Efficient Farming and Greenhouse guide

[222oreo333]

WOW! Okay so it’s been a loooong time since I’ve made a post here. I’ve moved a few times, and I’ve been a doggy midwife to almost 100 dogs and puppies! I’ve changed a lot, and done a lot of soul searching. I’m back now, and more ready than ever to play and be an active forum member again.

I’ve looked around the forums, and while there are plenty of guides on farming and greenhouses, I have not seen my method used at all. I have found this to be so much more efficient and easy to use long term. So here goes:

Oreo’s Guide to Efficient Farming and Greenhouses

Before we go any further I just want to make a note:
*THIS METHOD WILL NOT WORK FOR PRODUCING COCONUTS/PALM TREES
Okay all good now

Supplies needed (5 tree farm)
-15 Glass
-5 Compost
-2 Doors
-2 Trapdoors
-13 Steel or Oil Lanterns
-5 Campfires
-5 Of any Fruit (not including coconuts)
-Extra dirt to fill in spaces if needed
-Spade

To start out I’ll show you how to build the basic design for a greenhouse. When I first step foot into a new blockheads world, one of my first priorities is to establish a food source. I can usually get one of these built within less than half an hour of starting a new world and that’s being generous.

Building Your Greenhouse

I recommend building it at ground level so you have easier access to get in, but it can be raised or even floating if you prefer it. I start by placing the glass, leaving space for a glass door on either end. Leave the 2 block space and place another 2 high. Then from the top block place 11 more. You should have 2 left. Now you’ll place those the same as the first two. You can pop your doors in now too. You want a 3x11 space inside the greenhouse, so it should look something like this:

Then you want to dig out your crawl space. You’ll need to leave 2 rows of blocks for planting so you’ll need to dig the 3rd and 4th rows of blocks from the surface. I always start either side of the doors, then place my trapdoors there, so you can access the space.

Then you’ll need to dig your holes for planting. Every second block of dirt needs to be dug out, and the bottom replaced with compost, and it should look like this: (I played with the backdrop, it’s up to you if you want to change the dirt to glass in the holes)

Now you need to place your campfires. One under each block of compost. Make sure you have a one block space between the fires and the dirt, or it will set your trees on fire

Now you can plant your trees! (In the compost of course) I like to start with oranges as they have the longest growing season and the shortest off season. It takes about a minute (not meditating) for the trees to start producing fruit after being planted, and with oranges they will produce a lot. I meditated for around a minute, collecting every so often so they wouldn’t despawn, and ended up with almost 3 stacks of oranges!

Harvesting

There is a trick to these greenhouses that makes them so much more efficient than others. Once you have given your trees a chance to produce a bunch of fruit, which usually takes 10-15 seconds of meditating, you’ll want to grab the top oranges only. Instead of having to select all the oranges on the trees, if you select only the top ones your blockhead will grab all of them in the greenhouse as they will have to walk past the others to reach the top ones.

As you may have noticed, this also makes an excellent wood and stick farm as well. In the off seasons, it is a good idea to collect a bunch of sticks and chop the tree, leaving the bottom block. This helps with the growth cycle, as well as gives you a never ending supply of wood and sticks

Upgrading Your Greenhouse

Light! Light is very important for trees to grow, so the more light you have, the more fruit your trees will produce. Steel lanterns are better than oil lanterns, so as soon as you get the chance you should be replacing those and upgrading to steel. The biggest difference I’ve found with doing this is the production of fruit goes up overnight when it is dark.

Heat! Heat is the same as light. The more you have, the more your trees will thrive. Double your campfires and place them on every block under the trees. It gets nice and toasty in there and your trees will love it! So far I have not found any downside other than the lag caused by the fires to having too much heat.

2 birds with 1 stone. Or 2 plants with 1 compost…? You can plant a seed (flax, sunflower, corn, carrot, or chili) on the same block as a tree. I also tend to replace all the dirt with compost and plant in those blocks as well. This is ideal for growing flax seeds (which can be used to make oil->fuel)

Location Location Location! I have made this set up at the north pole. It does work. It takes noticeably longer for the trees to grow and produces less fruit. The most ideal place to do any farming is on the equator. You will no doubt get your best results there. But that being said, this set up will produce any fruit even at the coldest point in your world!

Jet Pack Harvesting. This makes it even easier to harvest. Just fly through your greenhouse, sticking in the middle and you should collect everything hanging on the trees!

In The Real World

I used a small scale set up at the equator for the example. I have a large scale coffee farm just on the other side that has 50 trees growing. 1 fly by on my jet pack after about 30 non meditating seconds got me over 2 stacks of coffee cherries, and the harvest wasn’t even close to over! This is by far the most efficient way of farming. I have used this method for years, and you can ask anyone I have ever played with. I (and nobody around me) have never ever gone hungry when I have had this greenhouse set up

[ThePlagueDoctor]

Wow. Interesting method, what does the campfires do by the way? Is it just for cosmetic purposes or has a practical function?

[PorkyTheChop]

@ThePlagueDoctor I think the heat helps trees grow.

[222oreo333]

Yup the campfires provide heat. It basically makes it a hot and steamy room that the trees love. That’s how they can grow in this set up even at the North Pole

[ThePlagueDoctor]

Oooooh. Can steam generators also fill in the role or just campfires?

[222oreo333]

I’m gonna have to test that one, but I would assume so. That’s a good idea. It would let you build your base under the greenhouse, and I’m even inclined to say it wouldn’t catch your trees on fire either

[ThePlagueDoctor]

It can also serve as a power outlet. Two uses in one.

[PorkyTheChop]

I built one underground on @PIZZA0 's server.

[222oreo333]

Nice! I’m curious do you get fully grown coffee cherry trees with that setup? I find the stone backwall blocks light. Glass lets it in much better

[PorkyTheChop]

This is what the setup is now

[Dodokiin]

I usually use kilns or furnaces instead of campfires,since they don’t burn stuff.
By the way,any efficient ways to farm palm trees? They seem to require a lot of space to bear fruit.

[Nick_Benakoln]

Try setting up a handcar jump with a trajectory that intersects the top of the tree.

[222oreo333]

When I tried farming palm trees in this set up I never got the green parts in the greenhouse. I’d imagine you could make the room a lot taller and place blocks to easily walk through the room, and collect the coconuts. The room would have to be tall enough to let the trees grow to full height

[serendipity]

This is amazing! I’ve used glass before, but never thought of placing heat underground like that.

Thanks so much for posting this. Very helpful!

[PorkyTheChop]

Does this method work with cacti?

[MummyK]

Yes it does.

[JuJuBee22]

By the way…very nice post and very organized. Great job!

Actually, I place lights on the trees themselves when underground or high in the sky. It doesn’t interfere with the fruit blooming and your bh picks the fruit not the light when you tap the fruit. I place the lights every other branch in a checkered pattern.

This next picture was my very first ever farm when I first joined back in February. I read about how to make it on here, but hadn’t yet learned about the steam gens or the lights on trees. I added blocks in between on the top, but used a donkey ride to collect on the bottom. It was recommended to me at that time to set up a hand car track to just zoom through and harvest the trees…clever and I’ve not yet tried it but I’m sure it’s brilliant. Your setup with your dirt from the get go is that missing piece for the walking harvester that would have been helpful to know, but would crash my donkey. However, with your setup, I wonder if track can be laid on top of the in-between blocks to make it super fast to pass? Would a pillar go in front of the trunk to hold the track there? Chime in @Jemnidad.

These next pictures show how I use lights whenever in caves. This was a hotter world so I didn’t need heat from underneath, which I do use in colder environments when in caves, in addition to the lights. You can also see that coconut trees grow underground too; I was taught by my talented friends that coconut trees are great to harvest for sticks and wood…and I would just add more lights if in colder environment:

And this was a recent build that was very high up in the sky where it was very cold. trees were dying as fast as I planted them, even with my lights. I first used campfires, but they weren’t hot enough unless right under dirt…and that causes things to catch on fire above the dirt, so I switched and used the steam gens to solve that problem; but your method with the dirt would have made it better for the walking harvester.

Here was another cold sky build, but not as high up. I only needed lights for the trees to survive and bloom:

Anyway…that’s my two cents about adding lights on the trees, (unless of course you need to hide…)

[222oreo333]

The reason I put the lights on top is for when you cut the trees or branches. That makes any lights on the trees fall, so if the lights are on the trees it wouldn’t work as a wood and stick farm. That’s the only reason

[JuJuBee22]

Oh, but there is glass back wall, or stone, so the lights don’t fall. I don’t use anything with open air behind them for sticks & wood if they have lights.

[GamerAstro]

Wow. Interesting method, what does the campfires do by the way? Is it just for cosmetic purposes or has a practical function?

Pratically it acts like sunlight