Crops and orchard plants are the plants you grow on your land in Medieval Dynasty to feed yourself and the people in your settlement. Field crops are grains, vegetables, and other plants grown in plots you prepare by hand. Orchard plants are fruit trees and hops, grown in plots of their own. Growing them is one of the main ways to stock up on food before the cold seasons arrive.
Growing area
Field crops
Beetroot
A spring-sown root crop harvested in autumn for soups.
- Planting Season
- Spring
- Harvest Season
- Autumn
- Uses
- Cook Soup and Vegetable Soup.
Cabbage
A field vegetable harvested in summer or autumn, depending on when it was sown.
- Planting Season
- Spring or summer
- Harvest Season
- Summer after spring sowing; autumn after summer sowing
- Uses
- Cook Potage and Vegetable Soup.
Carrot
A root crop with winter and spring planting windows.
- Planting Season
- Winter or spring
- Harvest Season
- Summer after winter sowing; autumn after spring sowing
- Uses
- Cook Stew and Vegetable Soup.
Flax
A fiber crop that feeds the linen crafting chain.
- Planting Season
- Spring
- Harvest Season
- Summer
- Uses
- Thresh into Flax Stalk and Flax Seed; use Flax Stalk to make Linen Thread and fabric.
Oat
A grain crop for meals, animal feed, and brewing.
- Planting Season
- Spring
- Harvest Season
- Autumn
- Uses
- Thresh into Oat Grain and Straw; use the grain for porridge, Oat Roll, Animal Feed, and brewing.
Onion
A summer-harvested field vegetable used in savory cooking.
- Planting Season
- Spring
- Harvest Season
- Summer
- Uses
- Cook Meat with Gravy, Flatbread with Onion, Vegetable Soup, and Meat Tart.
Poppy
A spring-sown crop that yields autumn poppies and Poppy Seeds.
- Planting Season
- Spring
- Harvest Season
- Autumn
- Uses
- Process into Poppy Seed at the Barn and use it in Poppy Seed Pie.
Rye
A grain crop sown in autumn for a spring harvest.
- Planting Season
- Autumn
- Harvest Season
- Spring
- Uses
- Thresh into Rye Grain and Straw; use the grain for Gruel, Rye Bread, Animal Feed, and Rye Beer.
Wheat
A grain crop with spring and autumn planting windows.
- Planting Season
- Spring or autumn
- Harvest Season
- Autumn after spring sowing; summer after autumn sowing
- Uses
- Thresh into Wheat Grain and Straw; use the grain for Flour, Wheat Bread, Wheat Roll, and Wheat Beer.
Growing area
Orchard plants
Apple
A tree-grown fruit harvested from the orchard in summer.
- Planting Season
- Any season
- Harvest Season
- Summer
- Uses
- Eat raw, cook Porridge with Apple, or press into Apple Juice and ferment it into Apple Wine.
Cherry
A tree-grown fruit harvested from the orchard in summer.
- Planting Season
- Any season
- Harvest Season
- Summer
- Uses
- Cook Cherry Pie, or press into Cherry Juice and ferment it into Cherry Wine.
Hop
An orchard plant harvested in autumn for brewing and potion recipes.
- Planting Season
- Any season
- Harvest Season
- Autumn
- Uses
- Brew Oat Beer, Rye Beer, or Wheat Beer; hops are also used in potions of Saturation, Temperature, and Satiety.
Pear
A tree-grown fruit harvested from the orchard in summer.
- Planting Season
- Any season
- Harvest Season
- Summer
- Uses
- Cook Pear Tart, or press into Pear Juice and ferment it into Pear Wine.
Plum
A tree-grown fruit harvested from the orchard in summer.
- Planting Season
- Any season
- Harvest Season
- Summer
- Uses
- Cook Plum Tart, or press into Plum Juice and ferment it into Plum Wine.
What Field Crops and Orchard Plants Are
Field crops and orchard plants are farmed in two different ways. Field crops, such as grains, vegetables, flax, and poppy, are sown in plots that you clear and plant again as each season comes around, so one field keeps cycling through harvests. Orchard plants, which are the apple, cherry, pear, and plum trees along with hops, are planted once in an orchard plot and then keep producing.
That makes field crops the more hands-on of the two, since every cycle means preparing, planting, and harvesting again. Orchard plants need far less attention once they're in the ground.
How to Prepare a Field and Use Fertilizer
Start with the farming option in the crafting wheel, which lets you mark out a grid of plots on flat ground. Each square is tilled with a hoe, and new soil has to be worked with the hoe before fertilizer can go on it. Field plots take fertilizer, which you craft at a workbench inside the barn, so the barn comes first.
The barn unlocks once you earn enough Farming technology, and you can get there by working plots with a hoe before you ever use fertilizer.
How to Plant an Orchard
Orchards go on their own kind of plot. Lay out an orchard tile, till it once, then select the sapling from your bag and click the tile to plant it. Orchard plots skip the fertilizer step entirely, so you never need to make fertilizer for them.
Fruit trees take years to mature before they bear fruit, so an orchard is a long-term investment. Once the trees are bearing, the fruit comes in during summer.
When to Plant Each Crop
Every crop has its own sowing and harvest window, so timing decides what you can grow at any point in the year. Farming vendors in each settlement sell the seeds, and each seed only grows in certain seasons. Rye, for example, is sown in autumn and harvested in spring, so it spans the whole winter. Matching each field's crop to its window is what keeps food coming in all year.
How to Harvest Crops and Fruit
How you harvest depends on the crop. Vegetables come up by hand, while grains need a scythe, which you can get from vendors or missions. Orchard fruit can be picked once the trees bear it.
Harvests go into your storage. Field workers check whether storage is full when they harvest or collect crops, so keep room free in your storage.
Using Villagers to Run Your Farm
Villagers can do much of the field work, but you have to set them up. Assign a villager to the farm shed, which is the base for field workers, then set up field management with the crops you want. Stock the hoe, bag, and scythe in the shed chest or resource storage, since the workers need them to get the job done.
Villagers can pick fruit from orchards, but they can't plant an orchard, so that part is on you.
Set fields to one crop where you can. Changing a field's crop while plants are still growing makes workers destroy them, so wait until the crop is harvested before you switch it in the management menu. Single-crop fields also leave workers more time, since double-cropping can mean harvesting, fertilizing, plowing, and sowing all at once.
Which Crops and Orchard Plants Matter Most
Oats and rye are the grains many players rely on. Both cook into simple meals like porridge and gruel, and they also make animal feed, which you need if you want eggs and milk from your animals.
Early on, cabbage and onions help round out meals, and they work well alongside rye in simple dishes like potage and flatbread. Flax is worth growing because much of the early sewing needs linen.
Orchards are the long game. If you plan to stay in one place for a while, start them early so they have time to grow.
FAQ
What is fertilizer made from?
Manure is the main ingredient, and pigs in a pigsty produce it when they're fed animal feed. The pigsty needs an animal breeder assigned before it will produce manure. Early on, food left to spoil turns into rot, which can be used too. Traders also sell fertilizer if you'd rather buy it.
What do fruit and hops turn into?
Fruit can be pressed into juice and then fermented into wine, and hops go into oat, rye, and wheat beer. You can keep the alcohol or sell it, but drinking too much has painful effects.