Farming

Description

The farming skill covers cultivating fields, sowing seeds, tending the crops, and harvesting the produce. Crops can take several real life days to grow, during which a farmer should tend ("farm") the field tiles to remove weeds. This can be done approximately once every (real life) day and will improve the harvest. Quality and yield of the harvest increases when you have a high farming skill. Quality of the seed does not affect the growth time of the fields.

The seeds and veggies needed to start farming can be found while botanizing on grass or steppe or from harvesting the crops. Harvested cotton, strawberries, pumpkin, wemp and reed plants must be picked to recover seeds for replanting.

Crops can be harvested at any time after the first growth level, but harvesting too early or too late results in zero return. When the farm is ready to harvest (ripe) the crop will look "ready". Fields take between 3 and 5 RL days to ripen. See the Images section from pictures of each crop to see how they look when ripe.

Seeds can be sown on a dirt tile, grass tiles needs to be packed then cultivated. The maximum slope on which you can sow seeds is 8, where 8 = (highest north-south tile border's slope) + (highest east-west tile border's slope). For example, the slope can be level EW and 8-steep NS. Or 4-steep EW and 4-steep NS, etc. Attempting to sow seeds on a greater slope results in a message "The ground is not flat enough for crops to grow. You need to flatten it first". Farm tiles function the same with a slope 8, flat or anything in between.

The minimum harvest yield is 2.

Clearing crops that have turned to weeds will return one seed.

Examine details

Anyone can verify if a field needs tending. "The crops grow steadily" means the field is in order, while "It could use a touch from the rake or some other farming tool" means it can be tidied with a rake. If the description mentions "rotting old weeds", the field is overgrown and can no longer be harvested.

Under level 15 farmers can see the state of growth of the field, whether or not the field is tended or untended (i.e. needs farming) and which type of crop is growing in a field, except at the lowest growth level ("freshly sown"), on the field they are currently standing on.

Level 15 farmers can mouse over a field and determine crop type, and whether or not the field is tended or untended up to one tile away.

Level 20 farmers can determine the growth level of a field. The levels are, chronologically sorted:

You see a patch of freshly sown field.
A few green blades pop out of the ground.
Small sprouts with many blades grow here.
The sprouts are growing, a bit above half their mature height.
The field is almost at full height.
The field is at full height and ready to harvest!
(rotten old weeds, crops completely ruined)

Level 30 farmers can determine Whether a tile needs tending/farming(up to two tiles away). You can now see if the field is ripe (up to one tile away).

The stages displayed (in order) are:

Freshly sown
Sprouting
Growing
Halfway
Almost ripe
Ripe
Only weeds

Level 60 farmers can determine the number of items they will get after a harvest when they examine the field. It should be noted however, that the number it shows is not very accurate but more of a minimum, since luck and other factors change the final number (you should get a message of the minimum you will harvest from the field when you examine it).

Tools

Rake for farming
Scythe for harvesting wheat, barley, oat and rye
No tool is required when harvesting any of the other crops.

Crops

Yields

Yields need more confirmation. Please participate in the Discussion page.

Skill gain and Success

There are five different messages upon tending a field:

The field is tended - Failure
The field is now tended - Weak success, always a farming skill gain
The field looks better after your tending - Mediocre success, sometimes a farming skill gain
The field is now groomed - Good success, no farming skill gain
The field is now nicely groomed - Excellent success, no farming skill gain

The success rate does not seem to influence crop output, but it gives feedback on the difficulty of the crop vs your farming skill. Need to verify if rake quality influences the difficulty curve.