bro how do i find soil

[President Donald Trump]

I cannot for the life of me find soil to grow plump helmets in any map i play

[graalGGTV]

Have you tried digging into the earth? I'm guessing you are using quick play or something that doesn't allow you to pick the location, but everyone I've seen playing on those has soil on their maps.

If you decide to pick your own location, it tells you if there's soil in the area before you embark. Somewhere with "deep soil" would have multiple layers of soil before getting to the rock. Also, the soil might not necessarily be called "soil", but they won't let you make a farm if it isn't soil

[McFuzz]

Clay, sand, it all counts. Anything that's not stone bearing is soil.

You can't find any?

[President Donald Trump]

I've gotten sand but when i go to plant it says it would yield poor results or something

[malthenielsen]

It's the couple of top layer of the map.

It should be there even if you embark in a desert. If you embark in a place will trees it will have soil.

[McFuzz]

Originally posted by Stannis:

I've gotten sand but when i go to plant it says it would yield poor results or something

Yeah. It will. But you can still make the farm there.

If you want high yields, you have to farm in the caves or fertilise.

[Kodiak]

All kinds of: Sand, clay, loam etc. are soil.
Yeah, it will tell you that the yield will not be perfect, but don't let that fool you. The yield is still gonna be more than good enough to support your fortress for a good long while.
For full yield you'd have to farm in a cave layer once you've found one, but it really isn't that necessary for most intents and purposes. (Plus cave-farming is more risky than just below the surface.

[Chibi]

So, are you trying to make them outside? Plump Helmets can only grow underground.

[Bio[redacted]]

dig deep

[nrusselluk]

I always wonder if ppl know you can have farm plots on the surface and grow the non-dwarf crops. You don't get big plots, usually 3x3 but occasionally up to 5x5 on grass.

[koimeiji]

Originally posted by nrusselluk:

I always wonder if ppl know you can have farm plots on the surface and grow the non-dwarf crops. You don't get big plots, usually 3x3 but occasionally up to 5x5 on grass.

If the soil is at least a layer deep, you can just channel a single level down and farm the surface crops on the new fresh soil patch instead of trying to wangle around the garbage on the surface ground.


In fact, you can abuse a presumable bug with the game; any tile that sunlight touches is considered permanently "outdoors", no matter how deep or if anything is built over it. Channel straight down to your fortress level, irrigate the stone floor if necessary, build a roof over the top on the surface, and you can still plant surface crops down there.

[Hammer]

Plump helmets must grow underground, same as cave wheat, dimple cups, etc. You can even grow underground crops on stone floor if you have no soil, clay, sand, etc.

You can wet the rock with water to make mud. Grow plump helmets on this mud. At least, you could do this in classic DF. I assume the same holds true for this Steam version. I haven't tried to make mud in Steam DF yet.

Mud:
https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Mud