IC2 Crops

From GT New Horizons

This page is a longer and more technical version of IC2 Crops Guide, which covers the math, automation and detailed mechanics of IndustrialCraft 2 crops.

Automation

All IC2 crops can be automatically harvested for their resources when they reach their final growth stage with right-click, and return to an earlier stage without needing to be replanted. Automated Farming machines will harvest crops in exchange for power and resources without player interaction, with the exception of Ender IO's Farming Station which is not compatible with IC2 crops. Crop stat gain can be fully automated with Open Computers Crop Breeding in Late HV/early EV.

The Crop Harvester from IC2 will harvest crops, but not fertilize or hydrate them and it will attempt to harvest plants as early as possible, potentially before they reach full maturity (e.g. Oreberries, Stickreed). For crops with high stats it needs to be paired with a Crop-Matron and a large supply of fertilizer and water or they may die, depending on biome and elevation.

Do not place seed bags with high stats onto crop sticks that a Forestry farm or Crop-Matron hasn't yet fertilized and hydrated. They could possibly die before the machine even gets to them.

The Multifarm waters, fertilizes and harvests, but has no slot for Weed-Ex. It requires Uranium238 Electron Tubes in an Intricate Circuit Board to operate with IC2 crops, which extends its range up to an eleven radius octagon covering 1149 blocks (1136 after water blocks are placed). While the Multifarm will only handle a single layer of crops, it can be powered by RF generators such as EnderIO's Photovoltaic Cells effectively for free. This makes it convenient for farming operations far from a main base. Unlike the Crop Manager, Water and Fertilizer are not optional with the Multifarm.


Automation Options
Machine Name GT Tier Source Harvests Item Use Spaces Notes
Crop-Matron LV IC2 X 81 Singleblock, 9x9 area, cannot harvest crops, automatically applies water, fertilizer and Weed-Ex
Crop Harvester LV IC2 X 121 Singleblock, 11x11 area, needs Cropnalyzer to harvest only in last growth stage
Crop Manager LV+ GT++ X X 121-1521 Singleblock, 11x11 - 39x39 & Y range 3, tiered up to UV, EU cost/area/output amount increase every tier
Multifarm HV Forestry X X 72-1149 Multiblock, much bigger diamond shaped farm area, very low EU consumption, high fertilizer efficiency, cannot use weed-EX
Cross-section of a three layer Crop Manager farm
Historically the Crop Harvester and Crop-Matron were paired together for IC2 crop automation. They each use 1 LV amp to run continuously, and together they need 2 amps to keep all crops growing fast and harvested constantly, but were less expensive to craft than the Multifarm for small applications and at a lower tier. They have been superseded by the Crop Manager, which does both tasks in one block. The Crop Manager can handle three levels of farms if placed as shown to the right (just above the dirt of the middle level). Horizontal range varies with the tier of the Crop Harvester, and a few blocks are likely to be sacrificed for hydration and power delivery infrastructure.

Weeds

Weeds are a crop that will spread to empty crop sticks and destroy many other crops. Weeds and weed-like crops with higher growth stats attempt to spread weeds more often. Weeds can be removed using a Weeding Trowel or a Crops++ Spade or by breaking the crop stick and replacing it. Normally, weeds will only naturally spawn on empty crop sticks or double crop sticks. This means that you only need to watch for weeds while cross-breeding; once you have a full field of crops being automatically harvested, weeds will no longer be able to spawn. Weeds also spread normal tall grass to adjacent grass blocks.

However, there is an exception to this. Normal crops with 24 growth or higher are also considered weeds (or "weed-like") when they are at a growth stage of 2 or more (Venomilia, an exception, is weed-like when it is at its 5th growth stage and it has a growth stat of 8 or higher). Specifically, this means that the crop will attempt to spread weeds (real weeds, not copies of themselves) to adjacent empty crop sticks or to other crop sticks that do not contain weeds, overwriting any crops inside. However, other weed-type crops are immune to this effect. Because some crops do not revert all the way to their first growth stage upon harvest, this means that a standard, flat, fully filled field can contain a stable population of automatically harvested high-growth crops without needing to apply Weed-EX if the following conditions are met:

IC2 crop weeds cannot spread with this type of field because the crops do not directly touch each other. This enables the use of Gr 31 crops for crop types that revert to the first stage on harvest.

-All crops on the field have a growth stat high enough to be considered weeds

-The field contains no crops that revert all the way to their first stage after harvest -- this does not work for some crops

-All the crops are currently at at least their second growth stage

If these conditions cannot be met, such as because the crop you want to use reverts to its first stage on harvest, you can instead use a "height checkerboard" setup (shown in the image to the right) to ensure that no crops directly touch each other. This will prevent any weed spread from occurring, and will also lead to a slightly improved air quality stat.

Because crops with high growth can be a headache, many players instead only grow crops with a growth stat of 23 or less, as those crops will never overwrite neighboring crops with weeds.

Weed-EX

Weed-EX is an item which can be applied to crop sticks manually or by a Crop-Matron, similar to water and fertilizer. Weed-EX will not be applied by a Forestry farm. Each crop stick has a storage for up to 100 units of Weed-EX (150 if applied by the Crop-Matron), which depletes by 5 each time a weed tries to spread to or spawn in the crop and must be replenished over time. It also has a 10% chance of depleting by one if it is in empty crop sticks and weeds do not try to spawn there in a crop tick. 50 units will be added each time Weed-EX is applied. When a crop stick has Weed-EX in its storage, weeds will never naturally spawn in it, and it will be immune to all weed-spreading effects.

Contrary to popular belief, Weed-EX causes no negative effects on crops which are not considered weeds (generally, crops with less than 24 growth or crops with 24+ growth that are at their first growth stage). However, Weed-EX can cause stat loss if used on a crop which is considered a weed. Specifically:

-Stat loss occurs only on the application of the Weed-EX.

-Stat loss will occur only if the Weed-EX applied was enough to leave at least 75 units in the crop's storage. A single application to a crop stick with none will give only 50 units and will not be able to trigger the effect.

-As mentioned earlier, stat loss will only occur on plants considered weeds. Normal plants with 23 or less growth, or with 24+ but on the first growth stage, are unaffected.

-Then, there is a 20% chance to trigger the decline if the Weed-EX was applied manually, and a 33% chance if it was applied automatically (by a Crop-Matron).

-Once the decline is triggered, one stat is randomly chosen and that stat is permanently reduced by one point. There is a 20% chance for Growth to be chosen, a 20% chance for Gain to be chosen, and a 60% chance for Resistance to be chosen.

-Also contrary to popular belief, use or overuse of Weed-EX will not trigger any kind of 'flag' to be genetically passed down in the crop's NBT data. Weed-EX does not affect crop breeding, and no data related to Weed-EX is stored in a seedbag's NBT data. The only possible negative effect of Weed-EX is the stat reduction described above.

When it comes to usage strategy, Weed-EX can be indiscriminately applied to a breeding field to prevent weeds when a player is breeding plants with growth stats of 23 or less. When working with plants with 24+ growth, care must be taken not to apply Weed-EX (at least not to beyond 75) to plants at their second growth stage or higher. Weed-EX can still safely be applied to empty crop sticks (in preparation to plant or to crossbreed) or to crop sticks containing plants at their first growth stage. It is recommended to do so, because if Weed-EX is not used in this case, weeds are very likely to destroy those crops before they can grow.

Crop Growth

Crop growth is divided into stages, the amount of which vary by crop, each with a different texture. Generally, crops can be harvested once they reach their final growth stage, though some, such as stickreed, can be harvested earlier for different drops. When a crop is harvested, it is not always reduced to the first growth stage, but is instead reset to a certain stage which varies from crop to crop (this is why fields of growth stat 31 crops can be safe from weeds without Weed-EX for many crops). In order to progress to the next stage, a crop must accumulate a certain number of growth points, which varies by stage and by crop. When they get that many points, their growth points will be reduced to zero and their growth stage will be increased by one -- excess growth points gained during a tick do not roll over into points for the next growth stage.

Crops have a "crop tick" every 256 game ticks or 12.8 seconds. When this occurs, they will gain an amount of growth points, called "growth rate" here, based on their growth, gain, and resistance stats, their tier, and their environmental stats (Nutrients, Air Quality, and Humidity). The calculations for this value are shown below:

First, the "base growth rate" is calculated based on the crop's growth stat, Gr and a random number between 0 and 6, inclusive, denoted X below.

Next, the crop's "environment value" and "needed environment value" are calculated:

, where H, N and A are the crop's humidity, nutrients and air quality stats.

, where T is the crop's tier and Gr, Ga, and Re are the crop's growth, gain, and resistance stats.


Note: Some crops use different weighting for their environmental influences instead of the equal weighting shown above (when calculating "value"). These crops are (only base IC2 is currently covered in this table):

Crop Humidity Weighting (wH) Nutrients Weighting (wN) Air Quality Weighting (wA)
Default 1 1 1
Cocoa .8 1.3 .9
Coffee .4 1.4 1.2
Melon 1.1 .9 1
Pumpkin 1.1 .9 1
Reed 1.2 1 .8
Stickreed 1.2 1 .8


Then, if the environment value is greater than or equal to what is needed, the final growth rate (in growth points) gets a bonus of (value - needed)%:

If the environment value is less than what is needed, the growth rate is steeply penalized, being reduced by 4 * (needed - value)%:

If this process attempts to reduce the crop's growth rate by more than 100%, the growth rate will instead be only reduced to zero, and the crop will attempt to die due to lack of environmental stats. Crops with higher resistance stats are more likely to resist this death, and crops with the maximum 31 resistance are completely immune to death by bad environment. However, a high resistance stat is undesirable because it increases the needed environment value, reducing the growth rate as described above.

Using these formulas, we can find that with good environmental stats, a crop with 31 growth grows 22-24% faster than a crop with 23 growth. A crop with 0 resistance usually grows 2-4% faster than a crop with 10 resistance, though this may vary slightly in some cases.


Special Behaviors

Some crops have special behaviors which happen every crop tick (12.8 seconds) (only base IC2 is currently covered in this table):

Crop Special Behavior
Eating Plant When size > 1: Drops a rotten flesh if it did damage last crop tick. Then: deals damage to all mobs and players in a 2x2 area centered on the middle of the crop. Unless the target is a player with metal armor, it also inflicts a slowness, invisibility, and blindness effect. If it did damage: adds an additional 50% of its normal growth points per tick.
Nether Wart If there is a soulsand block below: adds an additional 50% of its normal growth points per tick. If there is a snow block below: 1/300 chance of turning into Terra Wart.
Terra Wart If there is a snow block below: adds an additional 50% of its normal growth points per tick. If there is a soulsand block below: 1/300 chance of turning into Nether Wart.


Content in this page has been copied and possibly modified from the FTB Gamepedia Wiki ([{{{https://ftb.gamepedia.com/index.php?title=Crops_(GregTech)}}} {{{Crops (GregTech}}}]). Such content is under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 License.

Content in this page has been copied and possibly modified from the FTB Gamepedia Wiki ([{{{https://ftb.gamepedia.com/index.php?title=Crops_(Useful_Crops)}}} {{{Crops (UsefulCrops}}}]). Such content is under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 License.

Content in this page has been copied and possibly modified from the FTB Gamepedia Wiki ([{{{https://ftb.gamepedia.com/index.php?title=Crop_Breeding_(IndustrialCraft_2)}}} {{{Crops Industrialcraft2}}}]). Such content is under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 License.