Farming

Description

Farming is the process of planting, growing, and harvesting the various Trees and Plants found in 7 Days to Die. This process allows the player to set up a farm and sustain the production of certain foods, items, and resources.

Farming Basics

Preparation

Tree seeds can be obtained by chopping down a mature tree. Planting tree seeds requires only the appropriate seed and an open area of dirt. Crop and plant seeds can be found via looting or for sale from traders. Seeds for flowers and decorative plants can be crafted once the player reaches the appropriate crafting level for seeds, by reading the crafting magazine Southern Farming. These seeds (with the exception of mushrooms) have to be planted into a farm plot.

Lighting

Plants (again with the exception of Mushrooms) require natural light to grow. This means that plants need to either be outside, or have some method of receiving natural light. A chimney, for example, will provide a suitable amount of it. Various types of blocks will let light through them. This is defined by their light opacity property. The light levels have a range of 0 to 15, 0 being completely dark and 15 having access to full sunlight. A block with a light opacity of 1 will reduce the amount of light blocks below it receive by 1, for example from 15 to 14. The light value will also be reduced by 1 per every horizontal block travelled from light source. Crops require 'at least a light level of 8'. This means a farm plot that is over seven horizontal blocks from a natural light source will not receive enough light for crops to grow. Vertical distance does not reduce light intensity, meaning that farms can be successfully built even in bedrock.

The following image pictures the available spots a crop can be placed in an underground farm:
The yellow block represents the shaft (which obviously can have a plant under it), the green blocks represent blocks where crops can grow and red blocks where crops can't grow or be placed.

Growth Cycle

Trees will initially appear as small saplings, which only yield the seed back when destroyed. They will slowly grow and mature in stages until a maximum size is reached. Each planted tree has five different stages; sapling is the first stage. For trees to go to the final stage, they need to be planted on a block that has a fertility level of three or higher. The initial requirement for planting is a fertility level of one. This means that while trees can be planted in surfaces such as snow and sand, they won't grow to their final form, reducing the amount of wood that can be chopped from them. Dirt provides a suitable soil for trees to grow to their full potential. Each stage takes 63 minutes to progress to the next one. This means that a fully grown tree takes 252 minutes or 4 hours and 12 minutes to grow. The player can follow the growth by measuring the tree's durability: each stage adds 300 to the durability after seedling. Stage 1 tree will have a durability of 300 whereas a fully grown tree will have a durability of 1200.

Plants initially appear as seedlings and slowly mature over time. Inspecting a plant by aiming crosshair at it will display its growth stage: seedling, growing, or plant. Only fully-grown plants can be harvested for crops. If a seedling or growing plant is harvested, only the seed for that plant is recovered. All crops share the same grow rate with trees: 63 minutes for one stage, meaning 126 minutes or 2 hours and 6 minutes for complete growth.

Harvesting

Trees are harvested for wood via chopping them with a proper tool. This can be done with bare hands if necessary, but it is more efficient when using an axe. Different stages of trees (apart from the seedling) provide resources followingly:

• Stage 1: 30 wood, 1 seed
• Stage 2: 70 wood, 2 seeds
• Stage 3: 110 wood, 2 seeds
• Stage 4: 150 wood, 2 seeds

The amount of wood harvested can be increased with the Mother Lode perk, the Art of Mining Vol. 3 perk book (after drinking either Coffee or Blackstrap Coffee) and Rock Busters candy.

Plants are harvested by melee attacking any mature plant. Harvest yield is equal when using bare hands vs. any tool, and is only determined by the Living Off The Land -perk. Wild crops give a base of 1 crop when harvested, player-grown crops give 2. With one perk in Living Off The Land, players harvest 2 crops from wild crops, and 4 crops from planted crops. With lvl 2, this adds a 50% chance of harvesting an extra crop in both wild and planted crops. At lvl 3, 3 crops for wild and 6 crops for planted. Plants found growing organically on the map are simply destroyed upon harvest and will not yield any seeds.

Seeds

For an overview of all Seeds see: Plants

Cotton, Goldenrod and Chrysanthemum plants are rather common in the wilderness compared to other plants so planting them in farm plots in place of other seeds may not be efficient.

Living off the land

Harvesting a planted crop always has a 50% chance of dropping a seed. Without the skill converting crops to seeds, planting, and then harvesting them will lead to an average loss of 10% per cycle. At level one there will be an average gain of 30%. Level two only increases that to 40%, but it jumps to 80% at level 3.

Crafting

For plant seeds, it takes 5 of the corresponding plant to craft 1 seed. Mushroom spores also require 2 clay. Players cannot craft tree seeds.

Trees

The following seeds can be planted to grow trees: Blue Spruce Seed, Pine Seed and Oak Seed.

Purchasing

Seeds can be purchased randomly from traders.

Video Tutorial

A How To Farm Guide for Alpha 20 along with the changes from Alpha 19.

A brief overview of changed in Alpha 20 for those that are familiar with last Alpha

More detailed explanation of Farming

Images

• 

  A16 - Farm ready to be harvested.

• 

  A16 - Fertilized and freshly planted garden.

• 

  A19 - A farm consisting of every plant in its all three stages.

• 

  A19 - Trees can also be planted in farm plots.

History

• A21
  • The ability to craft seeds is now dependent on seed crafting level, raised by reading the magazine "Southern Farming". The perk Living off the Land increases the likelihood of finding this magazine in loot.
• A20
  • Player-planted crops no longer convert to seedlings when destroyed.
  • Instead, player-planted crops have a 50% chance to drop a seed.
• A18
  • Tilling soil and the use of hoes has been discontinued. Now plants have to be planted in farm plots.
  • Living off The Land -perk has now three levels instead of five.
  • Super Corn Seed can only be unlocked through a schematic.
• A16
  • Living off the land now has five levels, with the 5th unlocking mutated plant seeds.