seed stock over and above the zombies need, and growing a few crops manually to keep that stock supplied, you can have a self sufficient seed production, and all the crop profit is just that, profit :)

[Nacho Bandit]

It is a bit out of date. Sadly the whole adulting thing has kicked in hard and heavy so I haven't had a chance to revisit the game in a long while to update it. But appreciate the added input. Every bit helps.