Seasons - weather is killing me

[bossmanslim]

People able to help on what the important parts of seasons are that I should know? Will be venturing into it soon

Get a good fertilizer applicator that you like; that is 50% of seasons game play.

[jasonbarron]

People able to help on what the important parts of seasons are that I should know? Will be venturing into it soon

Get a good fertilizer applicator that you like; that is 50% of seasons game play.

I'm a little confused by fertilizing in seasons. I'm on day three and all my fields are tiger striped with various stages of fertilization (light blue to dark blue), is it permissible to sort of preemptively get everything fertilized up to 100% just to call it done, or do you have to apply new layers of fert after new stages of growth no matter what?

Signed, Clueless in Georgia

[bossmanslim]

I'm a little confused by fertilizing in seasons. I'm on day three and all my fields are tiger striped with various stages of fertilization (light blue to dark blue), is it permissible to sort of preemptively get everything fertilized up to 100% just to call it done, or do you have to apply new layers of fert after new stages of growth no matter what?

Signed, Clueless in Georgia

This is due to the ground condition being in all kinds of various states when you planted for the first time. Just do the best you can to get the ground all to dark blue. One level of fertilizer can be applied each time the growth stage changes. Once you harvest the crop, it will remove all the fertilizer and you'll start from nothing.

Typical field passes look like this

1. Apply lime if needed
2. Plow if needed
3. Cultivate if needed
4. Plant
5. Fertilize if no fertilizer applied while planting; can be done before planting but planter will not apply a second level of fertilizer AND fertilizer must be in the planter/seeder for the helper to work.
6. Growth stage
7. Fertilize
8. Apply herbicide if you want; can be done as a preventative measure
9. Growth stage
10. Fertilize
11. Growth stages until harestable
12. Harvest
13. Start over

[adammac5858]

Weather is crazy. Second day of spring on New Woodshire with Missouri GEO. It's 104° F. My farmer is not looking forward to summer. Trending toward 130°!

To be fair, Missouri weather is plum nuts. Don't like Missouri weather? Wait 5 minutes.

[jasonbarron]

Thanks for the explanation @bossmanslim. Yeah, that tiger striping I'm referring to was definitely because of the mixed up phases of the various fields I inherited and/or purchased from the outset. How often do fields need to be plowed and limed in seasons? I assume plowing only needs to occur when resetting a field or creating a new one, and lime is every three years? If that's the case, year two is going to be a lot easier than getting started on a big map.

[adammac5858]

Plowing is also required after corn, potatoes for best yield I believe also. Not just periodically.

I always plow every field first day of spring, gives me a baseline for all others. As soon as one field needs lime, I lime all for another baseline.

[ThatCanadianGuy]

That's the first I've hear that plowing is crop dependent?

[Illinois Farmer]

Yes, they changed that in base game 19.

[Dairydeere]

I might not be trying Seasons until I get the base game down. I’ve only been playing for about 4 hours, need to get the basics down

[ThatCanadianGuy]

Yes, they changed that in base game 19.

I guess I never noticed, I just check the field state after each harvest. I've also found it it best to plow before putting down lime to avoid spotty lime application.

[jasonbarron]

@Dairydeere, I was the same way getting started, but honestly it's more or less an entirely new game with seasons. I'd use the trial run game (in vanilla or seasons) just to figure out where all the triggers were on the map and how much work it's possible to get done with any particular piece of equipment. A lot of the "frustrations" for me as a new player were failing to realize how much of a time commitment I would need to plow/lime/seed or whatever any given size of field, so it was all but impossible to formulate any kind of plan, sort of just reacting to various considerations as opposed to truly managing the situation. Once you know the basics, understand what equipment you require based on field size and plant type you can start arranging a schedule that works for you rather than against you.

One thing you're going to notice really quickly and either like or hate was the concept of time in vanilla, which for lack of a better description is arcade like, a whole year blowing past in four 6 hour segments ingame (depends on game speed setting). The biggest difference is that in seasons you can set it up to where your farm actually runs in such a way as that even a non farmer can understand and make practical sense of, and give you time to actually run a big farm and get things done in a logical sequence.

[bossmanslim]

Thanks for the explanation @bossmanslim. Yeah, that tiger striping I'm referring to was definitely because of the mixed up phases of the various fields I inherited and/or purchased from the outset. How often do fields need to be plowed and limed in seasons? I assume plowing only needs to occur when resetting a field or creating a new one, and lime is every three years? If that's the case, year two is going to be a lot easier than getting started on a big map.

Assuming the initial states are dealt with when the land is required

Lime = every 3 harvests and when new field areas are created
Plowing = typically after harvesting corn, beets, potatoes, sugarcane, maybe sunflowers on some maps

The main reason I quit playing seasons is that after initial setup it turns into a fertilizer application driving simulator and there is a lot of fast forwarding.

[SJ_Sathanas]

Typical field passes look like this

1. Apply lime if needed
2. Plow if needed
3. Cultivate if needed
4. Plant
5. Fertilize if no fertilizer applied while planting; can be done before planting but planter will not apply a second level of fertilizer AND fertilizer must be in the planter/seeder for the helper to work.
6. Growth stage
7. Fertilize
8. Apply herbicide if you want; can be done as a preventative measure
9. Growth stage
10. Fertilize
11. Growth stages until harestable
12. Harvest
13. Start over

This is my preferd method;
Fertilize
Plough
Fertilize
Lime
Fertilize
Cultivate, or direct seed if the seeder/planter can do so

I like this as once the seed goes in the field is done but there are various different options. If it's getting to the end of planting season I might rush the seed in earlier and fertilise during growth stages.