Dwarf Fortress Farming Guide

Dwarf Fortress is a game with some pretty complex systems and methods. On top of everything, you also need to feed your people. One reliable way to do this is to farm. But farming isn’t the most simple thing to do, and there are many steps that are required. But with a working farm, you won’t need to worry about food. Here is how to farm in Dwarf Fortress.

Dwarf Fortress Farming Guide

Prepare the land

You can’t just farm on anything. As you dig, you’ll find layers or patches of soil. It’ll be easily identified as it will simply not look like that endless rock and stone. There are different quality soils that you can find the deeper you go, but ultimately any soil or sand will grow plants. Once located, find the farm plot in the building menu (under farming which is under workshops) and select the farmland you want. I would recommend selecting a large portion to practically feed your dwarves.

Go into the labor menu to select planters. You’ll only really need one to begin with, but as your civilization grows, you’ll want more planters. As they plan, they’ll get better at the job, meaning they’ll do the job faster and more efficiently.

Start planting

With your farmland, you can now plan your seeds. It is better to do this as early as you can, else the starting supply of seeds you have the beginning will eventually rot away. There are four seasons, and with the seasons are a select list of plants that can grow. Some plants are multi-seasonal.

Click on the farmland and select any seed you have for the current season. Orange text will display whether you have seeds or not under the plant type. When your planter has planted all of the seeds, you can select another type to grow as well. As the seasons change, make sure to keep on top of what you can and can’t grow so you always have something growing.

Related: How to get seeds in Dwarf Fortress

Fertilizing your plants

To grow you plants quicker, you can use fertilizer. Fertilizer i produced through a 2 step process. Firstly, make ash from the wood furnace. This is done through burning wood.

With that ash, you can use the ashery to turn it into potash, which is the fertilizer. You can utilize work orders to make this process automatic so you don’t have to keep on top of it.

As long as there is fertilizer available, and you have toggled ‘on’ the fertilizer feature for that farmland, then the planters will fertilize all the plants they can.

Harvesting the plants

The planters will harvest the plants on their own and will place them in plan barrels, ready to be processed or eaten or prepared into meals. This part will happen automatically so you don’t have to worry about the harvesting of your plants.

Keep an eye on Gamer Journalist for more gaming and Dwarf Fortress content, such as how to get drinkable water.