Crops grow on farmland, a soil tilled with a hoe. Each crop has a temperature range, a moisture
range and one nutrient it feeds on; it grows while nobody is around, rests in winter, can be killed
by frost while young and rots if left standing ripe. All the numbers below come from the game data
(data/farming.json and data/crops). A world day lasts 20 minutes, a season 24 days and a year 96
days; a new world starts on the first day of spring (see Seasons and weather).
Tools
- A hoe tills:
Flint Hoe, 
Copper Hoe, 
Bronze Hoe.
Each tilled block wears it by 1 use (durability 60, 180 and 400). - A sickle harvests more:
Flint Sickle, 
Copper Sickle,
Bronze Sickle (durability 70, 210 and 460). Crops still break by hand.
The flint blades are knapped (see Knapping, clay and smithing), then hafted by hand with a stick and a binding (birch tar, plant twine, rawhide or rope):
Soils and their farmland
Four soils till, each into its own farmland that starts with the soil’s nutrients and acidity. Nutrients, acidity and moisture all run from 0 to 100; an acidity of 50 is neutral, higher is acid.
| Soil | Farmland | Fertility | Nitrogen | Phosphorus | Potassium | Acidity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Dirt |  Farmland | medium | 40 | 40 | 40 | 50 |
 Black Earth |  Black Earth Farmland | fertile | 70 | 55 | 60 | 45 |
 Volcanic Ash |  Volcanic Ash Farmland | very fertile | 65 | 80 | 85 | 45 |
 Podzol |  Podzol Farmland | poor | 20 | 15 | 20 | 75 |
Grass tills as the soil under it: grass over black earth gives black earth farmland, grass over anything else gives common farmland.
Tilling
- Hold a hoe.
- Aim at the top of a soil block (or grass). The block above it must be air: a plant, a stone or snow on top is in the way.
- Press the interact key (E). The block becomes farmland with a moisture of 30.
Aiming at farmland shows its readout on the HUD: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium on one line, then the moisture in percent and whether it is acid (above 60), neutral or sweetened (below 40).
Nutrients and fallow
Every crop draws on one nutrient (see the table of crops). It grows at full speed once the farmland holds at least the crop’s “full” level of it; below that it slows down in proportion, down to its “starved” share of full speed on an empty farmland. Each stage it grows takes a few points away.
Farmland with nothing growing on it rests: each day it wins back about 8% of what each nutrient lacks below its soil’s level, never more than the soil’s own. Its acidity also drifts slowly back toward its soil’s. Farmland nobody tills, amends or sows for 48 days (two seasons) turns back into its soil. Walking or landing on farmland does no harm.
Amendments
Hold an amendment and press the interact key on a farmland. It adds at once (capped at 100) and is refused when it would add nothing.
| Amendment | Nitrogen | Phosphorus | Potassium | Other | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Manure | +30 | +5 | +5 | given by tame animals (see Husbandry) | |
 Guano | +20 | +25 | dropped by bats | ||
 Bone Meal | +30 | ground at the quern from a tusk (4) or 2 claws (2) | |||
 Wood Ash | +10 | +25 | acidity -5 | 4 sticks burnt on a campfire | |
 Lime | +10 | acidity -25 | limestone burnt in a pit kiln (2) | ||
 Peat | slow +30 | moisture +35, acidity +5 | peat blocks of swamps, taiga and tundra | ||
 Rot | +15 | +5 | +5 | food that spoiled through |
Peat’s nitrogen is held back and given over days (about 14% of what remains each day), whether or not something grows. Acidity is tracked and shown, but no crop’s growth depends on it in the current game.
Campfire - Time
- ⏱ 30 seconds
- Temperature
- 🌡 200 °C
Water
- Rain falling on open farmland wets it fast (150 points a day under full rain). Any solid block up to 24 blocks above it shelters it from the rain.
- Still water within 4 blocks along the ground, on the same level or 1 block lower, keeps the farmland at a moisture of at least 75.
- It dries by 8 points a day, plus 1.5 per degree above 5 °C, and half as fast again under a clear sky by day. Frozen ground (below 0 °C) does not dry.
Each crop has a moisture range like its temperature range: no growth at or below its minimum, full speed between its ideals.
Growth
A crop’s speed is its temperature share times its moisture share times its nutrient share, each from 0 to 1. Temperature is the local climate plus the season’s offset (about 0 °C in mid spring and mid autumn, +6 °C in mid summer, -8 °C in mid winter). Below a crop’s minimum or above its maximum it does not grow; between its ideal low and ideal high it grows at full speed.
The days in the table are the days to ripen at full speed; real fields take longer. Every crop rests in winter: it neither grows nor rots, but the frost can still kill it.
The crops
Seasons and growth
| Crop | Seeds | Sown in | Stages | Days to ripen | Temperature min / ideal / max (°C) | Frost kills below |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wheat |  Wheat Seeds | spring, autumn | 7 | 16 | 2 / 10-24 / 34 | -4 °C, stages 1-2 |
| Rye |  Rye Seeds | spring, autumn | 6 | 14 | -4 / 5-20 / 30 | -7 °C, stages 1-2 |
| Barley |  Barley Seeds | spring, autumn | 6 | 13 | 0 / 8-22 / 32 | -5 °C, stages 1-2 |
| Oats |  Oat Seeds | spring | 6 | 13 | 1 / 9-22 / 30 | -4 °C, stages 1-2 |
| Flax |  Flax Seeds | spring | 6 | 13 | 2 / 10-22 / 30 | -2 °C, stages 1-2 |
| Hemp |  Hemp Seeds | spring | 5 | 12 | 4 / 14-28 / 36 | -2 °C, stages 1-2 |
| Turnip |  Turnip Seeds | spring, autumn | 4 | 9 | -1 / 7-18 / 28 | -6 °C, stage 1 |
| Cabbage |  Cabbage Seeds | spring, summer | 5 | 13 | 0 / 9-20 / 30 | -6 °C, stages 1-2 |
| Peas |  Seed Peas | spring | 5 | 10 | 2 / 9-22 / 30 | -3 °C, stage 1 |
| Broad beans |  Seed Beans | spring, autumn | 5 | 12 | 0 / 8-20 / 28 | -6 °C, stage 1 |
| Onion |  Onion Seeds | spring | 5 | 12 | 3 / 10-24 / 32 | -3 °C, stage 1 |
| Garlic |  Garlic Clove | spring, autumn | 5 | 14 | 0 / 8-22 / 32 | -8 °C, stage 1 |
| Carrot |  Carrot Seeds | spring | 4 | 10 | 2 / 10-22 / 30 | -4 °C, stage 1 |
| Grapevine |  Grapevine Cutting | spring | 5 | 18 | 8 / 16-30 / 38 | -2 °C, stage 1 |
| Hops |  Hop Cutting | spring | 5 | 14 | 3 / 12-26 / 34 | -3 °C, stage 1 |
Needs and yields
| Crop | Nutrient (full speed from) | Moisture ideal | Produce by hand / sickle | Seeds back by hand / sickle | Wild in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wheat | nitrogen (70) | 30-80 |  Wheat 1-2 / 2-3 | 1 / 1-2 | plains |
| Rye | nitrogen (20) | 25-80 |  Rye 1-2 / 2-3 | 1 / 1-2 | taiga |
| Barley | nitrogen (25) | 25-75 |  Barley 1-2 / 2-3 | 1 / 1-2 | steppe |
| Oats | nitrogen (20) | 35-85 |  Oats 1-2 / 2-3 | 1 / 1-2 | steppe |
| Flax | potassium (25) | 35-80 |  Flax 1-2 / 2-3 | 1 / 1-2 | plains |
| Hemp | nitrogen (40) | 35-85 |  Hemp 1-2 / 2-3 | 1 / 1-2 | steppe |
| Turnip | phosphorus (25) | 35-85 |  Turnip 1-2 / 2-3 | 1 / 1-2 | taiga |
| Cabbage | nitrogen (40) | 40-85 |  Cabbage 1 / 1-2 | 1 / 1-2 | stony shore |
| Peas | phosphorus (20) | 35-80 |  Peas 1-2 / 2-4 | 1 / 1-2 | forest |
| Broad beans | phosphorus (20) | 35-85 |  Broad Beans 1-2 / 2-3 | 1 / 1-2 | forest |
| Onion | potassium (25) | 30-75 |  Onion 1-2 / 2-3 | 1 / 1-2 | plains |
| Garlic | potassium (20) | 25-70 |  Garlic 1-2 / 2-3 | 1 / 1-2 | steppe |
| Carrot | potassium (25) | 35-80 |  Purple Carrot 1-2 / 2-3 and  White Carrot 0-1 / 1-2 | 1 / 1-2 | plains |
| Grapevine | potassium (25) | 20-70 |  Grapes 2-3 / 3-5 | 0 / 0-1 | forest |
| Hops | nitrogen (30) | 35-85 |  Hops 2-3 / 3-4 | 0 / 0-1 | swamp |
Wheat is the hungriest: on common dirt (nitrogen 40) it grows at about 70% of its speed, at full speed only from 70 nitrogen, the level of black earth.
Climbers
The grapevine and hops are perennials grown on a trellis: sowing one takes 2 sticks with the cutting, given back when the plant is taken for good. Harvested ripe, they are cut back to stage 4 instead of being taken. On the first day of each spring they start again (the grapevine from stage 3, hops from stage 2), even if the frost killed them.
Sowing
- Till the ground and, if needed, amend it.
- Hold seeds and press the interact key (E) on the farmland. The block above must be air, and the season must be one of the crop’s sowing seasons; otherwise nothing happens.
- One seed sows one block.
Farmland with a crop on it no longer rests and never turns back into soil.
Frost and crop death
- A crop still in its young stages dies as soon as the air drops below its frost limit (see the table). The dead crop stays as a withered block and gives nothing.
- An autumn sowing rests through winter, but the frost check still applies: only sow in autumn what can leave its young stages before the cold, or what bears it (rye, garlic, turnip, broad beans).
- A ripe crop left standing keeps its whole produce for 6 to 12 days depending on the crop, then loses it over the following days and finally dies. Winter pauses this too.
Harvest and seeds
Break the crop (left mouse button). What it gives:
- Ripe: its produce and some seeds, more of both with a sickle (see the yields table), less any part lost to rot.
- Not ripe: 0 or 1 seed (none for the climbers).
- Dead: nothing.
No recipe makes seeds: the first ones come from the wild stands, which grow ripe in the biomes listed above and give seeds like any ripe crop. Keep part of every harvest for the next sowing.