The Mechanical Weeder appears useless compared to a Sprayer

[cwattyeso]

I've been doing a new playthrough on a map starting out with only the intial farm and equipment but removing excess money so that I can have a good mixture of being able to farm from the off but not being able to rapidly expand equipment and having to make choices carefully.

Due to this when it came time to me to deal with the weed problem I bought the Aerostar for a big investment of 35K as figured with only 3 fields to manage at the time I could get the weeds when they pop up at their first growth stage without any problem. The ingame tooltip on the Weeder does state it can be used to remove Weeds during their first growth stage. However in actual practice what the game fails to tell you is this rule only applies if there is nothing else planted/sown/growing on the field, because in that situation the weeder seems to read the growth status of that and applies that instead, ignoring the weed specific status and ultimately decides its not going to do anything if used at that point. All three of my fields had crops growing all still in the green stages of growth. I watched the weeds pop up on the field and went to work with the weeder to find it wouldn't remove them.

The only way I could remove weeds from fields that had been planted or sown was to use a Sprayer with Herbicide. Now it's highly unlikely in game I'll ever be in a position where I have a field with nothing growing on it except weeds which seems to make the Weeders useless, because surely in that scenario you'd just plough or cultivate the field anyway which would remove the weeds prior to seeding. Also with the Sprayers offering dual function in being able to fertilise fields and crops as well as remove weeds this seems to make the Mechanical Weeders a complete waste of time and not a worthwhile investment, you'd be better off just paying that bit extra and buying a Sprayer when starting out.

So is the logic on the Mechanical Weeders a bit broken or bugged which would explain why they are useless and is this likely to get changed/fixed/patched in the future?

[lefe1]

I use that same weeder and use it on crops and it works for me on ps4 with no problems..

[PoggleBox]

Weeders work on weeds that are in early growth, provided that the crop in the field is at growth stage 1 or 2. You cannot use a weeder on fields with crops that are at a later stage of growth. The advantage of using a weeder is that you don't have to buy herbicide. Weeds can occur at any time during a crops cycle which means that if they start at growth stage 3 or later, then you have to spray to eliminate them. I don't think you can spray weeds if the crop is ready to harvest though.

So, the weeds and equipment are working as they are supposed to.

[cwattyeso]

Yes that's how it's working, but that's not what the game information says. The Game information says that you can use a weeder to remove weeds in their first stages of growth, it doesn't say anything about Crop Growth and if Crops are out of their first stage of growth the weeder won't work. In my case my fields were all on the third stage of growth when the weeds popped up at their first stage, according to all the information in the game given to the player the weeder should be able to remove these weeds. Obviously if a field is ready for harvesting I wouldn't expect the weeder to work, but whilst crops are still in the green stages of growth is should. Once you move into the yellow harvest stages then yes the Sprayer should be your only option to remove weeds and when crops hit that final dark orange stage of harvesting then you shouldn't be able to remove weeds with either method.

[NateS]

You cannot use a weeder or sprayer in any ready to harvest state. If you tried to run a weeder through a field with crops that are half grown or more, you would destroy the crop. A weeder will only work when both the crop and the weeds are in early growth stages.

[IowaFarmer34]

I have never seen weeds show in field prior to 3rd growth stage of crop. If I use weeder in stage 1 or 2, will it prevent the weeds that normally show up in growth stage 3? If not then I agree with original poster, weeders have no use.

[cwattyeso]

You cannot use a weeder or sprayer in any ready to harvest state. If you tried to run a weeder through a field with crops that are half grown or more, you would destroy the crop. A weeder will only work when both the crop and the weeds are in early growth stages.

Which is perfectly understandable, however in game as soon as your crops appear on the field and start growing, the Weeder will not remove Weeds which is wrong because as you say and it says in the games help screen the Weeder should remove Weeds during the Crops growing stage. Only the Sprayer will remove Weeds when the Crops actually start growing and appear on your field, plus the Sprayer will remove baby weeds that just appeared and fully grown weeds, so from that aspect makes the Weeders completely redundant and pointless in the game.

[PoggleBox]

^^ You've just been unlucky. (Or lucky) weeds do show up at all crop growth stages. Weeders aren't preventative, You need the map to show pink before using whichever treatment is necessary or available. i.e. it's no good weeding if there aren't any weeds yet. I've used weeders at stage 1&2 crop growth. I've used herbicide at stage 3&4. Make sure to use narrow tyres to prevent crop destruction. I've harvested with weeds and had the yield reduction kick in. 114 Hrs and counting .....

^ That's not the case here. When crops are in early growth (first 2 stages of green) The weeders work. They are fast, efficient and more cost-effective than herbicide at this stage.

[cwattyeso]

See then that may be the problem because in my game weeds do not show up on the fields during the first 2 stages of green growth for crops, they only show up during the 3rd and last stage before it switches over to the Yellow Harvest Stages. So I guess on my save I'm really unlucky that Weeds only present them-self at a point where the Weeders can't touch them any longer. I may have to have a word with a guy who's been doing mods for vehicles and equipment in the game already and see if he'll make a couple of fixed weeders that still allow Weeds to be removed at all Green Stages of a Crops Growth.

[PoggleBox]

Have you taken any weeding contracts? Do you get offered them?

[cwattyeso]

No never seen Weeding contracts in the game. The AI never seems to doing anything about their Weed Problem, as their fields stay Pink the whole time. I wish the game would offer Weeding Contracts because then starting out on a game, investing in a Sprayer would be the way to go as it'd quickly pay for itself and you'd get the added benefit of being able to use it to fertilise your own crops in between doing Weeding Jobs.

[PoggleBox]

You on PC? v1.1.3 is live and should have sorted the weeding issues.

[CattleMan]

Ive done weeding contracts on Ravenport with the largest weeder. Ive also had weeds appear in all growth stages of my fields, and therefore have used both seeders and herbicide. Everything appeared to be working as intended. I play on Xbox One

[cwattyeso]

I'm playing on PC yes and playing with the latest V1.1.3 update. However I'm not playing on Ravenport or Felsbrunn as hate those maps and am solely playing on Giants Estancia Lapacho map. I wonder if that's why I'm seeing weeds only appearing during the last stage of crops growth and why I never see any weeding contracts appear.

[parad0x177]

OP: Out of curiosity, what growth speed are you using? I have a theory that, whether intentional or not, fast crop growth tends to lead to a binary (I.e. weeded or not weeds) weed behavior that makes the weeder useless and makes it more likely to get caught with mature weeds in your mature crops.