Crops are the plants you grow in fields to feed your town and supply the goods it needs. Farthest Frontier's crops run from peas, beans and turnips to wheat, rye, flax and clover, and each one plays a different part in keeping your settlement going. Planting is only the start. Each field needs the right crops in the right order and steady care if it's going to keep producing for years.
Crops
Items
Peas
A quick bean crop that adds fertility back to the field while still feeding your town.
- Yield per Tile
- 6 beans
- Fertility Change
- +1 point per planting
- Growing Days
- 91
- Frost Loss
- 0%
- Heat Loss
- 75%
- Drought Loss
- 50%
- Shares Diseases With
- Beans, Buckwheat and Carrot. Stem Rot hits Peas, Beans and Buckwheat.
Beans
A bean crop that adds fertility and gives more food per tile than Peas, but frost hurts it badly.
- Yield per Tile
- 8 beans
- Fertility Change
- +1 point per planting
- Growing Days
- 125
- Frost Loss
- 80%
- Heat Loss
- 0%
- Drought Loss
- 30%
- Shares Diseases With
- Peas, Buckwheat and Carrot. Stem Rot hits Peas, Beans and Buckwheat.
Turnip
The fastest crop to grow, a root vegetable that copes with frost but drains some fertility.
- Yield per Tile
- 5 roots
- Fertility Change
- -3 points per planting
- Growing Days
- 81
- Frost Loss
- 0%
- Heat Loss
- 35%
- Drought Loss
- 40%
- Shares Diseases With
- Cabbage
Carrot
A root vegetable with a good harvest that suffers badly in drought.
- Yield per Tile
- 8 roots
- Fertility Change
- -3 points per planting
- Growing Days
- 98
- Frost Loss
- 0%
- Heat Loss
- 50%
- Drought Loss
- 80%
- Shares Diseases With
- Peas, Beans, Buckwheat and Wheat
Cabbage
A steady greens crop that shrugs off frost and heat.
- Yield per Tile
- 14 greens
- Fertility Change
- -4 points per planting
- Growing Days
- 125
- Frost Loss
- 0%
- Heat Loss
- 0%
- Drought Loss
- 40%
- Shares Diseases With
- Turnip
Leek
A slow greens crop with the biggest food harvest per tile, at a high fertility cost.
- Yield per Tile
- 17 greens
- Fertility Change
- -6 points per planting
- Growing Days
- 158
- Frost Loss
- 0%
- Heat Loss
- 0%
- Drought Loss
- 60%
- Shares Diseases With
- Other Leek plantings
Buckwheat
A fast grain crop that is gentle on soil but loses a lot to frost and drought.
- Yield per Tile
- 6 grain
- Fertility Change
- -1 point per planting
- Growing Days
- 100
- Frost Loss
- 80%
- Heat Loss
- 0%
- Drought Loss
- 80%
- Shares Diseases With
- Peas, Beans, Carrot and Wheat. Stem Rot hits Peas, Beans and Buckwheat.
Rye
A slow grain crop that weather barely touches, and a good choice for tired fields.
- Yield per Tile
- 14 grain
- Fertility Change
- -6 points per planting
- Growing Days
- 158
- Frost Loss
- 0%
- Heat Loss
- 0%
- Drought Loss
- 0%
- Shares Diseases With
- Wheat, through Wheat Root Knot. Rye Rust can also strike it.
Wheat
The highest-yield grain crop, and the one that drains field fertility the most.
- Yield per Tile
- 16 grain
- Fertility Change
- -8 points per planting
- Growing Days
- 158
- Frost Loss
- 20%
- Heat Loss
- 0%
- Drought Loss
- 40%
- Shares Diseases With
- Rye (Wheat Root Knot), Buckwheat and Carrot. Wheat Rust can also strike it.
Hay
A slow crop grown as feed for livestock, untouched by frost, heat or drought.
- Yield per Tile
- 8 hay
- Fertility Change
- -1 point per planting
- Growing Days
- 173
- Frost Loss
- 0%
- Heat Loss
- 0%
- Drought Loss
- 0%
- Shares Diseases With
- -
Flax
An industrial crop that gives Flax for clothing instead of food.
- Yield per Tile
- 6 flax
- Fertility Change
- -5 points per planting
- Growing Days
- 135
- Frost Loss
- 0%
- Heat Loss
- 0%
- Drought Loss
- 0%
- Shares Diseases With
- Other Flax plantings
Clover
A cover crop with no harvest that restores fertility and clears out crop disease.
- Yield per Tile
- No usable harvest
- Fertility Change
- +3 points per planting
- Growing Days
- 94
- Frost Loss
- 0%
- Heat Loss
- 0%
- Drought Loss
- 0%
- Shares Diseases With
- None. Planting it weakens diseases left in the field.
How Crop Fields Work in Farthest Frontier
To start farming, place a crop field from the Food Production menu under Building. Fields can run anywhere from 5 by 5 tiles up to 12 by 12, and bigger fields produce more but need more farmers to work them. Before anything grows, rocks and trees have to be cleared and the ground tilled, which takes a long time on rough land. Check the fertility overlay before you place a field, because the land under it shapes how well everything there grows for years.
Put fields close to your houses and workshops so farmers spend less time walking, and keep them off land you may want to build on later. Stagger your harvests too. A crop left in the ground rots, and when several fields ripen at once, you need extra farmers to bring everything in before it spoils.
What the Crops Are Used For
Wheat, rye and buckwheat are grains, and grain can't be eaten straight off the field. It goes to the windmill to be milled, then to the bakery for bread, and grain also goes into beer. Peas, beans, turnips, carrots, cabbage and leeks all go straight to the table, with cabbage and leeks giving you greens and turnips and carrots giving you root vegetables.
Flax isn't edible at all. It's woven into linen clothing. Hay is grown for livestock feed, and roots, greens and grain can feed your animals too. Clover is grown mainly for the soil.
Why Crop Rotation Matters
Each field runs on a three-year rotation. Every new year it moves to the next line of crops in its plan, and when the third year ends, the cycle starts over. This matters because crops treat the soil differently. Some draw nutrients out, and if you keep planting only those, the land slowly turns to barren dirt, so the best plans balance them with crops that put nutrients back.
Soil type matters too. Each crop prefers a particular mix of clay and sand, and ideal soil can add up to a 10 percent bonus, so grouping crops with similar needs in one rotation gives better harvests overall. Rotation is also where you tune a field's fertility and weed control, so it's worth planning the order before you start rather than fixing it later.
Soil Fertility, Weeds and Rocks
Fertility decides how much a field yields, and the richer the soil, the better the harvest. Barren land starts with low fertility and gains it slowly, so new ground needs patience. Weeds and rocks cut yield too, and the more of them a field has, the bigger the loss. A brand-new field starts out heavily infested with weeds, and rocks buried underground keep turning up for years.
Maintenance is a task you can set in place of planting, and it has your workers pull weeds and clear rocks. It gradually improves the land over successive years, but weeds creep back if you don't repeat it. Compost helps as well. Nightsoil collectors gather waste and bring it to the Compost Yard, and once it's ready you can spread it on fields for a fertility boost. Some crops also help hold weeds back as they grow.
Protecting Crops from Disease
Diseases don't strike all at once. They build up in the soil over time, and a diseased crop suffers badly reduced yields from fungus, pests and parasites. Once a field is infected, little can save that harvest, so prevention is the real plan. Rotate to crops that aren't affected, and don't plant the same crop in neighboring fields, which gives disease an easy path from one field to the next.
Crops that share a disease need other crops planted between them. At least two unaffected crops should sit between plantings, and the pea, bean and buckwheat group and the wheat and rye group need three. Spacing fields out instead of packing them tightly also slows the spread.
Which Crops Matter Most and Where to Start
Clover is the one most players rely on. It raises fertility, needs no harvesting, and can be planted while other fields are busy with harvest, which means fewer farmers pulled off their jobs. Turnips are the usual choice for an early field, since they grow fast and shrug off frost. Peas are the other early favorite.
Wheat has the highest yield of the grains, but it's fussy and drains fertility quickly, so it does best on rich ground. Rye is the dependable grain when your soil is poor, since it handles frost and heat well. Flax becomes a priority as your town grows, because clothing depends on it.
Storing Crops and Preventing Spoilage
All food spoils eventually, and crops don't all last the same amount of time. Greens from cabbage and leeks spoil faster than grains and root vegetables, so plan to use them quickly. Root vegetables like turnips and carrots keep much longer, and root cellars are the best option since they use the cooler temperatures underground.
Dried grain can last for years in a granary, and barrels help too, since each one cuts spoilage by 5 percent.
FAQ
Do crops grow in winter in Farthest Frontier?
Field work stops once it gets too cold and the ground freezes in winter. Your farmers can be moved to other jobs for that stretch and rehired before spring.
How many farmers should a crop field have?
Each field can take between one and seven farmers, depending on its size. Add farmers when you see warnings for late harvests or crops rotting. If plantings in a field don't overlap, you can reduce the number.
Why do my crop yields keep falling?
Your soil is likely losing more fertility than you're putting back. Add up fertility over a full three-year cycle, counting what peas, beans, clover, compost and animal grazing add, and subtract what the crops take out. Build the field's fertility up first, then settle on a rotation that holds it steady.
Do livestock and wildlife need to be kept out of fields?
Fence your fields, since both can get in. You can also graze animals on clover fields or on fields in a maintenance year, and their waste can be spread as compost.