Fertilizer and agriculture

[yutagu]

Does the productivity in the fields increase when there is no cultivation and is there a place like fertile soil on the map, does only fertilizer increase it, for example, when I choose 100% efficiency, if the productivity of the field is 20%, does it wait for it to be 100% fertilizer or fertilizer, but if there is fertilizer, does it give fertilizer?

[Silent_Shadow]

Minimal fertility determines when the field will be plowed and sown.
Fields below 100% will slowly raise to 100% if left fallow and any uncollected crops will also raise fertility, but you can also "cultivate" a field up to 150% by providing solid fertilizer to its farm building; a tractor should go to the field with an attachment that looks like a rack with spikes and drag that across the field to raise the fertility while consuming solid fertilizer.

You can also lower the minimal fertility and sow the field, and then depend on liquid fertilizer to raise the field's fertility up to 150%. If you use both solid and liquid fertilizer, you can raise the fertility up to 200%.

With seasons enabled, the yield from a field is 62 tons of crop per ha times the field's fertility.

[Strategic Sage]

I don't know if there are any options that affect this (waste perhaps?), but on the easy preset I am able to get fields above 140% by leaving them fallow. Possibly due to solid fertilizer not being available.

[Silent_Shadow]

Solid fertilizer is always available, so you either had uncollected crops left on the field or the fallow fertility limit is a lot higher than I thought.

[Strategic Sage]

Thanks for that info; I saw only Liquid Fertilizer in the Customs House list and didn't realize how to get the solid.

FYI no crops on the field in the test I did, literally just plopped down fields with a farm and set the fertility to the highest allowed of 149. Tractors start working when it hits 140, so it gets to 145ish.

[Silent_Shadow]

I guess that makes sense; technically fertility is just a measure of "how full" the field is of solid fertilizer, so it makes sense that leaving it fallow long enough would allow it to get there.

[Strategic Sage]

Follow-up question; I don't see any way to *store* solid fertilizer with waste off, as all of the dumps etc. are disabled.

[Silent_Shadow]

The farm buildings have a storage for it, so just unload it directly into them.

[Strategic Sage]

That I know, but it requires a lot of trucks to keep a farm supplied if it's far from the border. I was hoping to find a way to have a larger storage nearby as a buffer.

[Silent_Shadow]

If you want some waste storage buildings, you can always pause the game, enable waste or landscape mode (via cheats), then place down a few dumps or transfer stations, and disable waste or landscape mode.