Description[ | ]
Farming is the process of planting, growing, and harvesting various crops from seeds or saplings. There are several plants and trees that can be planted by the player and, in time, harvested. This concept allows the player to set up a farm and sustain the production of certain foods, items, and resources.
Farming Basics[ | ]
Fertility[ | ]
Farming requires seeds and a Gardening Hoe. For most soil types, before seeds can be planted, the ground must be tilled by right-clicking with the hoe. Some dirt blocks can be planted with seeds directly, without tilling, but the crop yield will be too low to be useful (will produce only one seed per plant).
Soil has 3 levels of fertility:
- Regular, unworked soil
- Tilled soil
- Tilled and fertilized soil
Regular, unworked soil can be found in any forest or plains biome. Planting on this soil yields only one seed per plant, except for trees, which produce multiple seeds when planted in unworked soil.
Tilled soil has been modified (upgraded) with a Gardening Hoe and will produce low numbers of seeds (2 - 3) seeds per plant.
Tilled and fertilized soil produces the largest number of seeds per plant (4 - 5 seeds, depending on the plant, see table below).
Lighting[ | ]
Plants also require natural light so that they can grow. This means that plants need to be outside or have some method of receiving natural light. A chimney will work.
Various types of blocks will let light through. This is defined by either the shape of the block, or the material it is made from, or a specific value that is specified. 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 that the blocks below it receive by 1 (assuming it is the only source of light, as in a tunnel to underground). So Bulletproof Glass will reduce the light below it from 15 to 13, still plenty of light to grow plants.
The amount of light that a block receives will also reduce by 1 with the distance sideways from a light source. A block that is over six meters from the light source will not receive any light.
Locating Seeds.[ | ]
Seeds, or the crops themselves, are found in lootable containers like the Trash Pile, Trash Can, Refrigerator, or Cabinets. If you find a seed you can plant it right away on tilled soil. If you find a crop, you will have to craft it into a seed by clicking it and going to "recipes" where you can craft the seeds for the given plant.
Trees[ | ]
Live trees drop seeds at the end of the harvesting cycle. Tree seeds can then be planted to grow new trees, even in untilled soil. However, tree seeds must be planted at least three blocks away from each other.
Seeds[ | ]
Plants[ | ]
These numbers are for soil which was prepared with a Hoe. However, if you used a Gardening Hoe again to put some Fertilizer into the ground, the amount of harvestable produce will be higher.
| Plant | Crafting needed? |
Produces | Number of Seeds produced | Growth time (min) |
Amount of harvestable product | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | Tilled | Tilled and Fertilized | |||||
| Aloe Plant | Aloe Seed | ||||||
| Blueberry Bush | yes | Blueberry Seeds | 1 | 120 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Yucca Plant | yes | Yucca Seed | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | |
| Coffee | no | Coffee Beans | -- | 120 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Corn Plant | yes | Corn Seed | 1 | 180 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Cotton Plant | yes | Cotton Seed | 1 | 120 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Goldenrod Flower | yes | Goldenrod Seed | 1 | 120 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Hops Flower | Hop Seed | 4 | |||||
| Chrysanthemum | yes | Chrysanthemum Seed | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Potato Plant | yes | Potato Seeds | 1 | 120 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Mushroom* | yes | Mushroom Spores | 1 | 120 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Note *: Mushroom Spores require 2 Mushrooms and Dirt and produces 2 Mushroom Spores.
Trees[ | ]
| Plant | Seeds crafting needed? | Amount of Seeds produced by felling tree |
Growth time (min) |
Amount of harvest-able product | Preparation (No tilling required) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Spruce Tree | no, collected by completely cutting down a tree (Blue Spruce Seeds) | 2 | 120 | Approx. 1K wood per tree | any soil based ground |
| Maple Tree | no, collected by completely cutting down a tree (Maple Seeds) | 2 | 120 | Approx. 1K wood per tree | any soil based ground |
| Pine Tree | no, collected by completely cutting down a tree (Pine Seeds) | 2 | 120 | Approx. 1K wood per tree | any soil based ground |
Crops[ | ]
- Blueberries will give minimal benefits to Fullness and are used mainly for the Blueberry Pie recipe. They are easily found growing in the snow Biome as an early game food item. They can also be picked up and turned into seeds for farming later. Note: Most of the berries you find growing wild in the snow biome and the pine forests are not blueberries, they are Snowberries and have little nutritional value. If you eat too many of them in fact, you get sick.
- An Ear of Corn can be cooked into a Corn on the Cob and is a very useful early game food as well. It can also be used to make Corn Meal as well as being an ingredient for Meat and Vegetable Stews. Corn Meal in turn is used to cook
- Blueberry Pie
- Corn Bread
- Grain Alcohol (used to make Bio Fuel and First Aid Kit)
- Potato can be better used to make stew, but can be eaten raw or grilled using a Cooking Grill to produce a Baked Potato. It restores the most Fullness (six) when eaten, as compared to the other two crops.
- Coffee Beans can be used to brew Coffee, which in turn, when consumed, will give the players' character the positive effect Caffeine Buzz.
- Cotton Plant can be used to craft Cloth Fragment or Cotton Seed.
Notes[ | ]
- Some dirt looks tilled, but actually is not. This may result in some plants uprooting themselves out of tilled dirt (may be a bug).
- Plants require sunlight to grow, thus artificial light will not permit growth underground. A player can get around this by building secure skylights directly above their grow areas when farming underground. Note: Full glass blocks do not let light through. Panes of glass may, if you can orient them correctly. Metal bars allow light though. Mushrooms are the exception, which will grow underground without light.
- As of Alpha 9, water is no longer required for farming.
- Plant properties can be changed in the Blocks.xml file.
Video Tutorial (Alpha 13)[ | ]
The video below demonstrates how to farm all of the different crops found in 7 days to die as of Alpha 13, with the exception of trees, since they can be planted anywhere dirt is found.
Images[ | ]
Farm ready to harvest
Fertilized and freshly planted garden