LlostSoul

Ahhh, I have been using Hydrocraft for so long that I didn't realize "vanilla" had introduced compost bins. Good to know! Thanks everyone.

The compost bin is a usable object. Once you have vegetables/meat in your inventory, or on the ground beside the compost bin, right click on the bin in your inventory screen and there should be an option to make compost. Then you have to stand there while your character manually makes the compost. It is not, unfortunately, set up to simply leave your rotten vegetables in the bin and let them compost by themselves. I wish it were; right now I have all my rotten vegetables and compost bin in my living room as I have no desire to get eaten or rained on when I make compost (it is not the quickest process). Not very realistic sadly.

In case anyone is interested, here is the updated information for the most recent release [17(0014)]: For all vegetables, the time to rot has not changed. Cabbages: -the days to harvest (with and without seeds) has not changed -the yield however has been lowered. The most cabbages I harvested on this play-through (ending November 14) was 6 (and a vast majority of harvests gave 4 cabbages). That is lower than the 8 for the previous build Broccoli: -it now takes 15-16 days to harvest (without seeds)- this is increased from 14-15 days -it still takes 3 additional days to get seeds -the yield remains the same Potatoes: -harvest time (without seeds) has also been increased to 14-15 days from 12-13 days -it still takes 3 additional days to get seeds -the yield remains the same Tomatoes: -harvest time has increased to 16 days -the yield has been fixed- tomato plants no longer just give 1 tomato/harvest. They now give 6-8 on average Strawberries: -the "zombie strawberries" are no more! While you still have to worry about disease as the plant is not removed on harvest, you no longer have to worry about disease destroying all your plants. As well, they don't infect other plants like they did before -because they maintain their diseases after harvest though, the harvest times were all over the place. Initial harvest was 19 days. After that the harvest varied from 14 to 23 days. -yield was 8-11 strawberries Misc.: -shovels now remove dead plants -you can now make a tasty salad out of tomatoes, potatoes, broccoli, and cabbage. I note however that the only time I made it, I got sick. -the sprites for cabbages are different for your inventory vs. in a crate. The sprite looks darker when the cabbage is placed in a crate. -if you have a trowel equipped, one click on "dig" works. Otherwise you have to click twice (the first click doesn't actually dig, it just equips the trowel) -the health of a plant appears to have been fixed. In the previous build the plants would always get healthier as they grew. Now, their health is more fixed to when they are first planted What I have been doing in West Point is: I carry a package of potato seeds and a trowel with me when I go scavenging. I'll plant and water some potatoes every once in a while at locations where I know I will probably be travelling on in the future. Then I just leave them. If they survive, great, and I can harvest them if I'm by that way again and have fresh food for a few days. If not, no loss. Hope this is helpful.

Bloody awesome! Great job! You've done me proud! If I had to do it all over again I'd be an astrobiologist .

Update, December-April: December: -I started eating 3 vegetables (1 of each) whenever I was peckish, to see how long the food lasted. -it rained almost every day -strawberries just won't go away. Whenever I load the game the dead strawberry plots will reappear. Even if I plant a new vegetable where the strawberries were, when I reload the dead strawberry texture reappears. It changes to the new vegetable once a new growing cycle starts -December 25! Ate the last of my strawberries. Green Christmas- it rained all day. Gave myself a nice present of freshly harvested cabbages. I invited the zombies for dinner; none came. January: -New Years Day- stood on the roof and yelled for 1.5 hours. No zombies appeared. -it was freezing most nights (wearing a sweater) February: -not a Leap Year! March: -starting to run low on broccoli (17 left) and potatoes (5 left). Cut back to only eating cabbages to restock. -my carpentry and farming are maxed, cooking is level 3, and sprinting is level 1. Harvesting crops still gives skill points though so I have over 50 skill points (I can't tell the exact number- it's too big for the little circle!) -some days are unpleasantly hot with a sweater, but nights are freezing with just a vest -it rains EVERY SINGLE DAY, for most of the day!!! -the crazy coot is still firing his shotgun- good to know I'm not the only one still alive. Helicopter has thankfully crashed. April: -Spring! The time of year when a young man's fancy turns to love! And also, the end of this current game. It is extremely choppy, especially when I am running. I often have to restart as I cannot move items in my inventory, eat food, etc. -un-removable dead vegetables are taking over my farming area. It started with strawberries but now includes all vegetables. It's not an issue with this game as there's lots of farming area at the school but if I only had a small growing area, it would be a huge problem -I ended with the following seeds: Broccoli- 614, cabbage- 357, potatoes- 870. -I fed myself just fine throughout the winter. Harvests seemed to pick up a little into March but not enough to make much of a difference. I still hadn't touched my berries or canned goods. I won't lay claim to the title of "longest survival" as I would say that the school is bugged re: no zombie attacks . Cheers all! I'm off to live a hunter/gatherer lifestyle in the next game!

Feeding the world, one hungry zombie at a time

Bah, sorry, still trying to figure this out

My ability to turn this into a wiki page is less than zero! So please feel free to wiki it, post it, use it, etc. however you wish.

I'm one of the players who likes to fortify a location and see how long I can survive. As such, I've had plenty of time to test farming. It's nothing fancy but I figured I'd share my findings with those who are wondering about the nuts and bolts of farming. And as noted in the guide, I do realize it's a beta game and everything could change tomorrow. Such is life! https://www.dropbox.com/s/yyxgjreprkq0dhr/Farming%20Guide.docx