Quick answer
Current live-game guidanceWhat to do first
Craft a Cultivator at a Forge with five core wood and five bronze. Cultivate ground, then plant a suitable seed with enough space and open sky. Keep part of your harvest for replanting: carrots, turnips and onions need a separate seed-crop cycle. Barley and flax grow only in Plains; Magecaps and Jotun puffs grow only in Mistlands.
Start small enough to protect
- 1
Collect carrot seeds in the Black Forest, turnip seeds in the Swamp, or onion seeds from Mountain chests. Keep the first batch safe.
- 2
Choose a defensible patch with cultivated ground and no roof above the crop. Plant a small test row before spending all your seeds.
- 3
Inspect the plants after placing them. If they report insufficient space, spread the next row farther apart and check for nearby objects or buried rocks.
- 4
Wait until the crop is ready to harvest. Rain is not a watering chore, and you do not need a watering tool.
- 5
Separate food stock from seed stock before cooking. Expand only when the next planting cycle is secured.
Know what to replant
| Crop | Where to grow it | How to keep it going |
|---|---|---|
| Carrot, turnip, onion | A suitable cultivated plot; a Meadows farm is a practical home base. | Seeds produce vegetables. Plant some vegetables as seed plants to produce the next seed batch. |
| Barley and flax | Plains only. | Replant part of the harvested crop. Use surplus barley for food processing and flax for linen production. |
| Jotun puffs and Magecaps | Mistlands only. | Keep some harvested mushrooms to replant; protect the plot from local enemies. |
At the base yield, a root vegetable planted for seed gives three seeds. Reserving roughly one third of a normal vegetable harvest for seed plants sustains the loop; keep extra while learning, since lost plants and farming bonuses can change your practical balance.
Read the plant's message
| Message or symptom | Next check |
|---|---|
| Needs more room | Nearby plants, structures and rocks may be too close. Use wider spacing rather than forcing another seed into the gap. |
| Wrong biome | Move the farm, not just the seed. A Plains crop will not become a Meadows crop by waiting longer. |
| Needs cultivated soil | Use the Cultivator on the ground before planting. |
| Plants fail under a roof | Give them open sky. A protected indoor room is not a substitute for an outdoor crop plot. |
| Seeds ran out after a successful harvest | Check whether you cooked the vegetables reserved for the seed cycle. |
Avoid planting your entire supply against a biome border. Verify the biome where each plant stands; the ground can look continuous while the biome changes. Protect both the field and your stored reserve so a single raid does not end the seed loop.
Version & sources
Sources & what may change
- Applies to
- Live 0.221.12 through Ashlands; check world settings and mods.
- Last verified
- September 4, 2026
- When to check again
- Recheck after the September 9 release, a relevant patch, or a change to the linked documentation. This page is not yet verified for 1.0.